Out of Town

My family and I decided to do something wonderful on Friday and Saturday. That means we decided to skip one day of work and school. I guess I am a real human, instead of being a workaholic.

Can you guess where will we be heading? The answer will be given by the time we get back on Sunday night.

Cursive Writing

This year, Ryan has finally started learning to write his own name without help. That also including memorized the spelling of his last name ! Writing cursive is not easy for him. His cursive are loopy and large when he writes his name. It was due to that the researchers prove, " Autistic children often have unusually large handwriting" may be due to with cerebellar lesions or basal ganglia dysfunction.

This evening, he remembered the basic rules to keep his name on the line. He only did it once on the board, but not on his homework. Still more importantly, his print is legible. We will see how months go on. If it is all failed by the end of this year, I will teach him to use keyboard skills. Though he already learned a little bit by playing "Cars" on a computer. He is still young enough to learn to use his typing skills. Who knows he will become mastered in typing when he gets older? Or even who knows he would be mastered in Excel? (I admit I know NOTHING about Excel especially Spreadsheet.)

Actually, I am grateful for living in today's technology. Otherwise, he might have suffered a lot even he has learned, "Handwriting Without Tears"in his first year of both Special Education and General Education classes. Not only being suffered, he and I would have lots of power struggles if there's no miracle technology. Using the keyboard, this will bring Ryan a lot easier to complete his homework assignments, taking notes in class, and complete long-term assignments.

Even at 5 1/2 year old, Ryan reads at a high grade level such as "The Mittens" on his own, but writing and drawing pictures are not easy for him. Ryan still has the advantage for having me because I recognized and knew he has to start learning to draw pictures at early age. It was due to that I have met several Autistic teenage kids at my work site, who could put their thoughts beautifully in their journal though their penmanships were not great, and some of them drew awesome pictures. Their models had encouraged me to teach my son, Ryan at an early age. I started off the basic pictures such Tree and Sun. (You can see the model of my right picture, and Ryan's pictures of Tree and Sun were on the left side of the white board.)

Another purpose of teaching him is to master one language concept. Let's wait and see as the time goes on. If it is all fail, it would not matter because the computer does provide lots of pictures to do his homework assignments. Nothing can stop me from teaching him to become independent after he gets a lot of tutoring by me.

Cheating the Game

This Tuesday evening, Dylan and his dad played a Memory Game after they had completed their dinner. Dylan was the ones who put the cards down on the table. While he was setting the cards down, he set the matching cards down next to each other on purpose. Actually, he was hoping he was not being caught while his dad was getting his bottle of water. Dylan did not know that his dad knew he was cheating the game.

His dad played along with him until he was not looking at the memory game. David took an advantage to confuse him by mixing the memory cards. Wasn't' that funny?

Dylan won the game: 20-6 at the end of the game. In our astonishment, Dylan used the gesture word, "Loser" in front of us! We were stunned. I then inquired him where did he learn this language. Can you guess ? If you had guess, it was from the kids at school. Nope! That was not the only place he had learned. It was from one of the "teenager" Disney shows. That was something I didn't expect to have any Disney shows would influence a child to learn this kind of language. Guess, we will have keep our eyes open for Disney shows!

Suspenders

My husband has started wearing suspenders since he started having a hernia pain. Wearing suspenders helped to loosen his belt, and the pain. Both of my boys have seen their dad wearing daily.

On Sunday evening, Dylan saw an opportunity that his dad left it on the top of the dresser. I found Dylan putting the suspenders on Ryan's. Of course, it was not in proper place until both boys went downstairs to show their dad's suspenders off. But, seeing them wearing suspenders brought us smiling.

Aren't they adorable with their new outfit?

Say "Cheese"

Ryan, the little sweet boy, likes to jump with a camera. He would then say, "(your name) I want to take a picture of you. Say, "Cheese."

He knows how to make you smile even if you had a tough day!

Rainbow

On our way to work/school, we saw one of the most beautiful rainbows. Even better, there were two rainbows! Every time I see a rainbow, I often think this would bring me something good thing happening to me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

What is the first thing it comes to your mind when you see a rainbow?

Dear Abby

Dear Abby,

This past week, I realized my older son, who is bright and perfectionist, is being obsessed about food daily. He is only 6 1/2 years old, 50 inches height, and weigh 65 pounds, stocky with heavy bones. I have watched what I put it for his variety of lunch: sandwich, fruits or vegetables, and fruit drinks.

On the same week, I received a note from school's cafeteria saying that I owe them a money. It left me puzzled because I have been faithful for making my children's lunches every single morning. Once I found it out, I confronted my son with two question, "Can you explain me why do I owe a school lunch money when I made you lunches? 'Did you buy lunches without my permission ? (Though, he occasionally got chances to buy lunches with my knowledge.) First, he would not reply to me until he gave it up when I waited for his answer. He admitted that he threw his home made lunches away. From that point, I gave him a grounded for NOT allowing him to buy lunches until the end of the month. He apologized and accepted the consequence.

However, three days later, I received an email from his teacher stating that he took another student's snack. She did suggest me to leave extra food for snack which I did. By the time, we arrived home from work/school, I discovered he did not eat his Fruit Snack. I commended him to give me valid reason for taking someone's else lunch instead of his own snack. His response was, "My friend gave me sugar cookies. I like those cookies." He knows that the school does not allowed to have sweet food since the school cafeteria also had adopted to provide healthy food for students.

Last, I just spoke with his teacher at the convention center. She stated that she overheard him talking to himself in a classroom that " I am so sick of my mother giving me the same lunch. " It was not true that I gave him same lunches. She and I agreed that I gave her a privilege to talk with him because I knew he would listen to her better than me as a mom.

Just this evening, we had a chicken noodle soup, a stalk of celery with peanut butter, and a small bowl of fruit cocktail. At first, he refused to eat either stalk of celery nor a bowl of fruit cocktail. I honesty was puzzled why there was no celery with peanut better in his lunch box today. He admitted he gave it to his friend at school. So in order, I made him to eat either a stalk of celery or fruit cocktail. He was struggled for the first few minutes until he accepted my order to start off a small bowl of fruit cocktail.

Of course, I had shared my concern with his teacher and my older son that I worry about his obsession over the food and his future bad habits. Now, I am in desperate of giving me ideas on how to convince my older son to accept eating healthy food.

Concerned Mom

Boys' Talents

Isn't it fun to watch your own children's new talent that it never occurred to your thoughts? After years of raising our sons, it continues to amaze me what they can.

One afternoon, I decided to pull the plate mat and leave it on our dining table for the boys to keep their hands full for the afternoon. Ryan decided to jump in his interest- math. Well since we had his I.E.P meeting, I was told that he could add and subtract up to five even his regular kindergarten classmates have not learned on this part yet. But when I saw him writing on his own math plate mat without our help, he sure had fooled us that he could add and subtract up to ten. What else does he know besides math ???

Dylan who loves to be in a ham in a front of a video. This time, he was bragging that he had created his own silly songs. He just decided to sing "What's a silly day?." You can be the judge when listening to his silly song.

Tranquil Evening

Most of the times we spend our evening together after we had a very long and busy week at work and school. This Friday evening was an exceptional because we decided to do on our own way for a small change. That also includes not going to bed at 8:30 P.M.

Our younger son, Ryan wanted to play with the "Cars" on his dad's computer, even he has his own computer in his room. It is just that he would rather to find something faster and quicker, just like his dad who loves any technician has speeds. I find it ironically that Ryan preferred to use his dad's because his computer does not have the sound. While observing him, I could not deny that his eye coordination has improved even driving on curvy roads at the average of 65 to 95 mph. The more he practices, the less crashes he does with other cars. The best part of observing him is that he used a lot of wiggle body movements and facial expressions. Good grief, he is not old enough to drive a real car!

Dylan, the older son, was on the other side of room, lying down and reading his all-time favorite book, "The Magic Tree House," number 18. Believe it or not, this is the fourth book he has read within one week. Once he finished one of the books, he would put it up in a stack in order. For example, I accidentally knocked his stack books over, and put it back without realizing it was not in order. He made a further investigation to make sure the numbers were in order. Dylan found it out that the books were not in order. He was not pleased that I didn't do my job. Rather than just getting upset with me for not putting the books in order, he made a goal to complete all of "The Magic Tree Houses" series book. What would be the next series book?

David, my husband, decided to start sorting all of the paperwork for taxes in advance. I would say he had made a big improvement over the years. That would make our tax consultant happy that we put it all together before the taxes comes. Let's hope we would make a huge refund this year since our boys are no longer in a private pre-school.

Last, I always found myself drinking Warm Chai Tea soothe my tension I have had over the week. Having a warm cup of Chai helped me to sleep peacefully for the night. That's what I needed the most because I tossed myself all last night. Not only tossing a lot from last night, drinking Chai Team helped me to think clearly for my blog. In meantime, I hope you are enjoying reading my blog.

Fear of Spiders

Everyone is scared of something, and if they try to deny that fact, they're probably lying. From clowns to spiders or even dolls, certain objects and creatures generally give people the creeps.

But imagine having a fear of bathing, breathing or sleeping. Ordinary occurrences most people experience daily, but that drive some people to the point of terror. Living with a phobia can make even the most typical tasks absolutely impossible to some people.

After I have done few researches, I learned fearing spiders is one of the most common phobias. Well, it started from Ryan, who is really terrified of spiders. He would not scream out of the spiders, but instead watching his eyes dilated, stepping out of the way, and asked any adult to kill the spiders even if it is NOT harmful. I will give you an idea on how much he is afraid of a spider.

One early evening, I had to pick Ryan up from the Extension Student Services (ESS) at his school site along with his brother, Dylan. When he saw me along with the ESS leader who walked with him to meet me, he then said to me," Mommy, I saw a spider in the playground" with his terrified looks. My reply was, "Oh really, was it small or big spider?" The response from him was, "small spider." The ESS leader chuckled and gave me a non-verbal gesture by showing how small it was (no more than 1/2 inches.) As we had ongoing short conversation, I replied, "Oh, the spider must have scared you." He would then said to me,"Yeah, the small spider scared me."

Lately, he had made an effort to look at a close-up spider. But now, I have to deal with Dylan, who is acting like he is copying his brother's fear! It happened to us last night while doing their homework. Dylan, who immediately saw a spider ling on our dining table, screamed,"SPIDER!" It automatically scared Ryan.

His dad, who happened to near them, rescued them by killing the spider ling in order to satisfy them! I felt like I am destroying the nature. Hopefully, it has nothing to do by giving me bad luck that includes having spider eggs!

Like I said earlier that I had done research about spiders, I also learned how to solve the problems about not getting scared of spiders, except for black widows. It mentioned to do step by step with anyone who is fear of spider. The last part is petting non-harmful spider. That's my destination to help my child to overcome the fear of spiders.

Home Sweet Home

Ryan loves to create his own home sweet home out of a blanket. Once his home is done, he would come up to us, "My home is being fixed." He would play in and out of his home. Occasionally, he would invite me or his brother, Dylan to his home.

This late evening, he then came up to me, "My home is dark." I have encouraged him to turn our living room light's on. Who ever thought about needing a flashlight? He indeed requested for a flashlight, " I need a flashlight." He checked it out on his own home sweet home with a flashlight. After I took a picture of him, he decided to close the door with a pillow as if I was not invited. I could oversee him playing inside of his house, chatting to himself. Once he had enough of being alone, he had a flashlight flicking in a front of me unexpectedly invited me.

From there, we played together for a few minutes. I kept telling him, "Oh, you do have a beautiful home." He was so proud of having a beautiful home.

Happy Birthday, David !

This time, I am proud to share with you all how lucky I have David in my life. He deserves to get something special from his wife (me). I wanted to write a special note about him because today is his birthday.Since my relationship with David, I have grown to know more about REAL David. His generous heart has not changed before he became a father of two sons. He would surrendered a lot of his time from working all day to help anyone in his family or friends from fixing anything in and outside of the house to picking someone at the airport.

Not only helping someone he cares, he does know how to make anyone who could not resist stop loving him. One of his experts is using sense of humors. He definitely knows how to melt others down either when a person is angry or sad. That is something he would turn everything upside down in order to see a person with a smiling face at the end.

Another thing about my dear husband, David is a devoted father of our two loving sons, Dylan and Ryan. He always makes sure they are well-loved, care and happiness. In addition to David's priority is to make sure they are aware that they are on the top of his list , that includes staying home with them when they are ill from school. That is not the only thing he would do with our sons. He would spend times teaching him how to use the computer, or just to take them out to have father-sons bonding.

Happy Birthday, David! I Love You !

Kids' Comments

Don't we all have our awesome experience from listening to our kids' comments? It happened to us this week.

This Friday A.M., on our way out for work/school, Dylan said to me, "Mom, I wanted you to save your money because I don't want you be poor" with his concern face. Isn't that sweet? I guess he had learned about telling him a white lie that I don't have the money to buy his four dollar drink. Also, I think he had learned more about the money value at a young age.

On Wednesday night, I was checking on how Ryan was feeling because we did received a note that he has "pink eyes" which it turned out he didn't. But he was coughing, sneezing and running colds- just began to have colds.

I asked Ryan few questions, " Aren't you feeling sick ?" He replied with a "No."

"Aren't you tired?" asked by me because he woke up at 6 A.M. and it was 8 P.M. without a nap. Then he gave me a sharp reply, "No, I am not sick. I am not tired. I'm just fine." Then, he quickly fell asleep as soon as I turned the light out.

Dylan's New Business

When Dylan came home from school, he immediately wanted to create a "Food Mart III" store. He thought it was fun because he has learned math from school. Originally, he wanted to write on the wall we just had painted. I had to halt him from doing any further. Without having him writing on the wall, he instead got the brown butcher paper.

He was so excited to ignite his own mini business: Food Mart III that opened for one hour only. Some of the dry food that I let him use it were very expensive. For instance, a bottle of Gatorade cost me four dollar! My best guessing was charging me so much was to buy the next series, "The Magic Tree House." At first, I thought giving him my pretending money would be sufficient. Well I was wrong ! That did not indeed meet his expectation. He expected me to give him the real money! I told him a white lie that I'm broke.

He lowered the price from four dollars to fourteen cents. That's when I gave him the REAL money. Once he received the money, he made sure I was not cheating. Guess what? He told me that I owe him one more cent because I did give him a thirteen cent instead of fourteen cent. It clearly knows how to count the money. Soon or later, he will be able to count more money for whatever he wants to save and buy the stuff he long wanted it.

Ryan's Annual I.E.P.

Before my son Ryan's annual I.E.P occurred this afternoon, his special education teacher told me, "Oh, I can't wait for this afternoon meeting because there are so much good things to tell you." She left me pondering throughout my working day until I came to the meeting.

But I would like to tell you a little bit about Ryan. Two years ago, we discovered what was wrong with my son for not being able to use his communication or interaction appropriate at age 3. Even in addition, we learned from developmental evaluator and school psychologist from my home school district that he "would not be able to meet his academic at age appropriate." I instead was told that he was eighteen months behind. It devastated me for a while. Finally, as a mother of an autistic son, I decided to roll my sleeves up and work with excessively at home for months. I still do!

Not only working with him at home, I also fought my way through to allow my son to go in my work's school district instead of my home school district. I felt that the placement suits him well. My gut was right.

As soon he started off in my work's school district, he started off in a full time special education class. Three months later, his special education teacher wanted to give him a trial for General Education Language Art class--to see how he handles the overall mainstream classroom. Five months later, we met his annual I.E.P meeting.

At the meeting, I was told by three staff: Special Education and General Education teacher and speech therapist that they felt placing him in Language Arts is appropriate for him. Not only to learning this news, they also told me that his math level is at a grade level, too! Thus, they wanted to put him in mainstream for math. So, it means he is in his mainstream class at 47 % class. Can you image that he started 100 % in special education class last August to 53 % in special education class within five months?

Academic Skills for Reading, Written Expression and Mathematics are at Kindergarten grade level (not even 18 months delay!)

- can do patterns, knows the day of the week perfectly while other regular Kindergartens still
are struggling.

- can even tell analog time ! (I was shocked because I thought he only knew how to read digital times, but he sure fooled me)- Guess we can buy him an analog watch!

-made 13 out of 15 in Inventory of Concepts about Print (he gets mixed up between title and
author's name) - I must praise myself because I read books to him daily.

-Ryan's vocabulary is continually expanding and he often uses the more sophisticated synonyms e.g. Xmas ornament instead of Christmas ball

- even though Kindergarteners are not yet adding and subtracting, Ryan is able to add/subtract
to 5 with manipulative when given a teacher direction

- one of his journal he wrote and drew a picture independently "I like ice cream" without help in spelling. The teacher told me at the meeting, when asked Ryan, "What do you supposed to do at the end of the sentence?" He answered, "period" and did it. I was shocked that he knew what to do.

Communication Skills has changed from severe to moderate delay. He uses completely sentences, but with grammatical errors with noun/verb agreement. His articulation is developmentally appropriate. Voice and fluency are age appropriate.

Social Emotional/Behavioral: He interacts in a positive and appropriate manner with both peers and adults. He seeks the companionship of others, but also enjoys his time alone. Ryan needs reminders to make and maintain eye contact at times.


Fine Motor: His handwriting is developing. He is able to reproduce letter formation of the alphabet at 60 % accuracy. Yet, he still has some difficulty when using scissors. Cutting tasks are time consuming for him especially when cutting complex shapes: i.e. stars and gingerbread. Last Fall he couldn't cut AT ALL but now he can cut simple shapes.

Vocational: Ryan is able to follow a classroom routine with ease. He needs two teacher prompts to remain on task while completing independent work assignments. Last year, he couldn't because he used to walk outside of a table or in a circle. But this year, he made an effort including completing his assignment.

Overall after the meeting adjourned, I FELT so good that he has come a long way from nothing to age appropriate level in many areas after I started working with him at home. No more tears, ignore what others or even listening to the white collar's opinion about his cognitive skills! Clearly, I have to say I am so proud of his achievement.

Good Night Kiss

After I finished reading a book to my sons, I always give both of them my "I Love You" message in sign language and then give each of my good night kiss.

Well, this evening Ryan decided to use his sense of humor (I think he was trying to be funny) The conversation began:

Mom: Just gave him a good night kiss

Ryan: I take off the kisses (He wiped if off then laughed)

Mom: Ahhh, that made me sad you took the kiss off from me.

Ryan: You can give me a kiss again.

Mom: Will you promise you would not take my kiss off from your cheek?

Ryan: I promise not to take the kiss off.

Mom: (Gave him a nice good night kiss on his cheek)

Sure enough, he kept his promise and smiled it back to me.

Playing In The Rain

Every time I see the rain, it reminds me the old classic movie, "Singin' In The Rain" by Gene Kelly. I did like the idea of playing in the rain with our raincoat and a pair of rain boots except we didn't have umbrella.

It was a PERFECT timing to be flexible parents by taking our boys outside in the rain. After we all were set up to go outside, the boys were entrancing.

Come On and Join with Us!

Oh, it does feel good!

Look, I'm sweeping the water!

It's Play Time!

At the end of our precious afternoon, they got their pants wet from splashing so much. I knew they did not mind because Dylan made a comment, "That was fun!"

Recreation Park

Just in time before the boys and I return to work/school from a two week Winter Break, we took them to a nearby Recreation Park. We taught some of the new activities: basketball, pool table and ping pong. It did NOT cost us anything. We are too cheap to pay any sport expenses, yet we found our quality times with them.

As we bought two brand new balls: basketball and soccer ball. This time, we only wanted to give them the surface idea of using the ball regularly. Once Dylan and Ryan walked indoor basketball court, they felt overwhelmed because the room was so BIG for them.

David decided to let them taking turn bouncing the ball before throwing the ball in a hoop. Clearly, it was not easy for them. The basketball hoop was really high for them, but at least they get the taste besides using a kickball that they did play at their school recess. Dylan did make efforts to throw a ball in a hoop. Believe it or not at his own size, he DID make it in a hoop. He sure was feeling like he was on the top of a dog.

Ryan is either not ready for using the ball, or does not does like to use the ball in a front of his face. The next time, we will try out for soccer ball. Let's see if I am right that he would not mind to play the ball on the ground. I personally believe he is very much like me because I don't like having ball in a front of my face except I was braved enough to be on a volleyball team during my four year of High School.

However, the boys did want to play pool table. It was a challenge experience for them because of using the long stick. Dylan understood the objective except he did not shoot the ball to hit either for a plain or stripe ball in a hole. That was okay as long he did make his effort. The only person in McClellan's household was showing it off was David. He played like as if he was a pro pool table!The last part of was playing ping pong before the boys decided to go outside. Being a left hander was not easy for Dylan. He was being a good sportsmanship because he wanted to try everything he has never done in his life.

Finally at the end of our late afternoon, the boys were thrilled to go outside with other kids. They ran in and outside of the playground structure for a half hour.
After an hour and a half of playing in and outside of the recreation center, it worn the boys out for an entire night! It was a perfect way to cherish one of the family's memories.

Katya and the boys

After having a wonderful evening with the Morgan's Family, the boys had an opportunity to spend their time with their cousin, Katya before her father picked her up.

First, they wrestled in the living room. I was amazed how strong Katya was enough to lift Dylan up because he is a REALLY heavy boy. Thank goodness, it did not harm Katya's back; otherwise, I would feel very badly. From there, I believe Katya realized he is really heavy and would not to lift him up again.

As soon, Ryan found it out. He joined the club. The kissing really annoyed her until she gave it up and then wrestled the boys. Katya continued to make fun of them because she dared they could not get even with her. But Ryan sneaked behind her back and startled her because he pushed/spanked her.

Just in time before her father came to pick her up, David had a chance to video of them fooling it around the house. Katya was really patience with the boys until she worn herself out.

A Belated Christmas with Morgan's

This time, we spent a Belated Christmas with the Morgan's Family. We all enjoyed spending a pleasant evening at my parents in law's place.

After we had our wonderful American dinner, hot dogs and hamburgers, the kids were too excited to open their Christmas gifts from their grandparents. Both Autumn and Briar got their new jacket. It was a perfect way to keep their cool looking in a front of their friends at school or at church. (see pictures of them with their new jackets on them)

Before Chloe was able to open her gift, Chad was excited to know what was in his big Christmas gift. After he found what was it, he was too excited to take everything out of a box. But his mom told him to wait until everyone was done with their gift. Chad was pleased he got the same gift as Dylan because he told him he used it whenever he took a bath. He liked Dylan's idea.

The last child of Morgan's family was Chloe. She did get two Christmas gifts: High School Musical and Girls' Crush: Streaks and Style. Both Briar and Autumn were stunned to see that she got for Christmas especially the High School Musical Dance Mat. I believe they would drive their parents' nuts when they started dancing at home.

Heather was pleased she got the first time for having two Fossil Watches in her entire life. She wanted to collect more watches just like my other sister in law, Deby. I guess their life depend on watches while I depend on the beauty looks: earrings. Dru got a gift certificate to go out to a romantic restaurant with his lovely wife, Heather. He was pretty pleased with the idea of having the time alone while someone else watch their kids. Maybe we would drive over their house to watch the kids, while they could spend their time alone. It would be a win-win game. What would you say, Heather?

After the Morgan's completed their Christmas, we found our left over time with the family. Ryan found his time to groom Morgan's dog, Cooper. He was so patient with Ryan. Speaking of grooming, Dylan had a gut to let Autumn coloring his hair.

Typical of men watched the Charger's Football game and hoped the team would win, I guess their luck had come true. It was relieved not to watch our grumpy men if the Charger's Football team lost the last game before entering in a play-off.

At the end of the evening, it was really nice seeing them once again. The kids and the parents enjoyed spending the time together.

Visting with Grandparents

On New Year Eve's weekend, we decided to visit our grandparents for our belated Christmas. Can you image we traveled a little over three hundred miles within one day ? That's right, we did! I was pleased both of our sons, Dylan and Ryan did not complain on our way to visit Grandma McClellan's (David's grandma) and Grandma Campbell-Kasper's (my side.)

First, we started off driving from our home to Long Beach to see David's grandma. We all got there in time for an early lunch. Grandma McClellan greeted us at the front door, which it startled Dylan. It was because he has not seen her in two years. As soon as we walked in the house, the boys were explored around the house.

Just before we started eating our home made lunch, we met Ricky's in the garage. I was stunned that they were allowed to build a shower and a bedroom in the garage because I thought it was illegal to convert to a bedroom. Guess, they had to go through with the city's approval. From there, Ricky followed us to the house for setting our lunch on a table.

After we had a quick lunch, Grandma McClellan was shocked to receive a brand new Sony DVD player. It was a perfect Christmas gift for her because she recently got a brand new plasma flat TV in her guest room.

While we were chatting before we left for another visit to my Grandma Campbell to Hemet, Dylan explored the location on where we lived from a globe. As we asked him to show us where the live, he is getting good at knowing the location, including South America and Europe ! Ryan was playing with his Game Boy.
As we headed for another one hundred and fifty miles to see my Grandma Campbell-Kasper and her husband, it continued to amaze me that there were no complaining or needing to pull over the road from the boys, except I was foiled when there was a traffic nearby her home.

Who would want to be with the road raging driver ? So, David took over the driving seat and drove the rest to her mobile home. We got there by five p.m, an hour and a half late due to the traffic. But we got there in time for dinner. They were excited to see us because it was nearly a year and half since we last saw their Oregon home.

Grandma was proud to show me what she has remodel around her mobile home. In my entire life, she always LOVED to remodel new things in and outside of the house. I have to admit that she is pretty good at knowing what it is needed to do such as putting the shades for her porch, replacing the lava to stone rocks for her two dogs.

While we were there, the boys were excited to see the piano. That's another thing my grandma is good at playing piano. She taught herself! That's smart of her not to spend a piano lesson, including accordion. Both Ryan and Grandma sang "Jingle, Jingle Jingle Bells."

Finally, it was time for us to treat them out to Home Buffet for their Christmas gift from us. Grandma and Ray, my step grandfather, loved it because they knew they could eat anything they wanted and could eat as much as they wanted. I only ate one plate of a dinner- that was enough for me. But Dylan, who is only 6 1 /2, was hungry enough for a second plate! He was about to go out for a third plate, but I had to stop him because I told him there was a dessert. Ryan especially like spaghetti over the pizza ! At the end, they were excited to make their own ice cream from Home Buffet.

Spending two hour visiting with them was worthwhile for us! We sure hope we will be able to see them again because I know my Grandma is holding herself so long with five time heart surgery and three times for her knee replacement. In my heart, I know she is a gallant woman I ever know, including her sense of humors!
Just before we headed for home, I had eyes for "Scrapbook Corner." Of course, I bought few accessories before it was closed. The boys and David were in good sports for staying in a van for at least ten minutes before we hit for another two hours road.

While we were on a road, I thought the boys would be fast asleep. Nope not either for Dylan or Ryan! Doesn't that amaze you that two young boys would stay up for twelve hours then pooped them out by the time we arrived home? We were satisfied to see both of our grandparents despite of a long drive within one day.

New Year's Destination

Happy New Year to You !

Everyone does have their own destination for the New Year. The most common ones is losing weight, though I know I definitely need to do the same. But I am also trying to add something else that I need to do for the year.

This year I will....

1) decluttered the stuff around the house
2) educate each of my son's (typical of me as a teacher)
3) do the scrapbook once every other week since I am working long hours.
4) Take my boys out to interesting places
5) Last I need to keep my promise

Now, it is your turn to name the five things you wanted to do for the year of 2008.