Mommy's First Day of School

There were no tears.  I did that last Thursday!

Mommy's First Day of School was all about efficiency.

I had a schedule.  It went something like this:

45 min - walk

45 min - eat breakfast while answering personal e-mail/facebook/etc

1 hr - Editing for La Lume

30 min - Marketing for La Lume (Facebook/blog/website work)

30 min - Lunch

1 hr - organizing (my whole house needs a good organizing session)

1 hr - cleaning something (bathrooms/floors/etc)

Pick up Michael

It goes surprisingly quickly.  I am really good at wasting time if left to my own devices.

BUT - then we found this chair at Ikea on Labor day Monday:

And it was $119.  I need 2 chairs for my living room, which I could only find for a minimum of $250 a piece at Marshalls.  I needed 2 matching ones.  I'm sure you can imagine that 2 matching chairs at Marshalls is almost equivalent to winning the lotto.

Much less 2 chairs that would have arms and be comfortable and make both Brian and I happy.

This Storsele chair is sold out at every ikea within an hour and a half drive from me.

EXCEPT ONE.

So for Michael's first day of school, I jumped in the car and drove to South Philly's Ikea to buy 2 of their 8 chairs, because that's what the website said was in stock.

First of all, it's an hour and a half away.  Second of all, it's in awesome south philly.  Not.

What was AWESOME!?  I got a "Big Breakfast," which was 780 calories and a free cup of free refill coffee for $1.99.  $2.15 with tax.

So I spent the entirety of the first day getting these 2 chairs, which I love.  I don't know, something about them excites me!  I got 2 plaid cushions at Ikea, which were marked down:

  And I bought these 2 pillows to go with it that has all the colors in my living room:

I don't think it would be an exaggeration if I said that home decor is taking over my life right now.

Brian said to me, "I don't care how much it costs.  I don't care of it's regular price.  GET THIS HOUSE DECORATED."

With house guests coming for the next 2 weekends, I will be obsessed with this, Discussion group leading for MOPS, and La Lume.  Sessions don't edit themselves!  :)

So I spent Mommy's First Day of School at IKEA and then came back to call all my peeps in my discussion group for MOPS.  DOne.  And a super unproductive day for my first day of school.  The next several days were much better!

P

First Day of School For Michael!

Today, Michael had his first day of all day Kindergarten!  I just wanted to take a second to write down some conversations we had today!

His Grammy asked him to remember 3 things he learned today.  Michael answered:

1.  To push his chair back in under his desk when he is done.  If he notices someone forgot to push their chair in, he should help that person by pushing it in for them.

2.  Be polite and kind to others.

3.  These are the rules.  There are more, but he couldn't remember.  Apparently rules were a big deal today!

Michael told me (on the way to school) that he really didn't want Veggie Straws as his snack.  That's crazy talk right?  RIGHT?  :P  He told me his teacher said that if he didn't like his snack, he could put it back in his bag and take it home to eat.

Michael asked me if he stayed at school for 3 hours today - because it sure felt like it was a long time.  I told him he stayed at school for 7 hours today, and he has been telling everyone in an incredulous voice:  "I STAYED AT SCHOOL FOR SEVEN HOURS TODAY!  Can you believe that?"

He told me about the story they read today about a cat who went to school.  He really liked it because he recounted the entire story to me.

He played tag today at recess.  There was a new version of freeze tag, but I can't remember the name of it.

You are not allowed to say, "Oh my God" or "Oh my gosh" at school.

He rested on his rest mat by closing his eyes and laying still.  Some girls fell asleep and the teacher had to wake them up!

He saw Abbey.  He said Hi and she waved back.

They went to recess TWO times today.  (that was a hit!)

When I picked him up today - he RAN toward me super fast with a huge smile and gave me the biggest hug.  Sometimes, I don't take pictures because I want to savor the moment in real time.  This was one of them.  He wasn't as enthusiastic to see me after his mini day of school last week!

At Home:
This morning, we read from a super cute kids' devotional that I found at a small used bookstore in Milford, PA:

We read one every morning at breakfast as a peaceful way to start our day.  I really love this devotional because it relates stories of the bible in a way that makes sense to 4-7 year olds and also is entertaining! Michael LOVED it and we did 3 of the 52 this morning at breakfast.  I will be making prayer popsicle sticks next as part of our morning prayer basket idea that I found on pinterest.

When we got home, we started a French tradition, which I love called "gouter."  Everyday after school, the French kids would crowd the boulangerie and purchase an after school snack.  We did not have croissants so we settled for Pez.  Hey, it's sweet and a treat!  DONE!

So we both had gouter and shared about our days, and I can already see that it is a tradition I want to continue - and will make it harder for me to go back to work!  I don't want to miss gouter!  Tomorrow, we are off to Giant to 1) do grocery shopping and 2) get croissants for gouter!

So this was the day for Michael.  I'll blog tomorrow about my first day of school!  :)

First Day of School - August 30, 2012

Yea...yea...I'm a blog slacker.  But this stops after Labor Day because....

I'm spending my days with my little guy, these precious last summer days.  I've been going to bed early because I'm fatigued, run down, and apparently old now.  So that leaves me almost no time to do anything.

So blog posts are the first to go.  But I can always catch that up. I can't always spend time with my funny little boy:

He woke up at 7:18 today for a 7:30 departure time to get to school around 7:50 for pictures.  You can thank mom of the year here who kept him up until 11pm Tuesday night, then took him to Dutch Wonderland Wednesday and kept him up until 9:30pm.  :)

Michael is such a trooper though.  He has been so excited about school and has met his teacher, Mrs. DeColli, many times now!

With Daddy:

And Mommy:

The Hillegass Family arrived at the same time with Liam, who will be in Michael's class:

They are the family Michael played light sabers with until 2am.  We are having a great time getting to know them!

Checking out backpacks for the first day of school:

Parishioners were so cute telling us, "Just wait until they go off to college!"

Here he is, about to go in:

Very welcoming this school seems:

Michael had no trouble going into the school!  He has been in Sacred Heart School about a billion times because we're always in there for Liturgy of the Word with Children, school board stuff, craft fairs, everything!  I hope he has a great day today!

Brian and I peeked into the classroom and saw Michael playing with the little guys there.  Each table had a white paper bag, and I caught him peeking into it.  :)

This morning, I had him answer some questions for a back to school interview I found on...wait for it...pinterest!  Funny answers there!

His favorite game is:  SCRABBLE (what?  Not Pokemon?)
   **we spell words like "to" and "cat" **

Three words he chose to describe himself:  Crazy, Tall, with Stinky Feet

Least Favorite Food:  Cucumbers

His Favorite Book:  Llama Llama Misses Mama
   **  sniff - it is about a little llama who misses his mom when he is at school.  **

Which brings me to how I coped with today.  I have been R.E.A.D.Y for Michael to get to school!!  I can actually have a coherent finished thought without 50 questions about what I'm doing (Mommy - why are you using that pencil?  Do you like pencils?  What is on that sheet?  Why do you have to turn it in?  Is it important?  Will you play with me?  What color is your pencil? for example)

When I think about how Michael is so excited to go to school and how much fun he will have, my heart fills with so much joy and happiness for him!

But then - I spent all day yesterday at Dutch Wonderland with him doing whatever HE wanted to do.  And it makes me remember all our, in hindsight, carefree days in Paris.  When we would wake up, go to the park, come home and eat lunch/nap, go back to the park in the afternoon.  When life was simple and all about hanging out with Michael.

And then I realize that yesterday was it.  The last day before the whirlwind of real school starts.  The schedule with the soccer games, swim lessons, school all day everyday, and missing my little boy like crazy.  And knowing that my years are beginning to be numbered with him at home with me.

And then the water works start and I am surprised at how quiet the house is and how much I did like having 50 questions asked while I did things.  And how I can't even type a complete sentence.  Just a bunch of partial thoughts.

And I am so glad I stayed home.  Because it DOES go by so fast.

I was talking to Tara (pictured above), who also told me, "There will be no tears for Liam when he goes to school!  I am ready!!!"  She was a bit watery-eyed too and it made me feel better to know I am not alone.  I was telling her my thoughts above about Dutch WOnderland and had to excuse myself to go to the Nurse to drop off Michael's epipen.  It was getting a little dusty there...

SO there - First day of School.

Businesses to Avoid

There are several companies that I refuse to do business with.  Here they are:

• DELTA AIRLINES
• Overbooked our flight, but at least flew us first class to Munich. 
• Found a news story about how their sandwiches had needles in them.
• That's it, but that's enough for me.  Being purposefully overbooked on a flight is really enough to set me over the edge.
• Dollar Car Rentals
• Selecting from the available rental cars at IAH - one of the cars looked like it had been in a wreck with strange dents and scratches along the left side of the car.
• The car we DID pick seemed fine, but ended up having reliability issues starting.
• Our exchange of rental car could have gone much more smoothly, but as it stood, we were happy to have a working, albeit stinky, car for our 10th anniversary vacation.
• Mountain Star Lodge in Austin/Lakeway, TX
• They had the most awful customer service to our friends, Brent and Tracy.  They rented a house on their property.  Upon arrival, they found mouse droppings ALL over the rental, particularly in the soap dish and bed linens.  When they complained to the manager, she gave them a tremendous amount of attitude and basically told them they were gecko droppings and therefore sanitary.  When Tracy tried to stand up for herself, the manager basically said she could either check in or check out.
• Our hotel sink had a huge hunk of tile missing from the front of it.
• The water pressure was pretty crappy in the shower.
• The breakfast is horrible.
• Our friends got locked out of their room because the bracket on the inside of the room closed on the knob on the door (you know, the extra security measure they usually have at hotel rooms).  When they asked for assistance at the front desk, they even had a TOOL used in that situation so it must happen often.  However, the front desk person didn't help them at all.  She basically gave them the tool and left.
• I asked her what ended up happening to our friends who couldn't get in and she basically went on a HUGE tirade about another set of clients who were complaining about the price of the hotel.  Uhhh....that's NOT what I asked about.  But thank you for speaking unprofessionally about a guest to another hotel guest.
• Considering they are as expensive as the four star Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental hotel smack in the middle of downtown Austin, this place is an absolutely awful value.

That's it for now.  More on Austin next.

ATX Via College Station, TX - WHOOP!

My parents graciously watched Michael (took some arm twisting...NOT) while Brian and I ran away to Austin for Brent/Tracy's long awaited wedding!

We had a super fantastic time reliving old memories!  It was a much needed vacation that we enjoyed immensely!

First up - a trip to College Station

{insert college station exit image here}

We drove by our old stomping grounds, Zachry, only to find a brand new building in its place.  We couldn't believe they totally renovated Zachry.  Then we drove another 50 yards, and Zachry appeared BEHIND the new building.

WHEW.  Room 119A, where we met, was still in tact.  We wandered around the old building and couldn't believe how we did not notice how "old" it was when we were there.  I guess that would have involved us looking up from our books, calculators, and engineering paper.  Or had something else to compare it to!

Well, we took a picture of us outside of it in remembrance of many hours spent there:

{insert pic of us outside of Zachry }

We then wandered to the "something to compare it to" building, which is the new Jack E. Brown Engineering building.  Most of the 6-7 floor building is used for Chemical Engineering purposes.  It even has a CLEAN ROOM!  WOW!  I was pretty excited about that.  For those who do not know, a clean room is what they call the manufacturing/fabrication facilities of memory.  Multiple layers of filters above the ceiling and below the floors keep particles from contaminating the wafers, which kill the memory chips.

After wandering around the campus, I thought it was so funny that as a college student, I felt like it was SUCH A LONG walk from one place to another.  As a grown up now, the campus isn't as big as I remember it in my memory.  AND the sidewalk next to the Chemistry building is A LOT cleaner than it used to be!  :)

We then had lunch at Freebirds and came back to a rental car which wouldn't start.

Many phone calls later, we were going to have to wait 3 hours for a tow truck to switch out our rental car for us.

Luckily, Brian tried the car again, and it started.  So we drove to Austin Bergstrom (my favorite airport by the way) and switched out our car.

For the record, AVOID DOLLAR RENTAL CARS at all cost!  While their customer service representative was very helpful in the event of our malfunction, the 2nd rental they gave us reeked of smoke.  They also promised it would be clean and ready to go when we got to ABI.  They also promised we wouldn't have to wait a long time at the kiosk. But it took us nearly 40 minutes to switch out our car.

Might I also add that Chantelle, who helped us with exchanging our vehicle out, was mighty lucky that I had a pretty craptastic and stressful week.  Right before my vacation, I had to have to this talk to myself:  "Phuong, just because things don't work out how you would like them to work out, does not mean you get to be disrespectful and take it out on innocent bystanders."

So by the time our rental car didn't start, I had already hashed things out with my lab (although I was nicer to them because I need to have a good relationship with them), the UPS customer service people. and Armstrong Cable at 10:00pm the night before my departure.  Chantelle escaped the stressed out me.

I can say all this because my blog is locked to the public.  In case you are wondering why - I have a photography business.  You google my name, and my personal blog pops up.  I'd like to keep my personal life personal.  Thus, I locked my blog.

ATX coming up next!

Rehoboth Beach, DE - Pronounced REHOBUTH

On June 15, 2012 - we decided to take one of Brian's Summer Fridays Off to visit Rehoboth Beach, DE.  Since we only live 2 hours away, it is silly that we have never gone before!

We met a MOPS/Bible study friend, Heather, there.  Her family owns a cute little cottage there!  Her son, Gabe, is really fun and SO super smart.  He's been reading since the last year and he's only one month older than Michael.

Not too happy about the hand holding, but they are 5 so I'm not going to stress out about it...yet

The waves were HUGE HUGE HUGE that day. 

Michael ran away from many of them:

Then there was time for getting buried in the sand:

Might I add - HAPPILY buried in the sand:

The sea was angry my friends, and it was SUPER SUPER Windy.  We used our umbrella for wind shelter instead of sun shelter. It was SERIOUSLY warm there in that shaded part under the umbrella:

We spent the whole day walking to and from the beach, exploring the boardwalk, playing in the sand, splashing in the water!

Heather was a great host!  It was awesome to just park at her house, and walk to the beach.  We even got to shower at her house.  It was so convenient!  And of course, she was great company along with Gabe.

We stopped at a BBQ place and had semi-mediocre BBQ at exorbitant prices.  Then, stopped at Rita's before heading home.

Judging by this picture, Michael had a good time:

Fun Family Field Trip!  Unfortunately, my closest Hobby Lobby in Dover was closed by the time we drove by after 8pm.  :(

Bows and Arrows!

Michael asked me for this crazy bow and arrow set with soft squishy arrows at a specialty toy store - It was $30.

$30 is a toy for Christmas, Michael.

Well, a friend of mine had it at her house and she said she got it at the local huge awesome grocery store for $19.

SOLD - Let's buy 2 - one for Abbey and one for Michael to play with.

I meant - one for Brian and one for Michael.

Here is Brian taking aim:

Very unusual choice for artillery replacement:

The boys taking aim:

First target practice:

I made a HUGE target practice that consisted of 6 rings made out of pool noodles.  Found the idea from Family Fun and it was a HUGE hit!  Never took pictures of it though...

Pest Control

I know the cynical parent - might think the "pests" I am talking about would be the kids in the backgrounds of this picture.

But I am not the cynical parent.  Nope, not today.

Chopsticks can be used for multiple applications other than eating.  We have used them to grab many a thing in tight spaces.

Brian Mr. Miyagi-ed this crazy looking spider.

It is worth it to enlarge these pictures if you want to really get a good look at things.

I LOVE how the kids wanted to get in the background and do silly things. It is so awesome to have them around!  Thank God for my Nifty Fifty (50mm f1.4) and the ability to shoot pretty open.

This one of Abbey cracks me up.  And then my photographer-nerd self gets distracted by the awesome hexagonal bokeh at the top of the image...ooohh...laaaa....laaa...

Sweet summer days

I know I have probably said it a gabillion times, but I just love summer! Michael and I have been having some really sweet days and moments full of fun, hugs, and kisses. After our little rough spell there, we settled our matters and are back to having fun. I am a bit behind with my blogging because I took some pictures last weekend of our trip to rehoboth beach and various other activities. But for now, I wanted to write some things down before I forget. Last week was VbS at our church. I helped with snack. I am loving this helpful personality that Michael is starting to develop. Every morning he came in and asked to help with certain short tasks. One day, it was unwrapping tootsie roll wrappers. Another morning it was watching the huge drink jug get filled and telling us when it was full so we didn't have to stand there and watch it while it filled with water. I am thinking watching water boil is about the same thing. Yesterday, I was having trouble sanitizing my hands while holding all my stuff and Michael said to me, "mommy, let me hold your stuff for you so you can do that easier.". Without being asked! I am just so impressed with this. We want to encourage finding ways to be helpful without being asked so we are glad to see this come out in him. While we were eating lunch yesterday, I hear Michael say to brian:"daddy...daddy...hey dad." No response. To which Michael switches to: "tatdatahtadapolkadotafrotadatadafrocircus" from madagascar. Brian whips his head around and says, "hey Michael! What do you need?" Wow - apparently that's the way to get Brian's attention! While at the mall yesterday, we ran into an aggie family! Their son played soccer for Texas a&m and they lived in round rock! Small world!

Uncle John - the Blog Master

So i was going to download pictures off of smugmug to blog about Christina's wedding with the cousins (Michael/Quinn).  It was going to be fantastic.

Thankfully, Uncle John already did it!  And he did a super job.  So there's no reason for me to reinvent the wheel!  Pop on over there to see 2 cousins partying hard at a wedding:
Cousins at Cousin Christina's Wedding

Thanks, John!!

7:30am - ish ; Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

Michael lost his first tooth.

He left it on my black granite island countertop.  I almost thought it was a nut and put it in my granola cereal to eat.

Thankfully, I didn't.  I moved the tooth to the top of our little stereo, where I will feel less compulsiveness to clean it.

For those of you who do not have black countertops, it shows EVERY SINGLE SPECK of anything and EVERY water spot.  I have to OCD clean it otherwise it looks like I just eat on my counters every day.

So the tooth made me twitch and want to get rid of it!  Now, it is safely under Michael's pillow, waiting for the tooth fairy to show!

Herr's Zoo Day

Yesterday, June 11 - Herr's Potato Chip factory hosts an annual zoo day.  There were animals to pet like sheep:

Rabbits:

Here's Michael grabbing his tail:

A strange pig with a mohawk:

Spiky turtles:

We sanitized, of course.  But only after Michael decided to PICK his nose with a dirty hand.  Had to clean out those nostrils with a wipe.

Let's not forget the Flemish Giant Rabbit:

Then there was tomfoolery in the form of games!  

Michael was pretty serious about this putt putt.  I had to tell him that it was on an incline so there was no need to strive for perfection in this instance:

The Franklin Institute (science center in Philly) had a booth where they put alka seltzer in a film canister, added water, and put the cap on, which results in a mini rocket:

Stepping back to wait for the reaction:

I was impressed they could find film canisters still!

There were long lines for everything and we got there right when it started!  When we left at 11:45am, it was PACKED.

We had to get some lemonade and fries though before leaving with Colin:

Colin is Michael's Wii buddy, and they are on the same t-ball team together!  Their friendship is interesting to watch and presents new parenting challenges for me.

It was a very fun morning followed by spring rolls at our house with our neighbors.  Fun day!

We were able to do spring rolls because we went to Philly for Chinatown!  We  had dim sum in Chinatown on Sunday at Ocean City! DELICIOUS!!!  Very good.

On the way there though - driving through the ghetto that is Philly - Brian got into a mini fender-bender.  He gets out of the car, approaches the driver of the car behind him and asks:

"Do you have insurance?"

To which she replies, "What's wrong with your car?"

We took that as a NO.

Luckily, there was no damage to either car, and we drove off to have dim sum.

Now, we have bees coming into our house from somewhere.  I have to get my bump removed next week.

One day, I'd like to cut a break if that's possible.  It would be nice to not be a grownup for a while.

Mulch

So we got us some mulch.  The thing with nature is that it is expensive.  Mother Nature does not mulch herself.

Going Greek!

Nope, I didn't become part of a sorority!  Instead, we all three (+Abbey) took a field trip to the Greek Festival in Wilmington yesterday night!

It was SO fun!  We usually NEVER go anywhere or do anything neat on Friday besides t-ball.  :)

The Greek Orthodox church in downtown Wilmington does a fundraiser once a year and throws a 5 day greek festival full of greek food/entertainment/kids games.

Let me tell you - it is a heck of a fundraiser because we somehow threw down $60 in one night.  CRAZY.

There were bouncy houses.  There were fun kid games (like air wiffle ball and fat cat, which is a throwing game where you toss bean bag sacks and try to knock over these stuffed fat cats).  There was very overpriced but good Greek food.  There was lots of Greek techno.  :)  There was Greek dancing.  There was Greek stands selling headbands, jewelry, and see through clothes with dangly clinky things.  I normally wouldn't have stopped, but I had a girl with me!  :)

We had a really fun time!  The kids had a really great attitude during the whole thing and gobbled up the delicious Greek food!

The whole event was a great time.

But what was really interesting to me the whole night was having Abbey with us because it really changed the whole dynamic of our experience.

Michael and Abbey had a great time playing the games together and doing the bouncy houses together.

She somehow noticed a woman wearing a cool headband with coins dangling from it so then we started shopping for that.

I took Abbey to the ladies' room.  Never ever taken a little girl to the ladies' room before.   Not that it's any different than taking a boy.

Michael and Abbey ran around together and had a great time.

On the way back home, Abbey actually asked Michael to repeat his first horrible joke.  Which had us in stitches because I couldn't believe 1) Abbey remembered and 2) his joke was requested.

Then Michael couldn't remember his joke, which was even funnier.

Then he told us a new one, which was equally as bad.

But the two of them cutting up in the back had Brian and I just laughing up front.

And it made me a little sad that I'll never know what it's like to have a family greater than 3.  I'll never know what it's like for us to have 2 kids who play together, joke together, and make us all laugh together. We'll never get to have another personality to know.

And then I think how God must have known that and had us live where we are living for a reason.  I wanted to go into a new housing development.  But those doors were shut to us pretty quickly and this was the easier option at the time.

What were the chances that we'd move next door to another Asian/American mixed couple with 3 wonderful children whose mother teaches at Michael's school next year?  In the middle of nowhere.  Whose daughter would be one of Michael's favorite people.

And so He gave us Abbey.  Who for some reason likes to hang out with us.  And for whom we are grateful.

Christina and Matt's Wedding Day - May 19, 2012!

The weather could not have been more perfect for a Houston wedding in May!  Sunny, gorgeous and highs in the 80's!!  

Here's Michael and the flower girl:

They did great!  And since they knew all they had to do was walk down the aisle and sit down, they practically FLEW down the aisle!

Here's the beautiful bride with Uncle Jerry:

Presenting The Schwegmans!

We had a great time being there!  I can't imagine being The Mom one day with a son who is 34.  Looks like it's a lot of fun!

Especially when you introduce Uncle John in the mix!  We missed Uncle Bill/Aunt AK/Aunt Kelli:

Here is Michael, playing around:

He did great with the pillow, especially since it held his great-grandparents' wedding rings.  *sniff.*

Here he is.  Not too happy with the posing, and I wish I had been more forward to step in and say, "No, this looks so stiff and disjointed.  Let's channel our inner Kate Middleton's gorgeous wedding photo with her jr. attendents please."

But I am happy to have a picture and I didn't want to step on any toes and be THAT Asian Photographer.

Aunt Sally and Uncle Bob with the lovely bride and her groom:

Christina being gorgeous:

Michael got himself stuck in the pew somehow:

Here he is trying to impress Uncle John who is a kind and patient man:

More pictures next!  I don't know how I didn't take any pictures of Quinn!  I am not a good multi-tasking photographer.  I knew I was taking pictures of Michael as ringbearer and that's all I did!  I will download pics from The Mom's smugmug album and post some reception pictures and our ONE family picture of us all dressed up.

HRMPH.  SO miffed we did not get a family picture.  I tried to do it at my house before we left and it just didn't happen.  I tried to do it before the ceremony but it just didn't happen.  There is a reason I have a tripod and just do it myself every year because if I want it to happen, I am the only one who can make it happen.