Browse Month: May 2006

Ditto

My brother posted an “Ode to Mommy” today on his blog and it’s so true. In celebration of Mother’s Day, we’re taking her out for some prime rib and creamed corn at Lawry’s! That seems to be her restaurant now. Turning another year older? Go to Lawry’s. It’s Mother’s Day? Go to Lawry’s! Mmm…I can’t wait. Thanks Mommy for all you do…and oh how I miss the Magical House.

For Jesse’s mom, we went in the other direction. Last night we celebrated Mother’s Day by inviting her over and cooking up a healthy salmon with a huge salad and veggies on the side. I think it’s great how healthy and active she is. While she’s telling all of us to not eat too much rice or feeding us steamed cabbage, she can gobble down an entire pecan pie at the drop of a hat. Her excuse? “I workout so I can eat whatever I want.” Good point. Props to you, Mom!

In conclusion, the lesson to be learned is that when I have children of my own, I will need to make sure there is equal time with both grandmas. Otherwise, my kid will either become a juicy rolly polly or a bean pole who doesn’t know what salt tastes like. As my father always says, “not too much and not too little”.

Hold on to what you have and embrace it.

I don’t get it. These past 6 months have been a little eerie.

Back in December, Marie travelled to NYC with her parents, 9-month old baby, and grandmother. On their flight home, her grandmother had a stroke. After a couple days in the hospital she recovered with a little bit of weakness on the left side of her body. Phew!

A couple weeks ago, I found out that my grandmother in Thailand had a stroke in her sleep and didn’t wake up the next morning. My dad and uncle dropped everything and flew a red-eye to Thailand. Fortunately, she woke up a few days later with her memory intact and no major complications. Yay!

Just yesterday, we find out that Jes’ grandma has cancer in her thyroid. So far, she’s had two surgeries to remove the malignant tumors and will start radiation treatment as soon as she regains her strength. She’s alert and already walking around but it’s going to be a tough road ahead for her and the family. *sigh*

All of a sudden mortality takes a front row seat in my life. It’s as if God needed to bonk me on the head real quick to help me realize that life is short and that we have to make the most of what we have NOW. This sure does put a little spin on Mother’s Day this year.

Saturday morning fun

IMG_3361.jpgThis morning we got up at 6:45 am, left the house by 7:10 am, and arrived at the Oakley Headquarters for our 7:30 am shopping extravaganza. Once again, Wendy hooked us up with VIP passes to the Oakley parking lot sale. We were there so early that cutting in line wasn’t as big of a deal this time around. I managed to score some $15 running/cycling gear and Jes got another pair of sunglasses and a $30 jacket that usually retails for $265. I also got my very own pair of snowboarding goggles to match the Oakley ski jacket and pants that I bought last November at this same sale. What fun!

By the way, Jes has a stomach of steel. No complications to report from his ice cream experiment.

“It’s just a little [old]…

It’s still good! It’s still good!” -Homer J. Simpson

We bought some pineapple coconut ice cream back when we first moved into our house in September 03. We never opened it and thought it would be a good idea for Jesse to try it. Notice the date on the bottom? It says Septmeber 9th…2004! Eh. It was sealed this whole time in the freezer. How bad could it be?

Looks ok…color is good, smell is good. Let’s try it.

Hey, he’s already eaten at least 5 bites of it and no rumblies in the tummy yet! In fact, I think he’s enjoying it!

We’ll see how he feels in the morning. Back to the freezer the ice cream will go!

in a hurry…

On Monday, my OT intern from the USC Master’s Program arrived. Being so used to my autonomous day, it was an interesting perspective having someone follow me around all day. I realized a few things…

  1. My work day is extremely hectic and fast-paced.
  2. I’m often too busy to stop by the restroom to pee.
  3. I don’t usually talk much unless I have to.
  4. I walk really fast.

Now with a student by my side, I have to talk all day explaining what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and asking “quizzy” questions to her. Sometimes when there’s dead time, I will usually sit down at my desk, check email, finish paperwork, and take care of other adminstrative things. Now I have to worry about whether the student has enough to occupy her time and if I should be “meeting” with her to answer questions or teach her something.

One more thing that I realized was that I often fail to take a real lunch hour. I don’t have a set lunchtime and eat lunch when I have spare moments in my day while I continue working between bites. Now that she’s around, I need to make sure that she has at least a half hour to eat and rest.

Speaking of lunch…just last Wednesday, I was in such a hurry to get through my lunch that I bit the inside of my lower lip. Owie! I guess in my shark-like frenzy of chewing and managing the food in my mouth, one of my canines crunched into my lip. It hurt so bad that I winced in pain and it brought a small tear to my eye. It’s now Tuesday evening and my lip still hurts.

I’m a fan.

I hate vacuuming. It hurts my ears. It’s stinky. It’s heavy. And the results are never worth the amount of physical labor it requires.

dysonFor the past few months, we’ve considered purchasing our very own dyson. Each time we go to Costco, we pass the vacuum aisle and debate whether it’s really worth $469.99. Victor and Susie got it a while back and were totally raving about it but still, it’s a vacuum! Well, after I tried to vacuum the house on Friday, I was a little frustrated with the results of my hard work and seriously reconsidered the possible purchase. Today, we went to Costco and finally forked over the money for our very own dyson DC14 full kit and didn’t look back. We were skeptical at first but boy has it changed my attitude towards vacuuming. For example, I just vacuumed our livingroom rug on Friday afternoon and today (Sunday), it managed to pick up another half a canister of fur! Wow…either our old vacuum wasn’t doing anything or my dog is shedding a lot. Speaking of fur, we also tried to vacuum the dog but he wasn’t a fan. Later, even Jesse got into the fun and vacuumed the fur out of the back of my car and the entire second floor of our house. I can totally imagine a commercial where some housewife says, “Dyson saved our marriage!”

A couple more things and I’ll shut up…it has some really cool attachments that snap to the side or top of the machine, it’s less hurty to my ears than the old vacuum, and because it has a Hepa filter it doesn’t smell!! OK. I’m a fan.