The Rainbow

we've seen the rainbow so many times since moving to texas, on cloudy morning, sunny days, and stormy afternoons. every time, i see the rainbow up in the sky, i am reminded of our awesome God, of the covenant he made with us...

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenenat between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creature of every kind on the earth."--Genesis 9: 12-16.

It's Finally Here!

姐姐送給我們的鋼琴終於運到了!
這台鋼琴真的差點讓我們倆個抓狂。。。

還在st. louis的時候就已經試著把它從加州運到我們家，錢先付了，可是三個月過去了都還沒去加州pick up。打電話去問都只有answering machine。到後來，連Zozo也跟著我們禱告，讓這個issue能有好的resolution。雖然事情很frustrating，可是我們知道這是神的帶領，鋼琴沒送到st. louis省了我們再把它搬到德州一次，而且那次也讓我學習處理麻煩事情，讓我面對一個人賣房子碰到問題的時候不會那麼沒經驗。

可是這次要再arrange運鋼琴一次，我還是很擔心，一直拖到很多人開始跟我說Zozo如果還不學琴的話，以前學的就會忘光了，我才硬著頭皮找moving company。這次雖然是送到了，可是也不是那麼順利，pick up時間拖了幾個小時，星期天接到超rude和threatening電話說星期一或二就會送到，we'd better be home to receive it。真是廢話! 我們花了那麼多錢把它運過來，難道要把它丟到路邊嗎?!星期一等到了下午接到電話說星期三中午會到，那天老公就work from home, 結果到了下午都沒消息，打了好幾通電話才說星期四下午一點會到，我就乖乖的在家等了一天，老公下午又arrange work from home，結果兩點接到電話說晚上七點多會到，結果也沒有，又是好幾通電話後，到了晚上十一點終於來了，好脾氣老公居然跟他們吵起來了，結果消氣後又跟他們道歉。(後來我還發現老公把我鎖在房間裡，真得很protective!) 等到十二點，鋼琴終於美美地擺在客廳裡。還好早上小孩子看到後蠻高興地!

謝謝姐姐那麼慷慨，把鋼琴送給我們。也謝謝nephew S and A那麼討厭練鋼琴，還特別寫email給我叫我趕快take that thing out of their sight，所以我們才有這台鋼琴!

by the way, this is what we found in the piano. how long has it been since they touch the piano to not know these things were sitting inside??!!

現在的功課是要找合適的老師。

跳! 跳! 跳!

今天Bobo的體操課同學都決定不穿T恤上課，我看了覺得很好笑，五歲的小男生大部份都瘦瘦地，看到的都是排骨 。

我真得很technically challenged，居然把相機拿錯方向，本來想說算了，不放上來，可是Bobo真的蠻可愛的，就請將就一下把頭往左邊歪一下看這個video，


他在trampoline上練不同的jumps, 後來還有練翻筋斗，結果相機就沒電了，told you i was technically challenged!

After School Science Club

this is the first year that 2Z are able to attend after school clubs. both of them chose to go to science. there are six club meetings for each session. for the first session, the kids got to learn about the human body, from the skeleton to our internal organs. after each lesson, they brought home things that reinforced the lessons. it was great to see them learning stuff that i would've found difficult teaching them myself. the take home stuff, though, were less to be desired.

the first week, the kids brought home glow-in-the-dark skeletons. they had a blast with these things and took them everywhere. they only stopped playing with them when they started losing pieces of bones.

then, the kids brought home very realistic looking hearts. they were squishy and sticky, and when thrown against the wall, left very obvious red marks. we had to throw out Z boy's fake heart after he got all sorts of nasty grime stuck on it. amazingly, Z girl's little heart is still intact, sitting on top of her dresser in the little box she made for it.

the nastiest thing they brought home were the little tubs of large and small intestines. the more they sat in the tub of water, the bigger and more orange the model got. 2Z put these tubs in our breakfast area so that everytime we sat down to eat, we got a full view of them. after about 2 weeks, i finally asked them to throw it out. they parted with them very unwillingly!

in the final week, the kids had a review of all the lessons they learned. they put together a puzzle of the human body. the heart, the lungs, the stomach, and intestines are all underneath the rib cage. this picture doesn't show the true size of the puzzle. they are actually kid-sized posters.

the kids had a blast attending the science club. they always came out of the lessons with huge smiles. it's so great to see their interest in science piqued at this young age. the next session will start soon. we can't wait to see what they'll learn next!

Conversation at dinner

Z boy: daddy, you are 33 and mommy is 35.

B: yes, mommy is 35 but she looks 25.

Z boy: no, she looks like 25 million!

B: son, i think you better go to bed early tonight.

State Fair

美術館的活動結束後，我們想說既然到downtown dallas了，就去看看state fair到底有什麼好玩。結果就像一般的fair，有很貴的食物，很貴的遊戲，一些表演，和一群動物，只是這個fair很大，因為everything is bigger in texas!

走來走去剛好看到中國武術表演，第一個表演是舞獅!Zozo和Bobo坐在地上看得津津有味，叫都叫不動，我們就只好站在大太陽下把45分鐘的表演看完! 後來又看了車展，帶Bobo去看他最喜歡的jeep wrangler，結果太多人了，後來他看到rock climbing也太多人了，B就選了一台卡車讓他們上去過過癮。花了好多錢去玩games，只換到幾隻超極小的stuffed animals，看他們的表情還是很滿足。

後來又坐了一些ride。fair沒什麼限制，媽媽和Zozo坐了個叫lovebug的ride--就是在快速繞圓圈而已，Bobo堅持要和爸爸坐甩來甩去的海盜船，才一開始他就變臉了，死命地抓著爸爸，還好沒有大哭。本來想拍下來的，可是船實在甩得太快了，一點都照不到

以後可能要過很久才會想再來玩，因為除了很大以外，真得沒什麼特別。後來在教會才知道住在這裡很久的人都不會去!

Dallas Museum of Art

星期六我們一早就帶Zozo去參加brownie的field trip. 我和Zozo去參加美術館的活動時候，B帶著Bobo到附近走走散步。

the girls learned about wearable art around the world. some of the things they saw included jewelry from southeast asia and skirts, capes from africa. at the end of the trip, each of them got to make masks which is probably Z girl's favorite part of the whole trip.

星期六根本不想一早就出門，所以拖拖拉拉才急著出門，結果忘了幫Zozo梳頭。一整天就這樣披頭散髮!

Zozo真得很有美術細胞，每次帶作品回家，我看了都覺得好棒。 這個面具也蠻有創意的!

這是我們第一次去這裡的美術館，可是陪著一群小女生沒辦法花太多時間好好地看看，不過下次一定要花多一點時間仔細地吸收一些文化。

生日快樂

十月二十二日是Zozo和Bobo在台灣奶奶的生日，所以他們在這裡祝她生日快樂!


p.s. 也在這裡祝加州的荳媽生日快樂。

Gymnastics Routine

這次放兩段給大家看。 昨天天氣很好，小朋友們就在我們家後院玩，我看到Zozo和K又再做他們自己編的routine，就趕快錄下來。





真得很好笑!

小男生是鄰居的小孩，是個體操選手! 我們搬進來的時候，他手上裹石膏，是練體操摔斷的，最近才拆掉。之前都不知道他們會這樣玩，是老公前幾天發現的，那時候還有另外沒學過體操的小男生一起跳，害我們在房子裡偷看笑得肚子痛。

乖乖

小時後在台灣的時候，我最喜歡的零食是乖乖，每種口味我都喜歡。到了我是teenager後，st. louis才有商店開使進口乖乖，那時候，每次陪媽媽去買菜，一定要買幾包。

上週六，我們去一家新的亞洲supermarket，我看到一堆不同口味的乖乖，就選了幾包草莓煉乳的，結果Bobo看了跟我說我拿錯了，乖乖應該要有一個little man。他自己選了巧克力和椰子口味，包裝上都有乖乖man。

i was so touched that he likes 乖乖 and recognizes the little man on the package. he likes the same things that i did when i was little! it makes me feel that he has a bond with my heritage. i love that even though he's born and raised here, he's still exposed to things of my childhood through the benefits of free trade!

One of My Favorite Spots

this post is for julie who wants to see more of my house. this is a little walkway that leads to the master bedroom. the door on the right is the coat closet. the door on the left leads to our room.

the cabinet holds some of our cd and dvd. the piece of art is an imitation of the window frames in traditional chinese buildings. i lugged two back from taiwan last year when we went for a vacation. they used to go well in our old house but now only one fits in this spot. i am considering painting the window frame dark brown to match the media cabinet. i really love orchids. however, the pot of orchids is fake since i have only succeeded in killing live ones.

降價了

我們以為再也看不到兩塊以下的油價了，結果出去玩回來油價就一直下降，昨天看到這個價錢高興死了，油還蠻多可是還是去加了一點，說不定明天就漲了。

So proud of her...

我這懶媽媽經常都不看小孩子帶回家的一堆papers。星期五在等接Zozo和Bobo放學時，忘了帶書看，只好拿起前一天的一疊紙來讀，結果發現Zozo這個月被選為gymnast of the month。we are so proud of her!

Floor Exercise

今天Zozo開始練習floor exercise的routine。一群小女生一起練習，好可愛喔! 等我把相機弄好要拍的時候，就只拍到最後一點，結果Zozo看了這個video說我沒有錄好。這個routine好像是要年底表演，那時候B一定會拍好一點。

我們的秋假

今年是我移民到美國二十幾年來第一次過秋假(fall break,) 不知道德州為什麼這麼特別，可是也是最後一次，因為州政府取消這個假期了。我就利用這幾天假帶小孩子去南加州看哥哥全家，也去disneyland和legoland玩，也許是the other way around，哈哈。雖然有一個禮拜的假期，我們只去了四天三夜。B不能去，所以還是不要分開太久。

第一天到了加州，先去吃午餐，然後就去laguna beach玩。 Zozo和Bobo一看到海就衝進去玩，完全不在乎身上穿的不是泳衣，到最後還在海裡滾來滾去，弄得全身濕淋淋，黏滿沙。nephew M只在沙灘上跑來跑去，不願意碰到水，還是他比較愛乾淨。

第二天，我們去legoland玩，天氣很舒服，人又不多，每個ride都不必等太久，玩的好快樂。 只是兩個小孩都不夠高，很多ride都要有家長陪，害我重複坐了好幾次，那時候特別想B。我們玩到關門才離開。晚餐去荳媽介紹的馬家，真得不錯吃，只是小孩子們實在太累了，吃不太下，我們就把一桌的菜打包回家當第二天的消夜。










本來沒打算去disneyland的，可是嫂剛好有多餘的票招待我們，所以第三天就去玩了一天。Zozo看到了她的最愛--Ariel!
這次小孩子都比較大了，就可以坐一些比較刺激的ride。最刺激的是splash mountain! Bobo坐在最前面，本來他很興奮地，結果衝下水幾次後，把他的face paint都沖掉了，他的結論是一點都不好玩! 我們坐的最後一個ride是winnie the pooh，坐到快結束的時候就壞了，後來我們是走出來的。我覺得蠻好玩的，第一次那麼近看那些set up。

最後一天除了要去吃拉麵外，就沒其他的計劃。早上讓小孩子盡情地玩，中午出發去買些東西和吃麵，本來要去的那家人太多了，等下去的話怕會趕不上飛機，(加州的traffic實在太可怕了，連週末都塞車。) 哥哥就改帶我們去mitsuwa。到了我才發現是荳媽介紹過的火頭山，麵好不好吃呢?不知道，因為被小孩子吃掉了，我是吃別家的蛋包飯。



這幾天的假期真得很快樂，Zozo和Bobo還是跟nephew M相處的很好，也看到超級乖寶寶nephew J長大好多，真得很謝謝哥哥和嫂嫂的招待。we'll return the favor when you guys come for thanksgiving!

還有更多的照片在這裡。

傢俱到了

今天新沙發送到了! 念大學的時候，就很想要pottery barn的傢俱，現在夢想終於達成了。可是沙發送到的時候，我第一個反應就是想要大笑，新的沙發跟我們另外一套幾乎一模一樣，只是size比較小一點，oh well.

現在需要買一些抱枕和毯子來accessorize我們的沙發，希望會很好看。

明天要去玩了，可是我好像生病了，從昨天開始就鼻塞，喉嚨痛，加上全身無力，B說可能是過敏，不是感冒。希望真得是過敏，這樣到加州後就會好了。

照片來了

上星期收到Zozo和Bobo的school pictures了。跟去年的照片比起來，兩個人真得長大了好多。Zozo的照片跟我在家裡照得差不多，可是Bobo的照片就太好笑了，難怪照像那天，他的老師跟我說他要學會怎麼smile without shutting his eyes!

Zozo今年的照片...去年的照片...

Bobo今年的照片...去年的照片...
這些照片的quality不太好，我是用相機照的。本來應該用scanner，可是還沒把它裝起來。將就一下，至少這樣不必等我把照片寄出去。