趁著天氣還好，上學前給他們照了幾張相。現在兩個人對穿著越來越有主見，還好大部份的時間穿的都算正常，現在已經比較少有大熱天要穿雨鞋、馬靴出門的景況了。過了半夜寒流入境，氣溫降了三、四十度。早上起來看新聞發現很多學校都放假，小朋友的學校沒放，只好乖乖地送去學校。整個早上都只在報氣象的新聞，讓我以為路況有多差、多危險，結果中午去學校當義工的時候，發現只是濕濕的而已嘛! 可是已經有一大堆家長把小孩子接回家了，我做完後也就把小朋友接回家。大家窩在一起喝溫可可看卡通，就像他們小時候，好棒!
雪真得就只有這麼一點!下午新聞還一直在報天氣，連oprah也被取消改報氣象，真是好笑! 德州人是不是太大驚小怪了??!!
星期天下午我們趁著天氣還很好到了附近的一個公園去照全家福。本來是要去照相館的，可是每次照出來的都很不自然。後來聽朋友說他們家拿三腳架去公園自己照，我們就決定也試試看。
下午的時候太陽很大風更大，加上小朋友看到playground就沒耐心一直照相，所以就只有這幾張。看到照片發現Bobo的頭髮實在太長了，那天晚上終於說服他，讓我幫他剪頭髮，剪完還生我的氣，說太短了，讓他的疤露出來了。以前明明不在乎，到處給別人看，現在卻要蓋起來。重點是，我才修了半公分而已啊，頭髮還是很長地! 
第一次我們去醫院接小朋友，順便探望媽媽和小貝鼻，每個人都抱了寶寶一下，Bobo好興奮，看他的表情，so precious!
星期六和另一對夫婦去了一個好玩的餐廳gatti town。基本上是一個給小孩子玩的dave & buster，門口有小火車讓小孩子坐，Bobo和Zozo可能就做了四次，進去後有pizza & pasta buffet，吃完小朋友就開始玩電動玩具和其它的遊樂器材，也可以看電影或sports games。還有免費的face painting，其實是要付小費的，實在畫的好棒! 我們忘了帶相機，所以回家才照!
our first thanksgiving in texas greeted us with wonderfully warm weather. the temperature was warm with a slight breeze. we decided to take advantage of the good weather by taking a trek through a natural preserve here in our fair city. we brought along our little friend to take in the natural beauty. the kids had a great time looking for clues of the whereabouts of bobcats. i, however, would rather not have a close encounter with any of the wildlife!
we were so busy eating that i forgot to take a picture of the food. raymond's grandmother made dumpling by hand. each one was about twice as big as the frozen ones we ususally eat. it's been awhile since we had fresh, homemade dumplings, and we throughly enjoyed every last bite of the meal. for dinner, we headed over to our english pastor's house. there was great food and good company. then there's another thanksgiving potluck at church friday night. i think we've been eating thanksgiving meals and sharing for two weeks now. all in all, it was a stress free holiday for us except for all the weight we are putting on our bodies!
when we were looking for a house here in texas, the first thing i looked at was whether my dining room furniture would fit in the space. out of the 25 houses i looked at that one day in may, this house was the only one that fit the need. our dining room set was handed down to us from my mom. even the flower arrangement was handed down but suffered a great deal in the trek down from missouri. i haven't been able to find a suitable replacement. i know what i want in my head. i just haven't been able to find all those things in the stores.
this is the first room to be completely organized after we moved in. the reason may be that it's purely decorative. we never use this formal dining room. our china cabinet is filled with our books since we don't have enough room in this house to store all of our books. the buffet is pretty much empty since we have more cartoon character spoons and forks than fine silverware. i hope to put this room to more use later but right now, i am just glad that there's one room in the house that stays pretty much clean and organized most of the time.
今天早上去教會前，Zozo自己精心打扮了一番才出門。
這套衣服是她自己挑的，我本來很反對小女生穿這種小外套，可是今年覺得她長大很多，穿這種衣服沒那麼怪，結果每次去買衣服她都要這種的top。她自己還配了一條項鍊和小皇冠。出門時已經快遲到了就趕著上車，她還說忘了擦口紅，(我只讓她擦無色護唇膏，有差嗎?) 我覺得好好笑，小女生這麼急著長大，我也開始擔心老化了。
what did we see that day when the kids and i came home from a playdate? B sitting at the breakfast table, working hard on designing the cardboard guitar. he sure took this project ultra-seriously! upon completing the design, B and the kids headed to the garage to work on putting the guitar together. No one even wanted to come inside for dinner. 
B說我們該買新的相機，看來真的是時候了。
兩個人上床後沒好好睡，偷玩了多久不知道，把他們的baby blankets和兩支stuffed狒狒都掛起來了。看來，這週末要來一次大風吹，把兩個人的房間改一下，才能一人一張床，減少玩耍的時間，增加睡眠的時間!
"Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay." Ruth 1: 16b. 
我和B很喜歡樊谷的畫，我們一起買的第一副畫就是starry night的print，也許Zozo就是經常看才畫的那麼好。
前幾天參加姐妹會的時候，第一次吃到這種飯。我沒有recipe，只是看了有什麼料後回家自己煮煮看。不知道為什麼飯裡面有香腸，剛好Bobo喜歡吃，所以我也加進去，煮好了看起來像油飯。
Bobo今年還是當red power ranger，每年都是red ranger, 可是都有點不一樣，我想今年是他最喜歡的，因為有一個披風! Zozo是Barbie Pegasus的公主，是千挑萬選的costume，小女生真得意見越來越多，不巧手的媽媽只好一個website接一個website地讓她選。我想明年她就不會要dress up了，很多小朋友都沒有穿costume，只玩game和拿糖。
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...
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。
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.
