1/28/1956 - The Epilogue of Huaxu Village

 January 28th

The Epilogue of Huaxu Village

The village located on the top and side of the earthen hill next to Kowloon Tong Railway is called Huaxu Village. I came here for the first time in the winter of 1950. It was Guocai Li, Lin Yang, Di Yi and me, who first built houses with wood and thatches near the brow of the hill. As the days passed, more and more houses were built in the village. There were 2 major fires within the last year, but none of them spread to the hill. Thus, more and more small houses appeared on the hill. Guocai Li's small house in Huaxu Village was halfway up the hill, and its door plate set by the government was No. 21.

The wooden houses in Kowloon, Hong Kong, were mostly burnt, and until today, only few of them still remain. Before noon, I reached there, and it’s all changed. Houses down the hill were all burned out, and those along the hill path are being torn down today. Only Guocai Li's house is left! All the other houses on the hill are gone, only his house stands there, but of course, his house is also just waiting to be torn down.  This makes me recall that the first house five years ago was Guocai Li’s, and the last one standing today is still his. I went there by accident today, and what I saw reminded me about what I wrote above.

I was looking through my old photo album and found this newsletter from my short term missions trip to Shanghai in 1995.

Tales of a Ninth Grade Nothing

Because Jacob  is very small and skinny for his age, but full of talent and enthusiasm (biased mom writing here), he has a knack for getting into gripping dramas that only happen to him, particularly in P.E.

Yesterday, they were starting a new session of basketball in P.E.  The teacher divided the kids into two groups.  Teachers never spell out that one group is advanced while the other group is for the beginners, but the kids always know.  As always, Jacob gets put in the group with the "band kids" (the ones that, at his school, are allowed to and want to opt-out of 1 semester of P.E a year), and the other small kids.  Meanwhile, the basketball team members, the football players, the tall boys, and the boys who are well-built but have never picked up a basketball in their lives, ie. the swimmers, are in the advanced group.  Jacob is miffed about his placement, but accepts it as normal that he always gets placed in the "beginners group".

The teacher announces that they are going to do a dribbling drill.  He demonstrates a drill where the kids dribble the balls between their staggered legs, dribbling the ball side-to-side as their legs switch places between dribbles.  This is something that Jacob could do with his eyes closed.  The challenge is to see how many dribbles they can get in 30 seconds.  The teacher mentions that in the earlier period, someone, probably from the "advanced" group, got 41.  Meanwhile, the band kids are getting 5, the swimmer in the advanced group gets 10.  The tall basketball forward gets about 20. The numbers are low because a lot of kids spend their time chasing the balls that fly out of their hands and roll into the rest of the gym.  In fact, in the beginners group, there are particularly many balls that are rolling around the gym floor.

However, Jacob gets into a great tempo.  He exceeds 60 dribbles in a minute, and is glowing with pride. Suddenly a ball from one of the beginner boys comes flying out of nowhere and knocks the ball out of his hands. He stops at 61 but knows he could have hit 70 otherwise.  Still he sets a class record and is extremely proud to show the teacher that size doesn't mean anything.

Object Permanence and Fun Childhood Memory

When I was growing up, I was really slow in understanding the concept of "object permanence", which led to some really bad littering, like even at the age of 6, I loved to throw trash out the bus window because "it just disappeared". But it also led to a very fond memory.

I remember this awesome game of hide and seek I had with my brothers when I was 6. I decided to hide in a wonderful spot behind the bundled up curtains of the shower, surely with my feet sticking out of the bottom. My brothers came into the bathroom and I heard them whispering to each other . The next thing I know, they were both saying,"Where's Elaine? How did she just disappear?" and reaching around the shower curtains, always missing me. Meanwhile, I was screeching loudly with delight with each of their questions and movements. This game lasted for 5 minutes until finally they left the bathroom in despair of not finding me, and I re-emerged happily to tell them where I was. They both acted so surprised and I was very happy to believe them. Even now, I like to believe that they never found me. However, as an adult I still try to hide behind curtains when I play hide and seek with my family, but unfortunately, James and my kids have made it clear that this hiding spot just isn't as magical as it used to be.

Forcing my son to solve a Rubik's Cube

In 1981, when I was 9 years old, in 4th grade, the Rubik's Cube was very popular.  My brothers, who were 5 and 6 years older than me, bought a book called, How To Solve a Rubik's Cube, or something like that.   I decided to read that book and was able to solve Rubik's Cubes in about 1 minute.

At my elementary school, for some strange reason, no one else knew how to solve it.  I told them it was as simple as  reading a book and that they, too, could have a solved Rubik's cube without having to break apart and resnap the pieces together, or peel the stickers off and restick them on.  However, instead of reading the book, they all decided it would be easier for them to just give their cubes to me, and then I would just solve it for them.

Of course, everyone at school thought I was super smart, but I really didn't think that was the case.  All it involved was remembering the steps, recognizing the patterns, and applying the formulas.  How I wish that I were smart enough to solve an entire Rubik's cube without being shown the formula!

Come 2008, Jacob is in the 3rd grade now, and I thought it would be a good time to teach him to solve the Rubik's cube.  I showed him over and over and over how to just make 1 face, but he couldn't do it.  He had no interest, or it just didn't click.  I was really worried because getting 1 face is very intuitive.

Perhaps 3rd grade was too early to introduce it to him?  Perhaps he just had no interest and I can't force him to learn anything?

I couldn't remember the name of the book that helped me, but in this age of information, I did the most natural thing which was Google the answer.  Sure enough, we found a good website that I was able to use to step through and solve a Rubik's cube.  However, Jacob was still confused. 

So I gave up.

Then when my daughter was in 3rd grade, I tried again with her.  I also tried again with my son who by then was in the 6th grade.  My daughter was able to get a face now.  So was my son.  But neither of them were interested in learning how to solve the entire Rubik's cube even though there were so many solutions online.

So I gave up again.

Then suddenly, last week, Jacob, who is now in the 8th grade, had a sudden fascination with the Rubik's cube.  I'm not sure what website he went on.  It might even have been YouTube since he seems to learn everything on YouTube.  He solved the Rubik's cube, and his goal was to solve it in record time.  Then he started researching all the different ways to solve a Rubik's cube to learn the fastest algorithm.  1 minute was way too slow for him.

He started researching different types of Rubik's cubes.  He discovered 4x4x4's and 2x2x2's.  He begged for a new Rubik's cube.  One called a "speed cube", and I was able to bribe him to do some extra chores before I ordered it for him.

Last night, he also found instructions online about how to make a 2x2x2 Rubik's cube.  He spent a couple hours of his free time working with duct tape, paper, and strings.  And voila! A beautiful, workable Rubik's cube.  I was quite impressed.

And of course, the first thing he said was, "I can't wait to show my friends this at school tomorrow!" (But that's a different story)

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting to see how much more kids can accomplish when the interest and motivation comes from within themselves.  I'm curious to see what Jacob and Joanna are interested in next.

Chocolate Milk is Back!

I can't believe it! Yesterday, Jacob told me that there was a big sign posted outside of the cafeteria that said that chocolate milk would be back on Fridays. Woo hoo!!!

Preparing the kids for an emergency

Me: If something happened to me and I was unconscious, what would you do?
Joanna: Call 9-1-1
Me: If I weren't home and there was a fire, what would you do?
Joanna: Do we have a fire extinguisher?
Me: Wrong answer.
Joanna: Stop-drop-and roll to the phone and call 9-1-1
Me:Wrong. Just stop-drop-and-roll out of the house and call 9-1-1 at a neighbor's.... If there were a burglar in the house what would you do?
Joanna: I'd kick him and punch him and tell Jacob to call 9-1-1
Me: Wrong.
Jacob: I'd hit him with a bat and tell Joanna to call 9-1-1
Me: You guys. There are FIVE exits in our house. Just get out of the house and run for help.

Jacob: And let him take all our stuff?

Me: Yes!  And let him take all our stuf.

..... Anyway,at least they got the 9-1-1 part down.

This is the email I sent to my friends when our group was sold to Magnum Semiconductor in 2007 and I hadn't yet decided to join them

I can’t believe today is my last day at LSI.  It’s been 11.5 years, almost a 1/3 of my life!

This is just a short list of all the great things I'm going to remember you guys for:

Dee - for organizing all the wonderful events and activities, the cookies, and for being Dr. Dee
Mark - a great director, showing great strength and wisdom technically and in leadership
Paul - organizing my bridal shower, baby showers, being a great listener and devil's advocate
Kevin - being a great manager , fun and accommodating
Dave - introducing me to sardines, almost buying one of my visors, and writing great specs
Keith - helping me debug waveforms when I'm totally stuck.  being lots of fun
Shinya - bringing zevio to life, my favorite project at LSI
Tim - for your funny comments, nice postcards, and smart answers to all my technical questions
Avinash - great conversationalist,  making the lab a better place to be in and helping me a lot in there,
Ben - being my legal counselor
Chester - $4000, being lots of fun to work with and talk with
Hongjian - pearl milk tea, Chinese lessons
Karen - giving me nice hugs, being a girlfriend
Stefanie - being cool and collected, inspiring me with your marathon training and your style
Marlyn - getting together all the nice cards, organizing some nice parties.
Kerry - getting me up to speed on Maiko validation. splitting that Jamba Juice coupon w/ me.
Sunny - always being so pleasant to be around
Rene - wonderful warm personality, caring and considerate.  stroopwafels, pool parties,
Tzong - being a nice guy underneath that tough exterior!  Never letting me forget to read the manual
Frank - being a reliable source of worldly wisdom and entertaining emails.

Thanks for all the memories!  It was really nice working with you all! 

I will keep in touch w/ you!

Jacob's 1st double blind oral challenge to peanuts

Hi Dr. Rubinstein,

Just wanted to thank you for all your support in getting Jacob into the Peanut Patch study by providing all the paperwork that he needed.

I wanted to let you know that Jacob had his 2nd visit to the Packard Hospital for the Peanut Patch study today.  It was one of two double blind oral challenges, and it was quite eventful.
Jacob ended up needing epinephrine, and it was administered while Dr. Hugh Sampson was in the room.

I am still in shock myself that Jacob deteriorated so quickly, and I feel bad that I ignored the symptoms.  In fact, even the nurse onsite didn't seem to think Jacob needed epinephrine.  It wasn't until the Dr. Nadeau and Dr. Sampson stepped into a room "for a picture" that Dr.  Nadeau told the nurse he needed it.  I am so glad they were in the room. I worry about how far Jacob would have deteriorated if we didn't give the epipen any earlier.

This is what the challenge looked like in case you are interested.
10:30 , we start the appointment and we overhear a nurse discussing with a doctor that a previous candidate had to leave the study because he vomited over the placebo.  Jacob makes a mental note that reacting to a placebo would be a bad thing.  I tell the nurse that his symptoms are usually coughing, and a red dot on his face.  I make a note that he has no cough and looks very healthy right now.

11:00 :  1mg of peanut protein/placebo in a chocolate pudding with orange flavor.  Jacob thinks he feels a tingle in his throat, but it goes away.  He also starts getting a feeling of "hunger pains" in his stomach.

11:30 : 5mg ...  throat tingle and tummy is hurting.  But Jacob doesn't want to "jump the gun" if it's a placebo.  Throat always seems to get less tingly after the initial tingly feeling.

12:00 : 10mg...  pudding starting to taste really bad.  I notice one sniffle, but that's it.  I notice left eye turning a little red.  Stomach still hurts, but we're still worried it's psycho-somatic.  I assure Jacob that if his stomach really hurts, he's probably having a real reaction.  Throat feels tingly and maybe a little lumpy.  I ask nurse who looks in the throat and notices a "tiny bit" of redness.  The tingly feeling seems to go away quickly.

12:30  : 30mg.   Jacob is really hating the taste of the pudding.  after eating half of it, he says he can't eat it anymore because it tastes bad.  I tell him that's not enough reason to stop eating it unless he feels like he is having a reaction.   He continues to eat it.   Doesn't notice anymore symptoms.  I start wondering if he has the placebo.

12:40 : coughing begins.  starts off slow but progresses in frequency.  We are becoming sure this is the real reaction.  Tummy hurts, and left eye is red, his body is itching.

12:50 : nurse comes in , hears the cough, and calls the oral challenge finished.   They give him Zyrtec and take his vitals.  vitals are okay.  Lungs sound fine despite cough.  Throat has no edema.

1:15   :  zyrtec doesn't seem to help.  Jacob starts asking me for more medicine.  I suggest Benadryl, and after consulting with the doctor, they agree to give Benadryl since we asked for it.

1:30   : Jacob is still miserable.   I tell him to wait till Bendaryl kicks in.  His condition seems the same to me.  The nurse listens to his lungs and hears wheezing.  She decides to initiate a breathing treatment.   Just at this time, I notice Dr. Sampson and Dr. Nadeau poke their heads into the room.  I run into the hallway to ask if I could get a picture with Dr. Sampson.  After the picture, they watch the nurse give the breathing treatment.  Dr. Nadeau starts talking about epinephrine.  She says Jacob needs it, so Dr. Nadeau holds the breathing treatment up while the nurse gets the epipen.  The nurse finally administers the epipen.  Jacob tells me he is so glad they did.  He feels better instantly.   Dr. Sampson and Dr. Nadeau thank Jacob for participating in the study and Dr. Sampson reminds me of the importance of giving the epi-pen because the symptoms have a snowball effect.   He pointed out that Jacob was wheezing and his eye was very red, and he was scratching all over his body.  They then leave the room to continue with the  original purpose of Dr. Sampson's site visit.

1:45 :  all vital signs are normal.  Dr. Nadeau steps back in to check on Jacob. Nurse confesses that it was the first time she ever had to administer the real epipen to someone (even though Jacob was probably her 21st double blind oral challenge).

2:00 :  all vital signs are normal.  Jacob gets his appetite back and eats a hamburger.  Dr. Wilson gives Jacob prednisolone and gives me a prescription for two more days of prednisolone for Jacob, which I am very reluctant to give.


Day 3 should be the placebo, which is next Monday.

Regards,
Elaine

Bubbles From Your Eyes

Jacob: Mom, I met this boy at camp who can make bubbles come out of his eyes
Me: Ewwww. gross!
Jacob: Actually, it's more like froth coming out of his eyes right here. (pointing to his tear duct)
Me: Ewwww!!!! GROSS!!!!!! REALLY GROSS!
Jacob: I thought it was cool. Auntie Linda thought so too when I told her. She doesn't get grossed out so easily. But she likes hiking, so she doesn't mind bugs and stuff

 

Like My New Haircut?

April 5, 2007

I cut it myself!  I cut it really fast and I cut it all off while
Mommy and Daddy were downstairs entertaining out-of-town guests,
thinking that I was playing quietly with Belle.  They didn't seem as
happy when they saw my new look.  I tried to help Belle cut her hair,
too, but her thick braids only allowed me to give her a nice jagged
trim on the ends.

Mom's pretty upset and keeps on calling it the "Chinese boy cut" she
had never wanted me to have.  Another auntie called it "Last year's layered
cut from China".  I was pretty upset when my first preschool teacher
found out I cut my own hair and told me I could have poked my eye out,
so I told all the other teachers the rest of the day that my mom cut
my hair.  That left them nice and speechless.  My Auntie Melissa came
over and figured out how to hide the damage and said the bangs remind
her of Audrey Hepburn in a famous movie, so now I can still be a
film-star.

I'm sure my hair will grow out by tomorrow!

P.S  Mommy says she's working on your thank you cards!  Thank you for
coming to my party .  She's glad I still had hair at that time.

Funny thing overheard on carpool

This past year, I've had the pleasure of driving my son and daughter and their friends around, and it's always so funny to hear stories from their perspective.   They always make us parents sound so unreasonable and tyrannical and I'm hoping they realize their exaggeration.  Anyway, I thought I could share the most recent story.

Jacob's friend W:  Whenever my mom is mad at my brother, she always takes it out on me, too, even though *I* didn't do anything.
Jacob:  yeah, me too!  My dad's worse.   He even gets mad at me just because his team is losing!  Like, yesterday, I was walking up the stairs to go to bed [while OKC was getting trashed by the Spurs] and he yells at me, "WHY AREN'T YOU IN BED YET?" and then I told him I was walking to my bed right now and then he goes, "WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS ARGUING BACK?"

 

School is for learning!

Last year, after a very disappointing 5th grade in which Jacob did not acheive honor roll because of his half-hearted effort, I had an incredible revelation.   Jacob did not understand that school was for learning!

It happened like this.  After shouting at him for a long time about why he shouldn't try to talk over his teacher while she was teaching, why he shouldn't be folding ninja stars for friends during computer lab, why his backpack should be filled with his homework instead of his Pokemon cards, I said, "Didn't you know that school is for LEARNING?"

Suddenly,he gave me this shocked and sheepish look.  It was like he realized for the first time that he had been off base for so long.   I think this incorrect mindset started in Kindergarten.  He entered already knowing how to read and write and add and subtract.  So Kindergarten, in which they spend a good amount of time introducing letters and numbers, was completely a review for him. However, the socialization aspect of Kindergarten was very rich, and he grasped onto the concept very quickly.

Fast forward to this morning, the last day of 6th grade, and alas, as he stormed out of the house to his carpool angry at me, I realize that he still has not learned the concept that school is for LEARNING.  Granted that I am not able to reprimand him with a sweet and gentle voice, which according to him, is the problem he had with me, but his reaction proves to me that there still is some wiring missing in his brain.

The events that brought me to this conclusion today is best captured in dialogue form.

05-23-12  I glanced at Jacob's preAlgebra test results and notice a glaring 60% on his Formulas Test among a list of test scores that are decent.

me:      Jacob!  Why did you get a D minus on a test?
Jacob:  I forgot about the test.
me:      What was on the test?
Jacob: I had to write down formulas for stuff, like volume and surface area for a cylinders and I didn't know we were going to have a test so I didn't study for it.
me:  Oh my gosh!  You couldn't DERIVE the formula for the volume and surface area of a cylinder?   There must be a gap in your understanding!!!
Jacob:  I know the cylinder one.  There were shapes like cone and triangular pyramid.
me:  You couldn't DERIVE the formula for the pyramid?
Jacob:  I could, but I was supposed to state the formula exactly the way she wanted it, not just add up all the sides.
me: All you had to do was review it ONCE before the test!  I bet when the teacher told you about the test, you weren't paying attention!  Tell me, what IS the formula for the volume and surface area of a cone and triangular pyramid?
Jacob: I don't know,that's why I got it wrong.
me:  Well, LOOK IT UP!  And you better tell me!

Then I get distracted by something.


5-30-12 
me:  Jacob, what is the formula for the surface area and volume of a triangular pyramid and cone?
Jacob:  I don't know.
me:  What??? I thought I told you to look it up!  Get a piece of paper , right now ,and draw a cone, a sphere,  and a triangular pyramid and write down the formula for getting the volume and surface area next to each picture.
Jacob:  <GROWL,WHINE, JERKING >  You are so mean!  I bet no other mom is making their kid do this right now.
me:  That's because all the other kids already KNOW IT! Do it NOW!
Jacob < GROWL, WHINE, JERKING>   Why do you make me do this?  It's not going to be on the Final!
me:  JACOB!  WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DO WHAT I SAY???  Do it!  Or you lose your birthday party this weekend!
Jacob :  You are SO MEAN!!!  Why are you always threatening to take away my birthday party!!!

10 minutes later he digs out some notes from class and writes the formulas down on a piece of paper.  I am too busy to review it, but I see the first one on the list,the sphere, looks right.

5-31-12  It is just before his final, and we are waiting for his carpool  I refer to the sheet of paper that had Jacob's formulas from last night.
me:   Jacob,what is the formula for the volume of a triangular pyramid?
Jacob: One third base area times height.
me:  Good!  And what is the volume of a cone?
Jacob:  I don't know.
me:  What do you mean you don't know, you just wrote it last night.  WAIT A MINUTE!!!  YOU WROTE IT WRONG ON YOUR SHEET OF PAPER!  YOU PUT THE VOLUME OFTHE TRIANGULAR PYRAMID FOR THE VOLUME OF THE CONE!!!!  ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS COPY THE FORMULA DOWN CORRECTLY. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO KNOWTHE ANSWER IF YOU CANT EVEN COPY IT DOWN CORRECTLY??
Jacob:  IT'S NOT GOING TO BE ON THE FINAL! WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS YELLING AT ME?
me:  I'm yelling because I am frustrated. I gave you a simple task to copy down the formulas.  I DON'T CARE if it's not going to be on the final!  You need to know this as a PERSON. 
< meanwhile, as I am yelling, Jacob is walking away, filtering me out>
me:  You get over here right NOW and tell me what the formula for the volume of a cone is.  How do you think I KNOW that you had the wrong formula for the volume of a cone?  Get over here right now or else I'm taking away your birthday party.
Jacob:  Because it was exactly the same as the other one.
me:  No!  How ELSE did I know?
Jacob: I don't know!!!!
me:  one third base area times height ,for the volume of a cone?  Tell me how I know it's WRONG!!!
Jacob:  Because it was missing pi ?
me:  YES!!!  How could you not notice that you didn't even have pi in the formula when there was something circular?  There should always be a pi!!!
Jacob:  Why are you ALWAYS YELLING?
me:  Because you don't listen to me!!!  Don't you even care that you got this wrong?  I am trying to help you!
Jacob:  You are such a MEAN MOM! You make such a big deal about something so SMALL!  It was just a careless mistake. It's not even going to be on the final.
me:  You are such a MEAN KID!  Jacob, this is the last day of school!  You are responsible for understanding all the concepts taught this year.
Jacob:  And why are you always talking about taking away my birthday party?
me:  Because it's the only thing that you care about!

Carpool comes.  There was more dialogue than the above, but that was the general idea. Jacob is furious with me and accusing me of being the most unreasonable mom in the world.  As his carpool drives away I shake my head in frustration.



------------------------------------------------------------
June 1st,
Hi Everyone,

I just realized I was the one that over-reacted!  Now I am embarassed!  It's just that Jacob does so many careless things, (like today, as I cleaned out his binder I found a one hundred point quiz he forgot to turn in!) so I thought this was another example.

When he said the volume of the cone was 1/3 BA * height , he was actually copying exactly from his notes.  I realized that BA meant area of the base, where as I thought B and A were the lengths of the base rectangle.  Except that a triangular pyramid has a triangle on the bottom, so i should have known B and A weren't the two lengths.

So what he was supposed to tell me in the next step was A = pi R-squared for the base area of a cone, which of course he knows.   But I started yelling at him before he could tell me that.  =(

Interestingly enough, when I was mad yesterday and wrote the blog entry, I wrote base area instead of B A as I was quoting him, because he said "base area" but all I saw was "BA" on his cheat sheet.

Thankfully, I didn't cancel the birthday party.  I just gave him a big hug right now and apologized.  Thankfully also that he is a very sweet and forgiving boy.

Interestingly, I asked Jacob why he didn't explain himself.  He thought he did something wrong,because he though adults were always right.

Joanna's Dr. Seuss Poem

The Lorax Comes Back

There I stood, I look at my hand, and gazed among the rocks and sand.
In search of soil or dirt and stuff, in search of a place with no muff.
Then there I spotted a patch of light, and planted my seed there, I waited for a sight,.
Immediately a sprout began to grow, I waited a while longer, it was no larger than my toe.
I watched every day for an improvement, but the sprout showed no movement.
A week later the sprout shot up, and there grew some Truffula tuff.
"A Truffula tree!" I cried with glee as Truffula fruits gave a tinglee-dee.
Then the Truffula forest came to my brain, and I gathered the seeds as fast as rain.
A forest I made! As the sky opened up, grass grewto a grassy glade. Then from a distance, I spotted something lining up. It was the Brown-Bar-Ba-Looks, all wearing a hack, and the Lorax and all his friends came back.

Prayer For a Lost Item

When I was in college, a Christian friend of mine taught me that God cares about us so much that He even answers our prayers to help us locate a misplaced item. Since I frequently misplaced my items, this was one habit I practiced, and I was amazed many times that God would care about helping me with something that seemed so trite. On one occassion, I remember fiddling with my engagement at work when it flew oof my finger, and I spent about 10 minutes looking for my ring. I decided to stop and pray and immediately, I thought to look under a rolling file cabinet, and there was my ring calling out to me.

Since I've had kids who also misplaced things, I have also taught this to my kids, though there were times when I was afraid that God would disappoint us. Instead, God has often delighted our kids that they were able to recover something they have misplaced, and it's been a good teaching point to them of God's grace.

Yesterday, we had another answered prayer. Jacob had discovered his i-Touch missing, and the 4 of us combed the house looking for it. We had all remembered seeing it lying on the shelf before the housecleaners came, so we decided either the housecleaners placed it somewhere for us (which is unusual), or they stole it (which is also unusual). Out of desperation, I called them on Wednesday morning, but they said they didn't know what I was talking about and offerred to swing by our house that afternoon to help us locate it.

Then at 11:00 , I receive an excited phone call from Jacob ( He had been home sick that day). He had found his i-touch. He said after looking for it in futility, he decided to pray, and the instant he finished praying, he looked up and saw it in a bin. The housecleaners had put it there. Since we had looked so many times there for his itouch but couldn't find it, we knew this was the work of God's grace. What a great lesson for our family!

Workaholic?

I just realized something. I'd rather work than do stuff I should be doing around the house... wash dishes, laundry, taxes, organize theplayroom, scrapbook, sit with my kids while they're doing piano. The only thing that beats working is playing volleyball! I feel guilty about reading books, watching movies, surfing the web. I do like playing with the kids or teaching them stuff, but a lot of times they're doing their own things. James is as much of a work-aholic as me. Sometimes I get pulled away because I have other commitments, like meetings with people, or Sunday school to prepare for. Anyway, I just think it's weird that when it comes down to it, I like working so much. It kind of reminds me of my friend Chrissy. When she was living with us for a couple of weeks, she was playing Sodoku on her free time. I think that's just like me wanting to add another feature to my model, right?

Chocolate Milk is Back!

I can't believe it! Yesterday, Jacob told me that there was a sign outside of the cafeteria that chocoloate milk is going to be served at lunch every Friday. Woo hoo!

I'm thankful to the nutrition person at SCUSD for being so open-minded.

Jacob's Equipment Fund Raising letter

Jacob's letter to the SCUSD nutrition coordinator

Dear Mr. Cordon,

My name is Jacob Yu, and I am the student council president of Sutter school. I was elected because I promised to look into bringing chocolate milk back. Many students voted for me because of this, so I'm writing this email to let you know why you should consider bringing it back.

I understand that you are concerned about diabetes and obesity, but I want to tell you why taking away chocolate milk is not the answer to this problem.

1. Many kids who aren't getting chocolate milk are not drinking any milk at all. Every day, my sister brings home 4 -5 cartons of milk that is unopened and untouched for my mom to drink. Even after that, there are still piles of cartons left alone on the table or thrown in the trash.

2. My sister chooses bag lunch at school because it comes with apple juice instead of milk.

Therefore, taking away chocolate milk means that kids are not getting the calcium, vitamin D, and protein that they need to grow to be strong and healthy. One in 5 kids are suffering from rickets because they don't get enough vitamin D. The protein in milk prevents obesity and calcium gives them strong bones. Apple juice is so much worse than chocolate milk because it has more sugar, and doesn't have any calcium, vitamin D or protein.

You might think that regular milk is a good substitute for chocolate milk, but you don't see how much is being wasted everyday. I know because I am at school, and I see that most kids are not drinking ANY milk any more. Please think about bringing chocolate milk back at least once in a while, like maybe once a week.

Sincerely,
Jacob

Our Children's Library ... or OCD ?

Or, maybe I should have titled this post Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, because this weekend, I spent it looking at my teeth thinking they're not white enough, and searching all over the darn house for Joanna's deck of 100 Beannie Baby cards that just disappeared! They are still missing, and I have combed through every inch of our house, and managed to clean out the playroom in the process.

Anyway..... this post was supposed to showcase the result of me cleaning out the playroom but I decided to focus on the library part of the playroom, because I am obsessive about books. I just love collecting them, and it's really hard for me to get rid of them! In fact, I have a box of my kids' favorite board books in the garage. But I have donated many other books simply because they do not fit in our shelves anymore. The one thing that balances my compulsion to collect books is my obsessiveness to stay organized. Otherwise, I would seriously be a hoarder. But I hate when I can't find something, so I like to have everything in the right place. In fact, I have begged my kids to stay organized. Last week, I told them, "when the house is messy, my life feels like a mess! I feel like I might need to find something important one day, but I won't be able to find it!" My kids don't like to hear me saying that, though, and always respond with, "It isn't true!" I have since confessed to them that I shouldn't be saying that. My life is richly blessed by God, and I should not feel like my life is a mess.

Anyway, let me show you my kids' organized library. The only thing I need to now is to alphabetize within the categories, but I might not do that any time soon. Also, I noticed that Joanna knocked down some books while I was taking the picture, so many of the books are kind of leaning to the side in a very unattractive fashion. Anyway, here are the categories.

1. fiction/ fiction series/ periodicals

2. general nonfiction/ science non-fiction

3. anthologies

4. informational books

5. Chinese books

6. Princess/ Fairy books

7. devotional books