Traveling to Portland

On our way to Portland, we saw so many beautiful country sight seeings. Seeing many old barns were one of the neatest we saw during our trip. Yet, we even survived through the snow without needing to use chains for our van. It was somewhat better than when we first arrived to Bend, Oregon.

This time, we already left for Portland from Bend, Oregon. Some of the snow had melt, but knowing it was risky to drive through the icy roads. David was a very cautious driver all the way to the top of Oregon--Columbia Gorges River. This river is between two states: Oregon and Washington. (That's where Lewis and Clark took their journey from Missouri to Oregon.) By the time we have reached to Columbia River, we stopped for our lunch. Inside of the building, I saw a strange sign in a Food Mart store. Have you ever heard providing a shower for the tourist? I didn't, but I thought it was interesting to see this peculiar sign.

Three hours later, we finally arrived to our hotel where one of David's colleague friends lives nearby you. There was another strange sign-- who would want to live in a city called, "Boring?" We did not stay in this city, but was close enough to this city.

After we had our dinner, we met David's college classmates, Craig and his family. The family has three kids. The kids hit it off well for a couple of hours. All of the kids, including mine, were WILD ! Heidi called the children, "The Lost Boys" because they were loud and we had to remind them to settle their voice down. It didn't work whenever we, as parents, tried to scold them throughout the night. While they were playing wild, we, as adults, indeed did have a nice chatting for a couple of hours. Without a doubt, we will be seeing them again in the near future.

Snow Park

A day after Christmas, I went out to have a sip of Hot Chai Tea from Starbucks with the ladies at Barnes and Nobles before my family and I left for Portland and Washington State. It was a really nice feeling to have my favorite kind of a tea in my mouth while Dylan, Ryan and Danae were out with their dads at Snow Park for the afternoon.

Originally, they were supposed to go on a sledding, have snow fighting, making snow angels and snowman. Unfortunately, it did not happen because the heavy rain had caused too cold to walk further to where the activities were held. Due to heavy rain, it caused too slippery to keep the walking up. The kids at least tried to keep their sportsmanship to keep walking until one of the them surrendered. This kept them busy by seeing people doing their cross skiing and wearing snow shoes before they had reached the destination.

Keeping their spirits up for the picture.

Candid Silly Faces

On Christmas Day, both David and I were pretty good at capturing unexpecting pictures of family. When I reviewed the pictures, these pictures made me laugh and felt so lucky to be a part of my husband's family.

Mark is spying on whoever was naughty.

David was thanking to Santa for making his dream come true: the hat.

"Why are you taking a picture of me?" yawing by Diana.

Weren't these pictures fun to look at them when they did not expect any of us taking a picture of them ?

Christmas Day

On a Christmas morning, Dylan actually woke me up at 5 A.M. telling me that Santa had came. I told him that we had to wait for everyone to be up. So, he stayed in bed with me. Thank goodness, but knowing I have been paid back because I used to wake my parents up at 3:30 A.M. about having Santa bringing the gifts. Even though we tried tickling Ryan due to being the last person to wake up, he simply is not a morning person.

We skipped our breakfast until we finished our Santa presents. I guess we all were too excited to know what was in our stockings. My family started looking in our stocking. Both Dylan and Ryan went first. As soon as they discovered their name' bedroom door plate, Dylan added his own word, "Do Not Open!" OHHHHHH, the trouble began from this very day.

When it came to my turn, there were so many darling winter stuff for my house. It will make it more merrier. One of the special gifts in the stockings was having my birthstone ring: Garnet. I sure was surprised to find in the stocking. It is a nice feeling for being loved, and is still sticking in my fingers because it is one of the special gifts I had received. While it was not from Santa, I got my wishes come true: more scrapbook stuff!!! My mind was jumping ups and downs because my dear sister in law knew what I really wanted for Christmas.

While Deby was busy finding out what stored in her Christmas stocking, Katya was being so silly. She was jumping ups and downs on her younger sister new trampoline. After Deby finished opening her stocking, we discovered we got two same things: Garnet jewelry because our birthday is only three days apart. It makes us closer and understanding each other well. Another thing was getting a pair of Christmas fleece socking. I love it because it sure felt so soft and warm.

It was so nice to have the time together all morning without needing to change our PJ until we met Ginger and the other family members for Christmas dinner. We also exchanged the Christmas gifts. The food that Mark and Doug made it from the BBQ during the freezing time. They were gallant to stand out and BBQ for the family.

Through out exchanging the gifts, lots of us were taking pictures and saying, "Ohhhh," or "Ahhhh" except for Dylan. He was not able to open his Christmas gifts until we get home from a two week vacation. He just had a negative attitude earlier of the day. When I took the picture of him, he just turned around and pouted himself. It is all about Tough Love!

More importantly, it was a really nice feeling to have most of us celebrating Christmas together. The best of all is to have my dream coming true: a White Christmas. That is one of the moments I would forget, not only the White Christmas, but the love was there for me.

More Fun Times on the 24th

Before we met our family for a Christmas Eve dinner, we encouraged our young kids playing more indoor playground. It is not a McDonald's or Carl's Jr. It is for the parents to relax in a little bit while there were bunch of kids playing all different kinds of indoor activities: from playing doll house to climbing plastic rocks.

Our kids spread it out while David, Deby and I had a cup of a hot drink. As for me, I drank a cup of Chai Latte. It is one of my favorite hot drinks. My sister in law enjoyed talking on the phone. We did have a chance to talk to each other while the kids enjoyed their time with other kids. The kids were too busy to think about their lunch until we had to stop them.

Ryan enjoyed playing with the spinning bicycle with the other kids. It made him laugh. He also liked to play hopscotch. I personally was pleased to see that he had improved his motor skills in hopscotch. Not only focusing two particular activities, he also played with other activities as well.

Dylan especially liked to play with the Thomas and the trains and climbing the plastic rocks. First, I thought he was too old to play with Thomas and the trains and even too tall for climbing the plastic rocks. Second, what can I do to provide him though this place accepts the kids up to age 10. He is almost 8, but his body builder is near 10 years old. At least, he did have some energies to burn, including playing in the snow outside of Deby's home.

Once we were done with the Indoor Playground activities, we went out to another family member house, Ginger and Mark's for our Christmas Eve dinner. From young kids to adults even played against each other from steering their Wii wheels. Most of them took their turns.

At the end of the Christmas Eve, we had witnessed our youngest niece, Alexis who had a handful of vaseline all over her hair just before she came for the Christmas Eve dinner. I had to encourage my sister in law, Deby to look it up on the Internet on how to remove the vaseline out of her hair. The interesting part was using the Baking Soda with soapy lukewarm water on her head. Of course, she was not very happy when Ginger had to put on her head before taking her to the sink and rinse her hair. It took more than one time to remove the entire vaseline out of her head. That's one of the things none of us would ever forget this event especially on Christmas Eve.

Fun Times

Just a few days before Christmas, we, as parents, tried to keep our children from age 1 1/2 to 15 years old busy over the holidays. We attempted to find any indoor activities since there are lots of snow up in Oregon.

The first thing we did was going to the Fun Center for Katya's, my niece, 15th birthday. At the Fun Center, it provided indoor bowling, arcades, Go-Kart and miniature golf. At the Fun Center, it also provided a large screen movie in a front of the bowling alley. I disagreed with the idea of putting the screen because I personally think it distracted the players. Despite of my opinion, we went ahead to eat our lunch before playing the arcades games.

We mostly played the arcades after we had our delicious lunch. Ryan started out "driving" a race car-- that is nothing new about him because he really likes to go FAST!! We just discovered that Logan also liked driving the racing car. While Ryan and Logan were busy driving a car, Dylan went out to play "Fortunate Wheels." He got over twenty tickets in one game! It showed that he was a clever as a fox.

Alexis likes to play anything with her hands. At first, she and David played Air Ping Pong game. I was pleased to see that she excelled in her eyes and hands coordination while playing with David. She giggled through out the game against her own uncle !

She also showed her power by attacking the sharks ! Alexis sure did get lots of tickets and ended up getting so many little stuffed animals. When she brought the stuffed animals home, one of the dogs discovered her new toys. One of Alexis' stuffed animals were rescued by Deby.

After all we had so much fun at the Fun Center, we returned home to celebrate Katya's 15th birthday in a front of the family. She was blushing when we sang a birthday song, but knowing that she was pleased to have a family celebrating her special day. It was a worth day to keep our kids fun throughout the day.

Sneaky Squirrel

Every single morning, there was one of the sneaky squirrels would come out to the backyard's porch and eat the dry corn kernels. Actually, Deby told me that this particular squirrel always comes at around 10 or 11 A.M. Good enough, she was right ! Yet, it was fun to watch the squirrels and shoveled in his/her mouth before going back to his/her den.

Family Feast

On our second night at Deby, my sister in law's house, we were being SPOILED by having one of the most delicious meals: spaghetti and vegetable sauces. Most of us were joined a dinner after we had a full night rest and sleep from a long drive: getting together for a dinner and a desert.

It was PERFECT to have a hot meal especially staying at eleven degree at night. We survived along with our loving family in case we get cold. One of my nieces who is nearly 3, Alexis was a lot more braver than the most of us because she only wore a diaper and a bib at night ! If I had a permission, I would give her my own personal nickname, "Princess Diva" because she is a strong-willed and independent young child just like my younger son, Ryan. Not only watching her eating without having much clothes on, she also likes to dress up as a Princess and flattered herself.

While we had our feisty dinner, I encouraged Beth, David's cousin to feed Logan is almost two. By using my observation in Beth, she would be a good mom because I know she has a GOOD HEART. Perhaps, the next step I would encourage her to change the diapers. That would be interesting to watch her reaction when I mention. Actually, he is a very easy and loving baby. He is total opposite of his sibling, Alexis. It makes our life more interesting to watch between two kids.

The first and oldest child of Deby's, Katya had a nice early birthday dinner with us. She disliked taking pictures, just like few family members of ours. It made me wonder which side it comes from: mine or David's. So, I sort of made a trick question by asking her if she wanted to have birthday presents. She did want to get some presents from us. Then I told her that she must show her beautiful face in a front of camera. She groaned because I tricked her. Am I pretty cleaver about convincing her??

Not only having spaghetti, we also had a pumpkin cream cheese pumpkin pie. How could I resisted this delicious flavor?? Many of us wouldn't resist this delicious desert, either. Frankly, we will be having a week of family feasts. Aren't we spoiled? Yup, that is the nicest things about spending times with the family and sharing the love instead of thinking working or giving others money at all times. Nothing beat the love than the materials.

On the road to Oregon

At dawn, we all woke up and got ready to go on a road to Oregon from our home. It was not an easy task for us as parents because we had very little sleep by putting all of our "JUNK" stuff in our van. But we managed to stay wide awake while we were on the road. The boys were good sports, too.

We started out of having junk breakfast-- donuts ! I know it is not a wise breakfast, but who would argue with me that it was far much better than cooking the healthy breakfast, washing the dishes and delaying our times??? However, we did have a healthy lunch and dinner when we had to stop for our meal. Eating our junk meal for a start was our choice while I started the gears at dawn. I managed to stay awake until I hit the Frazier Park, not far from Bakersfield because it had snowed. The snow itself reminded me like a brown and white zebra. Thought it was an interesting view.

Then when we had to stop and to fill the other half of a gas (we kept gas full all the way, and stop for a gas if the gas is half,) David started the other half of the driving until we had reached to Woodland, the North of Sacramento for the night.

The next morning, we woke up at dawn from Woodland to Bend, Oregon where we met our family. We only stopped at least three times: for gas, eat our meal and of course, restroom.
Shortly before we entered the state of Oregon, we saw several actions: the sign warned about Icy Road, reckless driver and snow plow. It was good experiences for the boys to see all of these actions and understood why it was so important for us to slow down.

As soon we saw the signs that says, "Oregon Welcomes You" , we made a quick stop due to little amount of time before the dark arrived. The moment I stepped out of the van, the snow went up to my knee. Whoa! I managed to take a picture of the signs for my Scrapbook trip to Oregon and Washington. A couple of hours after we passed the borderline, we stopped by at Subway's for lunch. The boys were being silly by wanting to go out while snowing outside of Subway's. They loved it!

Shortly before four P.M, I must say that our GPS was our lifesaver by telling us how to get to my husband's sister's house. Of course, David was wise enough to print the directions in case of the GPS breaks down. That was something I didn't think about this emergency situation.

Finally, we got down to her cozy home. The boys and their cousins were greeted each others. I must say my niece and nephew did not have much of clothes while we were acting like we overloaded our clothes. They played for a little while before they volunteered to shove the driveway out in a front of Deby's house. That was a good exercise for them to use before hitting the sack.

As for me, it was the first time in a VERY LONG time, I have had a chance to relax and watched a short movie before we all went to bed. It was very nice to sleep in a "dungeon" basement for the night. (Actually, Dylan said loudly, "Oh my goodness, do we have to sleep in a dungeon room?)

Gingerbread

All in this week, I have been working and teaching about Gingerbread Theme with my students. Even with the younger students and extra disability, they began to identify the name of the characters in the story. I felt so GOOD about this.

First, I talked about the story of The Gingerbread Man with them. I especially love seeing their facial expression when they found out about a fox ended up eating a Gingerbread Man. Before they knew the answer, I kept asking them what did they think it might happened. Using their predict was not an easy task for them.

Second, I asked them to give me the sequence story when it comes to Gingerbread Man. We did a lots of physical activities in class because it helped them to comprehend a lot faster than just showing pictures from the book alone. Of course, it wiped my "Middle Age" body out from chasing around the classroom . The two best part was burning my calories and seeing them understand the sequence story.

Third, they had learned the part of the body from the Gingerbread Man. Just image which part of a fox would eat first: head, stomach, arm, or feet. I had my aide to create Math graph of Gingerbread's body. Then, I had my little students going out to our Deaf and Hard of Hearing students and teacher and the office staff. One of the students had a difficult time expressing even in signing. Over a couple of practices before asking the students and staff, this deaf student finally learned to say appropriately, " I want you to bite the Gingerbread Man, please." This was not an easy task for this student because of having extra disability. We got many positive responses from the staff that they LOVED our idea. After this students went through by observing each person biting the Gingerbread Man, they had to put the Gingerbread sticker on part of the body that this person bit. The older student learned to count in tallies while the younger student learned to count in numbers with hands.

Last, they ended up making Gingerbread Man for their snack. Not only making eating a Gingerbread Man, my older deaf student joined the fun activity in Ryan's class by making "Gingerbread House." He and Ryan loved creating their own Gingerbread House.

At the end of the week, I felt that both of my students had learned a lot more than just from the books, and did LOTS of hand-0n activities. They enjoyed eating and making both Gingerbread Man Cookie, and a Gingerbread house.

Color Blind

At the end of my working hour, I checked my work e-mail for the last time before I picked the boys up from Extended Student Services. I just learned that my younger son, Ryan had a color vision test. It turned out he is a color blind for red/green.

But then, I realized I'm a carrier because my father is also a color blind for red/green. At that time, I did not know my father is a color blind until I was a teenager. I recall wearing a red background with many green leaves and tiny white flowers dress. He told me, "It is a beautiful BROWN dress. " At first, I thought he was joking. As soon as he told me that he could not see the difference between red/green.

Having another genetic traits did not occur to me until this late afternoon. When I talked with Ryan's first grade General Education Teacher, she said she remembers he colored Poinsettia brown instead of red and green. She also mentioned some of the other 1st grade students colored blue and yellow Poinsettia. It leaves me wondering, so I doubled check myself and to see if he is really color blind. I have a Christmas Stationary from 2003. On the Stationary, it also has red and green Poinsettia. He answered my questions perfectly. So, I am confused whether he is really color blind.

Thus, I will keep double check more. If he still turns out that he does have color blind, I can trained him to memorize the traffic lights and the Christmas decorations. The only problem I could not train to disguised the difference between red and green or even the map unless I labeled the colors of apples and map. There are several excellent examples of websites about colorblind, but I'd like this one.

Wii Games

Two weeks before the actual Christmas, we decided to open all of the Christmas gifts from Santa Claus. We thought it would be easier for us to practice Wii games before we leave for our two week vacation.

A night before Santa Claus arrived two weeks early, David was "helping" Santa Claus' helper, Evan Elf to set up the Wii games before Dylan and Ryan woke up. He and Santa Claus' helper worked together until 2: 30 A.M. They both had to make sure the electrical stuff works properly before the boys played their new games. Later on the day, David took a very long nap because he was up until 2:30 A.M!

So, Santa Claus left the boys a note on a front of the T.V. They both read the letter separately before they began their games. When they woke up and was surprised to see their early Christmas gifts, Dylan and Ryan happily ran and came up to us that "Santa Claus's helper, Evan Elf came here early!" As soon they finished their breakfast, they began their first game, "Mario Kart."

We immediately noticed their personality when it comes to the game. Dylan LOVES to be in a competition. He is really a quick learner--- a couple of games, he usually ended up winning first place. It does enhance his self-esteem, but he does not always have a good sportsmanship if he wins in a second place. This leaves us wondering when it comes to lots of physical games from Santa Claus on Christmas Morning. Ryan is on the other hand. Being in a competition is not important to him. He would rather to drive and crashed into the water, other cars, or in a mud. It made him jumpy and laughed so hard! Of course, I have tried to teach him the concepts of staying on the road-- he just simply does not care and ignored my advices.

While they had a chance to practice their Wii games, they had a chance to show Ryan's Cub Scout off at the end of the meeting. The other fellower and father enjoyed playing a game. They were amazed how much the technology had changed over the decades. Part of the games is a good interaction for the players. However with the Mario Mart does not have a lot of physical activity, I have tried playing with this game with the boys, too. After a few games with the boys, my right hand trembled a lot while trying to write anything. I guess I am uptight in winning the games just like Dylan.

By the time we arrived our trip destination, we will be playing more than just Mario Kart. I am pretty sure that there will be a lot of physical activities along with our family members. Santa Claus had told me that the boys will be getting a lot more than just sitting down with this Wii games. It also applies to me because I am hoping to get a Wii work-out. Thus, I am looking foward to sharing the fun with my family over the holidays.

Song

Just this evening, Dylan decided making his own song up out of blue. Some of the words he wrote made me laughed, and other words I did not like reading this.

Stay Away From Me,
Stay Away from Me,
Do not try to Kiss me, EWWW!
Get those lips away from me,
I'm going to put you in jail, if you are going to kiss me,
you are so stupid,
you are juuuuust a bunch of brats.

(Kind of music Pop and Rock: Sound, Hard Volume) for one of his female classmates.) I wondered what would she be thinking if she reads this. She probably would not be pleased because it sounded like Dylan did not want to get a kiss from her.

I also relayed the message to David, my husband about Dylan making his own song up. He said that it is very typical for boys wanting to stay away from girls kissing them. It also reminded him of his grandmother giving him lots of smoochy kisses.

Goofy Thanksgiving

Oh Man ! Not again, I 'm posting WAY too late about our Goofy Thanksgiving! That night, we were having a cabin fever because it was raining outside. I assumed the weather we have had caused us to goof around on our Thanksgiving afternoon.

On an early afternoon, there was so many heats in the kitchen. Of course, it does not mean.. you ya know what I mean. The oven, stove and having us fooling around caused the house heating it up. First, I had a drool over the Honey Baked Ham. I felt like I wanted to take the Ham all to myself. I eventually had a half of the left over ham. That was heaven! Turkey was one of the other meat on our Thanksgiving table. Aunt Ginger, who was starving like if she has not eaten for days, was trying to steal the smallest food: the seasonal spices in her mouth. Good thing, Doug had a corner of his eyes; otherwise, he would scold her with a knife on his hand. Wasn't that scary to think about it?

While waiting for the food to be served, Beth nearly fainted. Ginger had to cool her temperature off with a dry Kleenex. It was relieved to see our caring yet zany family was able to tolerant until we had food in our mouth. Cathy also felt the same thing because she was trying to cool herself off. I




could not figure it out why she was sweating herself while there
were so many delicious food. Perhaps, the food had stimulus her really good.

The kids!?! OH my, what should I say? The kids were shaking their hands to make their home made butter as if they were in a Salsa Dance. They were unable to make it in a real butter. Guess they were too tired to stand up doing the Salsa Dance without having any food in their watery mouth. What a pity! Becky and her friend, from Japan were just sitting and starting at the kids making their butter. Actually, they were too absent-minded to do anything except taking lots of pictures. Ryan wasn't not the only person to show his proper face in a front of camera.
What can I say about men??? The three men were not able to stand up their own feet up and help around the kitchen. Richard and Grandpa were pretending they were the informers by updating the boring football scores up for the ladies. Who cares??? David was also pretending to be working by taking pictures through by his Treo pager. What's up with these men?

Not only problems with these three men, Mark was also among the crazy men. He was so ENAMORED by asking us to lift our breasts up for the pictures. Can you believe that? I guess he too was too starving without having food in his mouth. The only good thing he did not make it public " yet." That would be too embarrassing. (Alright, I must admit we, the ladies, asked Mark to take our crazy "turkey breasts" pictures for us.)

As soon after we had our meals, we all returned to normal. Good thing, we all held our horses rather showing our craziness in public-- talking to ourselves. Again, it would be too embarrassed to let our friends recognize us out in the street. Having our temporarily sanity was blessing to remain control until we had food in our mouth.