hello webkinz

My kids have finally joined the webkinz world. I tried to wait until the hype was over, but that hasn't happened yet. So what did I do? I let the kids buy their own webkinz. They get a kick out of using their own money. So welcome Patches the dog and Leo the tiger. And of course, what comes along with these cute little stuffed animals? An entire world on the web. Zach and Asia have been playing their website every day. And the sad thing is, John and I am hooked as well. Sure, we'll play some games for you so that you can earn some kinzcash or whatever that money stuff is called. Zach and I played Go Fish against each other. It was supposed to be Asia and Zach but as soon as Asia lost some cards to Zach, she stopped playing so I took over. Poor little boy. I didn't think he'd be so sensitive when he lost. Am I a better mom if I let him win or is it better to play a fair game against him? I haven't figured that one out yet.

Clementine

I was watering the grape vine, clementis, strawberry, and raspberry plants this morning and unearthed a bunch of young wild bunnies. They were hopping around, so I ran inside and told the kids to come outside and take a look. Asia managed to corner one on the stairs down to the driveway and scooped it up. She's named it Clementine. We got a cardboard box for it and Zach cut some carrots for it. They put grass and dirt in the box along with some water. They labelled the box with their names as the proud owners of a new bunny. Unfortunately, since Asia's been holding it everywhere, bringing it on the swing with her, and sitting in the sun with her, the bunny hasn't moved. If you put it back in the box or on the ground, it just sits there in whatever position you place it in. I fear that either Asia squeezed it too hard or else it's just scared almost to death. Asia said she's gentle with it and actually when I hold the bunny, it does just sit there. It doesn't fight at all. I tried to give it some water from a dropper. Anyway, it did just show some signs of life. It peed on Asia's skirt when she had it sitting on her lap. That's a good sign. ha! And when she put it down in my garden area, it started to take off until Asia scooped it back up. I figure we'll let Asia take care of it for a day or so and then let it free. I think I saw its mom hop by this morning.

First Boyfriend

It's official. Asia said to me this morning, "Jack is my boyfriend. I love him. I want to marry him." Then she said, "He said he wants to marry me too." I was about to say, "Okay, just tell Jack you have to wait until you graduate from college." But that's silly to tell a preschooler at this point. You're supposed to foster this love for others, right? hee hee. And I know that it's all innocent at this age. So anyway, I wanted to record this so that when Asia is older, I can tease her about it. I actually remember playing a lot with a boy named Daniel back when I was in Kindergarten age. Apparently the two of us were a couple. I can't remember if I ever used the term boyfriend back then. I'll have to ask my mom. But I do remember that we had chicken pox together and I believe my mom said I kissed him at some point. My mom has some photos of Daniel and I together. Holding hands and whatever. Like mother, like daughter, I suppose.

Music Man

Today was Zach's musical from his drama class at Spotlight Performing Arts down the street. It was a riot watching him on stage. We practiced the two songs he needed to know from Sound of Music - Do a Deer and Favorite Things. I can't say that we practiced them that much and he didn't even want to practice them on the way to the theatre tonight. He did have a 4 hour dress rehearsal this morning though. Anyway, it was quite interesting. First off, I didn't have him dress up for the dress rehearsal. He said he was the only one not wearing what he was supposed to be wearing. The main reason was that he was supposed to wear black dress pants and he doesn't have any. I didn't want to go and buy a pair just for this concert. So I called around to see if we could borrow a pair and no one had any that were his size or black. So the little guy wore his dark blue dress pants that my mom bought him - part of a blue suit. It looked fine on stage. You couldn't even tell that they weren't black.
When Zach's group was singing (1st and 2nd graders), I was cracking up like crazy. Zach and his friend Summer were so cute! I was pretty much crying because it was so hilarious. Zach was so animated. He had this humongous grin on his face while he was singing. He just seemed to be really enjoying himself up there. This is one of the reason's why I signed him up again. At first, he wasn't going to continue the next term for the drama class, but I told him that it wasn't going to be singing this time and was going to be Aladdin Jr. I also told him to tell the teacher that he should play the part of Abu, the monkey.
Anyway, back to the musical. Zach was right up there in the front. He didn't look nervous or shy at all. He looked so natural and just really like he was enjoying it up there. You could tell he didn't totally know his part because he looked at Summer a few times to see what she was doing. The teachers also threw in an extra song 2 weeks ago. Zach's drama class only meets once a week, so that was kind of late to throw in a song. It was one that everyone sang in but they stuck Zach's group right up front. He sure did look like he knew the words though. The only part was at the end, he was supposed to stick his arms up in the air and he was the only not doing it. Then he noticed that the people around him had his arms up, so he stuck them up at the last beat. I saw him put his head down like he knew he messed up. But the lights went out at that point. And I noticed that his hands were still up even though every one else's were now down and they were lining up to leave the stage. It was too hilarious. The good thing is it seems like stuff like this just rolls off his back. Sports stuff - when he messes up or loses, he holds it more to his heart. But messing up on stage, seemed like just fun. He didn't mind as much. We'll see how it goes with this next drama class, but he does seem like a natural.

Another scare

I think kids are sometimes created just to freak the heck out of the parents. Keep the parents on edge. Make them paranoid. When you don't have to worry that much about someone else, your life is so much calmer. Then all of a sudden, you give birth to these little beings and you have to nurture them, feed them, clothe them, and make sure they grow up to be good people. That's a lot of pressure. Egads! So to add to my paranoia on whether my kids will grow up to be outstanding citizens, Asia adds this little piece of kindling to the fire.

Apparently, she was standing on a chair trying to get something and fell off the chair, possibly hitting her stomach on the chair. I was in the kitchen and just heard this groan. I knew she was really hurt with that kind of groan. So I ran over to her in the dining room and she's bowled over, holding her stomach, still groaning. I asked her what was wrong and she said she hit her stomache. Then she kind of went into a trance. I picked her up and she stayed in her bowled over position, like she was frozen. So I sorta straightened her out, patting her on the back, and calling her name to wake her up. She wasn't asleep, just in shock. I called her name and turned her head to look at me and her eyes was open but not really seeing. Then I called her name again, and she finally responded, "What?" I told her that she hadn't been answering me. She just had this scared look on her face, like "What are you talking about Mom?" Boy did that give me the shivers.

Anyway, she was fine after that. Just a little shaken up. She ate some spaghetti then lied down for a little bit and then she was off to play at her friend Lydia's since today is a snow day so no school. Just to re-assure myself, I called the doctor and he said that most likely she scared herself and should be fine. If she starts to vomit or complain about pain, then I can take her to the ER. So is he saying my daughter's a wimp? She can't take the pain? Ha. Anyway, the paranoia sets in when you think... what if she does this at school or anywhere where I'm not there? That's a mom's paranoia. What if something happens to your child when you're not there to save them...

Enough paranoia for today. I'm going to get some coffee or maybe chocolate. That'd be good.

brown baby

A song that Asia learned in school. But here's her version:

John's brown baby had a cold in his chest,
cold in his chest,
cold in his chest.
John's brown baby had a cold in his chest
so he slobbered it with mentholated goo.
Eww!!


I think the words are really supposed to be like:
John Brown's baby had a cold in his chest...
so he slathered it with mentholated goo.

But hey, brown baby makes sense too. The mentholated goo word was a bit tough to get the first time. It was like menth.... mentho... mentholated goo. So she did get it eventually. No prompting from me since I didn't even know the words.

Now Asia's singing:

It's Valentine's day.. it's valentine's day.. it's valentine's day tomorrow.

Glasses for Z.N.

Zach has glasses now. I think his prescription is something like -1. Yes, nearsighted. Just like his mom and dad. Just like my parents. I'm not sure if nearsightedness is hereditary or not. My mom said her mom had 20/20. But then there's the theory about reading at night without adequate light - straining your eyes and thus making you nearsighted. Who knows. Zach even eats lots of carrots, which are supposed to be good for your eyes. But to no avail.
The good thing is, he looks good in his glasses. They're these cute dark blue plastic glasses. We actually got 3 pairs for him. One from the eye doctor, the other two from a web site that sells glasses starting at 9 dollars or so. Add on shipping, and other things like anti-glare, and still your glasses only cost 20-40 dollars. Pretty good. Especially for kids. And here's why.
Zach's always losing his glasses. Since he's not used to wearing them all the time, he'll take them off and place them where-ever. Including the floor. Well, yesterday, he left them on my bed. I didn't know this, though. I thought he was wearing them when he went to school. Later in the evening, I notice him wearing another pair and found out that he didn't know where his blue glasses were. Turns out that Jersey had made a chew toy out of them. They were under my bed. One of the glass panes was gone. Still haven't found it yet. And the frame was cracked. Jersey had a good time with those glasses. Nevertheless, I made Zach pay for 1/2 of the cost so that we could buy him another pair just like those cute blue ones. Good thing it only cost him 12 bucks.

Zoofari

We went to a drive-through safari near San Antonio. The kids loved throwing food out of the car windows. Then since the car had a sun roof, they got a kick out of standing up in the car with their bodies sticking out of the roof. I guess that's another reason the speed limit is 5 mph. Not only do you not want to run over the animals in the road, you don't want to jettison your kids out of the sunroof. Even when we first drove into the park, I saw a dad drive out with his daughter in his lap and his son hanging out of the sun roof.

A lot of the animals would just stand by the side of the road, eating grass. There were so many cars there that I think they had their fill of food. Others would walk by and stop for the food you throw in the road. It was the zebras and ostriches that really got right up into your car and if you had your window down, like many did, those zebras would stick their face right in. See the proof. Zach was digging it! Asia made sure we rolled up her window, and so did my mom.

2008 Begins

It is 2008. Happy New Year. My son is 7 years old. My daughter will be 5. Time flies. I'm sitting at the dining room table in my parents' house in Pflugerville, a suburb of Austin. When I look at the pictures of the kids around my parents' house, I realize how fast these kids are growing. We sit at this dining room table together maybe twice a year, so when I have flashbacks of sitting here for my dad's birthday or the first time Es, Sam, and I were back together again after we had gone our different paths, or when the kids showed their Nai-Nai that they really do eat vegetables, I see the changes. Asia on my lap, then in a high chair. Zach riding around in a new bike with training wheels, then barely being able to ride it now even with the training wheels off. Asia has to have the seat of her bike lifted a notch or so everytime she's here. They toys they play with. They still love running around and rolling on the carpet since this whole house is practically all carpet. Zach now plays real music on the piano since he's taking lessons. They're really growing up.

Toys 4 sale

Asia has been in this groove where she wants to sell her old toys. But she has this funny concept that if she sets up a box of toys and a sign and sit on the sidewalk, that people are going to stop and buy them from her. I think this is all from watching an episode of Max & Ruby where Ruby was having a yard sale and sold off some of her old toys. It was fun to watch Zach and Asia get this big box all decorated with a sign saying 1 Dollar and a picture of money on it. But then when they dragged the box and toys out to the driveway and then sat behind the box shouting "Toys For Sale!" I felt kind of bad. Who's going to buy any of those toys?

John and I eventually did go out there and "buy" some of the toys. I especially wanted to buy back the ones that I bought in Florida from Disney World. They weren't cheap.

Asia wanted to do the same thing again today, but instead of the driveway, she wanted to set up her box of toys in the front by the busy street. Luckily she listens to me because I told her that she couldn't. I told her that if she's going to just pretend that she's selling toys, that she could do it on the front porch. She told me she didn't want to pretend, she really wanted to sell her toys. I tried to explain that no one was going to stop their car to buy her toys, that it was more of something to do in the summer and when Mom and Dad are also selling things. She still couldn't get it. Luckily she was easily distracted again when I let her pick some flowers from my garden so that she could be a hula girl.

Backyard Turkeys

Can you see them? There were actually 3 wild turkeys in our back yard! And they're weren't little things. Jersey eventually scared them away. I think they're turkeys because I heard of some in the area, but I didn't think turkeys could fly and these did. They flew up into the trees and another yard as soon as they saw and heard Jersey coming. They looked almost like ostriches to me.

Goofy Signs

Here are two pictures showing some of the goofy stuff Asia draws and posts on our doors. When she's mad at me, she'll draw a picture of me in a circle with a line on it. No Mom. Then she'll put it on the kitchen cabinet or my office. Yesterday when she was upset, she asked me how to spell, "I don't like my family." I was considering not telling her how to spell that, but didn't feel it was fair. Luckily she got distracted and only got as far as writing, "I don't like." She did draw a dad, mom, and boy and put them in a circle with a line through it.

The pictures here are simple - she wanted to know if I had strawberries. The funny thing is that the sign stayed on our back door for quite a few days until the wind blew it off. I just wonder what others think when they walk to our door and see a sign asking them if they have strawberries.

Soccer Pictures

Team Fusion being goofy.


Team United. Back row - 2nd from left is Tori, then Asia. Boy on back right is Sammy. In the front row, first on the left is Joey, then the next girl is Lydia.

School Update

Zach creamed me in Monopoly today. We have the British version that my brother bought for me when he was in England during a college semester. So you have stuff like Pall Mall, Coventry Street, Park Lane, Water Works, etc. Anyway, I thought Zach was going to lose because he kept mortgaging his properties so that he could buy houses on his group of yellow properties. He eventually got hotels on each one of them. If we had ended the game before my last turn, I would have won. But I let it go a little longer since we were having fun. And on my last turn, I landed on one of his properties and had to pay Zach 1150 dollars (pounds, actually). I didn't have that much and I had to end the game to get ready for my band concert, so the little boy won. The last time I played him, he also won - by like 10 dollars. Anyway, while Zach and I were playing Monopoly today, Asia, who's the banker, was sitting next to me drawing. Then she said, "I wish there was school today." So I told her that she would have school tomorrow (Monday). So she perked up and said, "YEAH!" Now isn't that great? She wants to be in school on Sunday! Or is that saying she's bored at home... Hmmm...
Zach seems to enjoy school too. Though I guess he got bullied once last week, and he didn't even know it. John intervened. The kid's a little naive still where he doesn't realize that other kids he doesn't really know can be mean for no reason. But anyway, he's getting more advanced reading projects since the normal reading homework is way too easy. His math homework is also pretty easy, but he can be a bit sloppy with it. I'm just glad his teacher recognized his level and assigned more advanced homework. Cub scouts is supposed to start up. John's going to sign Zach up tomorrow. So he'll have soccer (that's over this month), basketball starts up first week of December, Cub Scouts, and this art class that's once a week and only for 12 sessions. Zach said that in February, he wants to start piano lessons. At least he said it, not me.

SCORE!!

Asia scored her first goal in soccer yesterday! And on purpose, too! I'm not sure if it was because she was in really good spirits already or what. We went to Antiquitea for hot chocolate and pbj at around 11 AM. She got to wear her pretty pink dress for the occasion. Then we changed in the car and went to soccer. I made sure to get her there on time. Her friend Lydia wasn' t there today, but her other friends Sam, Joey, and Tori were there. Tori and Asia teamed up right away for the drills and you could just tell they were having fun with them. Usually Asia doesn't like the drills because it'll be some group game where some pretend they're the dog and others are the dog catchers who have to dribble their ball to get the dog or something. For some reason, Asia doesn't like those. But this time, she did whatever the drill instructors asked her to do. And then I think it really helped that when the drill coaches told everyone to pair up, Tori grabbed Asia's hand and said that they would be partners. Asia likes it when she's shown affection like that. Plus one of the drill coaches was new and really good with the kids. Asia seemed to really like her. So when it came to game time, the blue team played the white team. The white team doesn't have any star players on it, so the blue team usually scores on them. But all the kids on both teams were really good today - all playing actively. Again, you usually see at least 2 kids who don't know what's going on or like to hang back at the goal and almost watch the game instead of participate. A lot of times, that's Asia. She likes to be in the game, but not really trying to get the ball. This time, she and "Boy Sammy" were telling each other to go get the ball. Then when she scored, she was actually trying to kick the ball. It wasn't a total accident.
On the same day, Zach scored his first goal in a game this year. Last year, he was always scoring goals. Now he's in an older league. John said Zach was playing some awesome defense too.
Now we have a basketball hoop in our driveway. Zach's pretty good. Asia is also pretty good, except that she keeps getting hurt. Once she got hit on the head with the basketball. I told her that she has to watch the basketball at all times. Then she won't get hit on the head. Today, she got hit in the nose. No blood, thankfully.

birthdays

Today Asia and I celebrated everyone's birthdays. Everyone and anyone in the world. We just needed an excuse to put candles on a cake and blow them out. Nevermind the initial reason for even making the cake was to surprise Zach and John after they came back from a sleepover at the Zoo. When you have a cake, to Asia, that means a birthday and candles. That shows you how often we have cake in our house. Pie, cupcakes, cookies, candy - those are another story. I forgot though that Zach and Asia really don't like cake. What they like is the frosting. I didn't feel like making frosting from scratch. I ended up just drizzling some Hershey's syrup over Asia and Zach's servings. Asia usually ends up leaving half of her piece of cake uneaten whenever she has any. The frosted top is just eaten off. Zach is pretty good at finishing his desserts. It's not like he never has sweets, but if you were to watch him eat dessert, you'd think he has it once a year. He practically licks the bowl clean and for some reason, desserts always leave a ring around his mouth. I'll have to watch him one day to see why that happens. I think it's probably because he's licking all of whatever it is from his lips. He has to have every last drop. Silly kid. Asia, on the other hand, when she's had enough, she'll stop. She doesn't take sweets that well it seems. She'll complain of stomach aches. Sometimes that won't stop her, but every now and then I can use it as a warning. "You don't want to eat too much of that. Remember it will give you a tummy ache." Or I might say, "We can't eat too much chocolate. It gives you funny poop." And it's so true too. Chocolate is a laxative, let's not forget that. I'm off on a tangent, but we'll stop here. The new subject isn't too appetizing.

cooking skills gone to pot

I was making Spanish rice the other day. I wanted a starch for dinner fast - so I pulled out this Trader Joe's rice mix. I actually ready the recipe directions which meant put in 2 1/2 cups of water to boil and optional oil or butter. I ommitted those, thinking it'd be healthier. I poured in the packet. Once it got to a boil, I turned down the heat and was supposed to let it simmer for 20 minutes. Well, I checked on it 15 -20 minutes later and it was still soupy, so I let it cook 10 minutes more. In the meantime, I'm cooking some shrimp and what-not. When everything else was ready, I told John that I made Spanish rice too but it didn't seem to be working. He asked me if I put the rice in. I guess Spanish rice would mean that rice should be cooking, right? heh heh. Well, little did I know that John had already used the rice from the box and one of the spice packets. All I was boiling was the spices. I was wondering why the packet seemed so light. I was thinking it was some miracle rice. Like those spongey toys you buy in the store. You put them in the water and watch them grow to ten times their size. Come on! I'm Asian! I should know there is no miracle rice like that!

School Year 2007

The kids are back in school. Asia is in the Pre-K class at Winchester Thurston. It costs about 12,000 and if she's there for 12th grade, it'll cost around 20,000 dollars!! Of course, we'll do our best to apply for scholarships and whatnot. They even have scholarships and financial aid! But it's a beautiful campus (North Hills) and Asia really likes it. She goes full time - 8:15 to 2:30 PM every day. She comes back singing songs - Spanish if it's Spanish day. She tells us about nature stuff that her teacher tells her - like how to bring butterflies into your garden and that goldenrods are blooming now. Zach, on the other hand, said he's bored. His teacher was sick at least 2 of the days of the first week, and that Monday was a holiday, and that Friday of the first week, Zach was sick! He brings home these worksheets where he has to write the letter for the word, write the number of objects - really basic Kindergarten stuff. I'm hoping that he just has easy work now so that the teacher can see where every student is.

Vacation Complete

Vacation time is over. In 3 weeks, we went to Goshen, Chicago, Streamwood, Greenback, Memphis, Mesquite, and Austin with two additional stops at hotels along the way. I forgot the names of those cities. The kids got to see their cousins Lizy, Christian, Justin, Brian, Shauna, Andrew. And earlier at their cousin Faith's wedding in Canada, they got to see cousins Jesse, Nathan, Mary, and Henna - in addition to Christian, Lizy, and Brian. They also got to visit their grandparents on both sides this summer. Zach and Asia love their cousins. Doesn't matter that there's such an age difference. Lizy is the next youngest above Z & A and she's already in what..6th grade, I believe.





Can't visit Chicago without getting some Mario's Italian Ice!

Here's a picture of Zach and Asia riding Shauna's horses in Tennessee. Looks like they're riding on their own, right? Actually Shauna and Cora (Christian's girlfriend) were leading the horses. :)

When the kids weren't swimming at Aunt Mary's house, they were on the trampoline.

Sea World at San Antonio with Gong-Gong and Nai-Nai. John even had fun at the water park with Zach.



We also went to a street fair in San Antonio. It was so hot though, that we spent most of our time in this restaurant. Like the decor?

Whirlwind Vacation

We're on vacation. Have been. Well, more like John and the kids have been on vacation. Mine started tonight. Two weeks ago on Wednesday, I believe, John picked Lizy up from Cleveland and brought her home to play with the kids. I can barely remember all my days, which is why I'm trying to write this in my blog before it all gets jumbled up. So the kids had a ball playing with Lizy. One of those days, the kids and John went to the Science Museum and a thunderstorm rolled in. It rained so much that a small town called Millvale flooded. We usually drive through Millvale to get to the zoo. But maybe 20 minutes or 1/2 hour after John left the Science Museum, a tornado cloud was sighted and blew in a bunch of the windows at the Science Museum! At home, the lights flickered, but stayed on, only the internet and Comcast digital cable went out. At some point, I called John to make sure he was okay, he didn't pick up, so I turned on the TV to see what was going on with the weather. Just after I turned it on, the news was showing the Science Museum and the blown out windows! I then called John again to see where he was. Traffic was pretty bad getting home since roads were closed due to flooding.
Anyway, Friday night, we drove to Lizy's house in Goshen. We got there around 1 AM. Then the kids again had a ball with Lizy. One night, Lizy and Zach stayed up really late (past Tom & JaeHi and Asia) playing a game called Pick 4 or Pick 2 or something. You pick these cards and see if you can move these sticks into that shape, but you can only move one stick each turn. The only way I could get the two to go to sleep was to say they could play in the morning. Then on Sunday, we drove to Chicago and stayed at Tom & JaeHi's old house that is up for sale. Henna and Seth are still living there, but we never saw Seth the whole time. I saw Henna the next morning when she was leaving for work. We also didn't get in right away because no one left the door unlocked and no one was home when we got there. Luckily, Christian and Justin drove up with the key while John and Zach took the train to Millenium Park for a Poster Children concert. John ended up being late to the concert because the train isn't as great as it used to be- construction and whatnot. The train line stopped at some point due to construction and buses were taking people along the train stops.
So Justin and Christian made these great French Bread pizza's for me and Asia. Asia was having a ball seeing her cousins. She was talking up a storm. Then we all drove downtown to pick up Christian's girlfriend Cora from work and met up with John and Zach. We drove over to Justin, Tim Broberg and Carter Sims' place. Oh before all this, we stopped in Chicago for some food on Taylor Street. We parked on Bishop&Laflin area and were walking down Laflin to Taylor for a food festival. Then Joyce Eizenga came out of her apartment there cuz she saw us! We left the kids with her while we went to get some food to eat at her place. It was great to see her by coincidence! Then we also had dinner at Joy Y's at Halstead. That area is really getting nice. And again, while we were first heading to Jamba Juice and then decided to go to Joy Yee's or whatever, we ran into Susanna Johnston and Jubilee! That was neat! So back to Justin's place - we saw Katrina and Tim Broberg there. John was introduced to the game of bags. you throw these bean bags in these holes in a piece of wood. Two teams against each other and some rules for how to score points. As you can tell, I didn't actually play. Otherwise, I'd know the rules better.
Monday - I worked in the corporate office in Merchandise Mart. Then we checked into the HOliday Inn at Merchandise Mart. John and the kids got to use the pool. I eventually got time to use the exercise room. I worked from Merch Mart again on Tuesday, then from the hotel Wed morning. In between that, we had dinner at Pompei with Amy & Andrew Nelson and their two kids, Caleb & Audrey. Joyce also joined us. Then Marissa and Laura took the kids Wed morning to the NElsons to play as well as to Laura's condo. John eventually met up with them. I worked. :) Then we drove to Streamwood where I worked some more from John's dad's house. Crazy, right? Very crazy week. From Streamwood, we drove on Thursday to Tennessee. It was an uneventful drive except that the DVD player in the car decided to stop working during the beginning of the drive to TN. Then John got pulled over for speeding in Kentucky. The police officer told us that John's license had been suspended in Illinois! Boy were we shocked! So I had to drive the rest of the way to TN. John called today and the Illinois office said that the EPA suspended the license thinking we were still living there and that the car hadn't passed state emissions. It's supposed to be unsuspended within a week. Hopefully in time for the drive to Texas. I was not looking forward to 14 hour drive. Of course, we'll probably have to still pay some outrageous speeding fine, but that's better than what could have happened when driving on a suspended license.
So now we're in Tennessee. I worked during the day. Put in 50 hours this week. Nice vacation. Oh well. It's tough because I'm also transitioning to a new team in Allscripts - support. Still doing same thing but not billable and training more people.
Okay, my battery is about to die. I'll have to write more later. For now, just know that I'm in Tennesse enjoying time with Paul & Mary, Brian, Shauna, and Justin Stevens. Cora and Christian are also here. The kids are having a ball!!! They love their cousins. Too bad that there are cats around though. I had to put Asia on antihistamine pills. Her face is starting to puff up. Christian and Cora are also allergic to cats. Zach hasn't been too bad yet.

Too much computer?

Here is a good indicator that your daughter has been playing on the computer too much in one day. We're in Asia's room reading some books before bedtime, then she decides to play a game.
"Mom, do you want to play a game?" Asia asks.
"Sure," I answer.
"Click here to start the game. Then drag your mouse over my pink blankie to move it. If you want to play dress-up, click on my jewelry box. Click here and select me for instructions." Asia answers.

Color of Compromise

Asia asked me an interesting question today while we were painting pictures. Our conversation went something like this:
"Mom?"
"Yes?"
"What's the color of compromise?"
Stunned, I did what any parent would do, I turned the question back on the child. "Well, what do you think the color of compromise is?"
Asia's answer was, "I think the color of compromise is orangish-brownish-greenish-pinkish."

Is that an amazing answer or what? Is that not what compromise is? All colors with some ish in between?

Summer times

Tomorrow is Zach's last day of Kindergarten. He's been reading like a fiend. Three new books each night. He has his small lamp on his bed and he reads to himself three new books from the library. Then he turns out the light and goes to sleep.
Today was Asia's first day of cheerleading. Yes, cheerleading. It's supposed to boost her confidence. She has two friends in the class - Taylor and Chloe. Taylor was in her Hiland preschool class this year. Chloe was in Asia's St. Paul's preschool class last year. Asia and Chloe did not recognize each other, but it's nice for them to see each other again. There are maybe 20 kids in this cheerleading class. All girls. The teachers are college students. They said they've been cheerleading for 7-14 years. Cheerleading captains and whatnot. The main thing is that girls seem to be having fun. Asia's also in gymnastics - started last week. Acacia and her other friend Joey are in the Koala Bears class together. I'll have to take some pictures.

D Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Asia's first dance recital for West View Dance. She and her friend Acacia are doing the Bunny Rabbit Blues. Their outfits are so cute. Almost like a playboy bunny. Don't you think?

The dress rehearsal was Wednesday. That was torture. We had to be there at 4:30 PM. Then there was about 1/2 hour just to get people situated, another 1/2 hour for a slide show of pictures taken throughout the year (cool if you're older, but not when you're in preschool with the attention span of a minute). Next, they practiced the finale of the show. That's going to be interested. Trying to time it just right so that about 60 girls all come out in different groups to do a few moves, wave, and exit the stage to music. At least it provides a good laugh. Then each group practiced in the order of the concert. Asia's group is something like 17 or 19 - after the intermission. Asia did pretty well, though, sitting and waiting her turn. I brought along her V-smile game, so she played a little bit. But actually one of her bunny friends played it most of the time. I had the sound turned off so I guess Asia got bored of it. She likes it when her friends like her things anyway.

I'll try to get another picture tomorrow. She doesn't like having her picture taken. She likes attention but not photo attention. It's interesting.

He has been deemed Jersey

We finally found a name.. after going through Burly, Guffy, Skeet, Kelsey, Kelton - I thought that was funny. Kelton is supposed to mean veal payment. Hee hee. Anyway, just a bunch of names I got off of a pet internet site. I did this with Zach and Asia, too. I wrote down a bunch of names and John and I would mull over them, add some more, put little x's next to some we didn't like but not necessarily crossing them out since we might like them a week later. Finally narrowing down to one or two that we would say over and over til it sounded right. So now, we finally weaned it down to... Jersey. After New Jersey. Zach wants to make it sure you know it's not after the name of T-shirts.
So we gave Jersey his first bath (from us) today. He needed a bath because this morning he woke up with some dried poop on his bottom. I think he tried to hold it when he was in his crate. Anyway, I gave him a bath in the sink. He was so good about it! No whimpering. He did stand up on all two's when I took out the plug to let the old water out. It makes a loud sound when all the water suddenly goes down. But the second time it did that, he was fine.
Now he's all clean. And I didn't get too wet. Very nice. The shampoo is coconut-scented too. We'll see how long that lasts.

New Addition

Well, we did it. We finally got a dog. Yes, a dog. I always thought of myself as a cat person. When Zach was born, we had Dizzy. He was a good cat. But when Asia was born, I had Susan take Dizzy back to Columbus because I felt he was getting ignored. He was probably happy going in and out of the house and doing whatever he wanted, but I didn't think it was too healthy for him. Well turns out that Zach and Asia are allergic to cats anyway. So no cats for us.

John had been hinting about getting a dog for quite some time. So I finally decided to research dogs. If we're going to get a dog, I want a good breed that I can rely on. One that is good with little kids, small, not yippy. The last thing I want is a dog that is constantly barking whenever someone goes by or the neighbor's dog is out, etc. Not when I work at home and am on the phone a lot. So I narrowed the dog search down to two breeds - Havanese and Coton de Tulear. I had John check them out to make sure he was okay with these two breeds. What he wanted at first was the typical dog - Labrador Retriever. They're beautiful puppies, but they're only like that for a few months. Then they're a mass of muscle and energy. Sure, if we were an energetic young couple or with older kids who could help out, that kind of dog would be great. But I knew I wouldn't have energy for such a big dog. So eventually John was fine with the two breeds I picked out.

The next step was further research on the breeds to see the pitfalls. Then find breeders nearby. For the Cotons, they were all about 5 hours away in all directions. They're a rarer breed. I emailed one to find out the cost. The breeder emailed me back that the show-potential puppies went for $3000 and the non-show for $2000!!!! So I went for the Havanese. I found two breeders who were in West Virginia - an hour away. One was actually out of town so I never made contact with her. The other breeder was actually babysitting the first breeders dogs - they were friends! That seemed weird since I'd think they'd be competing, but the breeder (Laura) said that they don't compete. The dogs are just available at different times. Anyway, Laura and I emailed for quite some time and then set a date for my family to come up and see the two dogs she had left to show.

When the kids saw the two dogs, they were a little apprehensive at first. John got attached to the male pup right away, then Zach. Asia hid behind me at first. Mostly because she was afraid of the girl pup who kept barking. The girl pup was more excited and liked to bark to talk to you. Zach and Asia kept putting their hands over their ears. Laura, the handler/breeder, started to hold the girl pup after that to keep her quiet. Then Asia and Zach were all over the boy pup. Asia kept saying she loved him. They would throw a ball and he would go running after it. They were both like, "Mom, I just love this dog! I love him!" So I was sold. We brought the little guy home. He was so good in the pet carrier! And then coming into the house, he was really good. And he's sleeping in his crate right now. We'll see how tomorrow goes. And we have to figure out a name for him. The kids were calling him Fluffy at the kennel. John's not for that name. So we tried a couple of other suggestions - Max, Sidney, Crosby (yes Penguin players), Fleurry, Custard, Sam, Sammy. Still haven't agreed on anything yet.

Asia's First Day of Soccer

Last Saturday was Asia's first day of soccer. She, Zach, and Ethan are all in the same team plus some girls from Zach and Ethan's Kindergarten class - Summer, Addison and Jessica. But at the beginning of practice, all the teams that are 6 yrs and under are together learning drills. So Zach and Asia's friend Emme is also in the same soccer league. Asia was all excited about being in soccer. She got to pick out her own soccer ball - a pink one, of course. But when the actual practice happened, she got all intimidated. That's natural of course. She's never been in any organized sports. I don't think she was expecting so many kids around her. At first, it seemed like maybe Asia would participate.

She looks like she's listening right? But then as the coaches were telling the kids what to do, she spent most of the time like this:

Her hands in her pocket, just standing next to her ball and guarding it. She'd look around and see what others were doing. The coaches were pretty good about it. They'd try to help her out or explain things to her. I could tell that she liked the coaches though because she would talk to them.

It was tough for me not to run out there and hold her hand and show her how much fun the other kids were having. All the other parents were talking to each other or enjoying watching their kids play. My daughter was the only one out there standing there. I had to practically tie myself to my chair. John said that in the past years, they'd even have kids out there crying. I guess that made me feel better.

I kept telling Zach to go over to Asia and help her out since this was his 3rd season in soccer. He would but she wouldn't respond too much. She spent quite some time in this position too:

Finger in her mouth. But again, she is listening. And she's not crying. And she's not sitting in the sidelines next to me or wanting me to hold her hand. She's out there, observing, getting comfortable. The coaches were pretty good too. They had some neat games to help the kids practice dribbling and stopping the ball. In one, they were dogs and some of the kids were dogcatchers. The dog catchers had tshirts that they would use to tag someone (a dog). Then the coach made Asia the ultimate dog catcher. She ran around with another coach and if they caught you, they got to take your ball. That really warmed her up. I thought at first that she'd freak out when the coach pointed her out and everyone was looking at her as the special dog catcher. But the coach was wise. Asia wanted the attention.

The last few minutes, two teams would actually play against each other. That's what Asia was waiting for. She had a blast. And Zach scored quite a few goals. As did Ethan's classmate, Jessica. This last picture is the end of the soccer practice. The kids love snack time. Usually, they get a ticket that they take to the snack stand for a drink and chips.