New Addition(?) to the Family

I had always wanted a pet when I was growing up. We had fish (boring) and parakeets (a little less boring). Five parakeets actually. One after the other. When one died, my dad would get another one. They were kept in our living room and when they got too messy (or we were too lazy to clean out it's cage and area) we moved it into the garage. We were not a very pet-loving-family. I really wanted to have it sit on my finger and pet it etc.. so I'd always try to let it out of the cage (which I was not supposed to do.) It would fly around and always fly into our huge glass windows thinking it was a way of escape but it would just hit the window and fall onto the ground. Most of the time they would be okay but sometimes they would not. Then it was time to get another one.

We could not increase our pet variety because my mom was very anal about cleanliness. Especially regarding her home. She can be a bit OCD in regards to how she wants the house kept up. She was also very sensitive to smells. She's like a hound dog. We were also allergic to cats. So fish and birds were it.

Pretty depressing childhood huh?

So when I grew up and got my own place I told myself that I would get a dog! A dog shows unconditional love and affection, is fun to play with, and is man's best friend!

But when I got married and got our own home, I realized that it was hard enough to take care of a husband and a house. Matthew was a cat-person. He had three when he was growing up. He did not like how dogs smelled and shed. I did not like cats (allergic remember?). So no pets for us. Instead we had two girls.

The girls wanted a pet, especially Hannah. But my practical daughter, Emily, told her sister that she couldn't even take care of herself much less a pet. So Hannah became a stuffed animal owner. Lots and lots of stuffed animals ...dogs, bunnies, bears, giraffes, seals, horses..but no cats. Emily collects stuffed birdies! (surprising huh?)

These are just Hannah's Build-A-Bear animals.

So when we were asked by our good friends if we could take care of their bunny during Spring Break while their family goes to Rome to visit their daughter who's studying there, the girls jumped at the chance to have a real pet! FINALLY!

Now I was hesitant since we had never taken care of a pet before. (I mean we had a tiny turtle named Tuck that my mother-in-law got the girls a few years back in Chinatown but it died after a few days.) Our house is not as spacious as theirs so BunnYee (her name) could not hop around as freely as she did in her own home outside. Our backyard is filled with seeds.. and more seeds.. (due to Emily's multiple bird feeders). And I read that bunnies cannot eat nuts.. and seeds are a form of nut, I think. So we couldn't put her outside. Thus we needed to keep her indoors. But Angela assured me that she would be easy and non demanding.

Once Angela and Rachel came over with BunnYee's 'luggage', I realized I needed a much bigger space for her then just a 'corner' so she literally took over our living room.

Hannah playing on her computer AND keeping BunnYee company at the same time!

BunnYee loved hopping in and out of her little shelters.

I must say that BunnYee is THE most adorable bunny we have taken care of. (Of course she is the only bunny we have taken care of.) She is not aggressive (like some bunnies can be.. at least that's what I read). She just eats and poops all day long.

She is a Norwegian dwarf bunny around 3-4 years of age.

She is very very soft to pet and is as quiet as a mouse (minus the nocturnal running around sounds mice make when they are wake). Really... she doesn't make a sound (unless she's stomping her legs because she's mad).

The only real sound she makes is when she eats. Check out the video clip below. (Make sure you turn up the volume to hear her!)

Praying for her snack!

She just hops around and lounges around her caged area. The girls take turns lying with her on the blankets and she hops around them.

I was quite amazed with the sense of responsibility the girls had when given the opportunity to take care of BunnYee. Rachel (her owner) gave them specific instructions on how to care for BunnYee.

At 8:00am every morning she is to be given her pellets and to be let out of her cage. No later or she'll start stomping. Now this was Spring Break! Please... 8am to wake up? You're lucky the girls wake up at 10:00am on a Saturday! But lo and behold, Hannah woke up at 8am everyday without fail and without help from me to feed BunnYee. At 3:00pm, she had to be fed her romaine lettuce so we would always need to rush back home (if we were out) to feed her her afternoon snack. Her water had to be changed at that time and her hay pile had to be kept filled continuously. Her 'toilet' box needed to be changed and cleaned every other day. And the girls did it all on their own without my help nor reminder!

Below is a video Emily made in honor of BunnYee for Rachel while she was gone...

Now it looks like we are ready to get our own Bunny right? Nooooo... with our luck we would get an aggressive one that bites all the time and ruins my furniture. (I was told BunnYee likes to chew up electrical wires and towels.)

I'm good at us just being the official BunnYee sitter!

Ribboned Again

This year's ACSI Math Olympics was held at Chinese Christian School in Alameda.

Emily's classmates: Zainab, Caryn, Bryan, Charles and Mihir

Emily was one out of six chosen to represent her 6th grade class.  This year she was chosen to test in 6th Grade- Computation. (Previous two years she tested in Reasoning which she prefered.) She was a little nervous but did the best she could.

Emily receiving her ribbon from the principal of CCS, Alameda campus

Apparently she did well. She received a 5th place ribbon, (Charlies' from her class got 3rd). 

So very proud of her. This is her fourth year competing in the Math Olympics. And she ribboned in the last three years. Her strength in Math most definitely did not come from me...

Spirit Week

Springtime means "Spirit Week" in Middle School!

Emily is pretty much a shy introverted young lady but she does want to show school spirit.  I remember when I was in junior high I 'wanted' to participate but was not very creative nor my parents were very supportive... they could not believe that teachers would allow students to go school not looking like a serious student!

Monday - Nerd Day

The only time she's okay wearing her glasses. And yes,. they are her real prescription ones!

Tuesday - Crazy Hat and Hair Day

We added some purple hair extensions for the crazy hair...

... and a 1-1/2 lb nest on her head!

Look what a bag of Spanish moss, artificial birds, whopper eggs and a glue gun can make!

Wednesday - Neon Day

Target is Neon City

Thursday - Twin Day

Twin with Caryn again!

One funny twin.. was the Siamese 'Twins' Albert & Juan

Creative 7th graders

Tea for 5 and 1 Afar

My best girlfriends... whenever we gather together (which is not frequent since we all live in different cities throughout the state), we reconnect... and of course, eat!

We normally try to find some place that won't have a crowd and that we won't need to rush out. This time we went for American Tea. And we tried one that was close to my place.

They had a tub full of hats to chose from!

Delish food... cucumber radish dill and cream cheese, pecan chicken salad on wheat, artichoke cheese on baguette, spinach spankopita & mushroom turnover...

...and many pots of different teas: assam, belgium chocolate, darjeeling, tyme for tea blend with kiwi and strawberry, english breakfast are what we chose

We had only one missing member.. Lisa Y.. whom we toasted a very happy birthday to her from afar.

Marj & Lisa W.

Me, Susana & Koreen

I sent Lisa Y a birthday toast picture in her honor and she sent this beautiful response: 

Thank you!!  I am truly touched.  You all look wonderful!  Nice hats. :-)

Sometimes in a quiet moment,  I wonder to myself, "where is home?"  As I look at your kind, smiling faces around the table with your assorted hats on assorted heads I think perhaps this is what home looks like.

Let me take the opportunity to say this...

Thank you for the many years of friendship and remembering my birthday.  I may not be the "most" anything among us.  I am not the most thoughtful, that's Cez.  If you want to make sure an important date is remembered and celebrated appropriately I think of Cez.   I am not the most compassionate, that's Su. When someone is hurting and needs a kind word there is Su.  I am not the most knowledgeable, that's Koreen.  Every time I think "what the heck does that mean?",  I am always pretty sure Koreen would know.  I am not the one with the most warmth, that's Marj. When you see Marj, her big smile and infectious laugh always makes you feel welcomed. I don't have the most strength, that's the other Lisa.  Life is not always smooth but when I think of someone that carries on with grace I think of Lisa.  So, irregardless of my short comings I care for you all very much.  You can always count on me to try to do my best for you.

You are all a blessing.  Thank you. :-)

Love,
Lisa

I was literally in tears when I read this from her. It still makes me tear up rereading it. She described each of us to the tee... and how much we mean to one another.

Lisa Y: You are definitely THE most eloquent as Sus said and can accomplish ANYTHING you put your mind to!

Celebrating Lis's birthday in '09

It is rare to have find a friend that knows you so well that she knows what you're thinking by just looking at the expression on your face; she can finish completing your sentences before your own words come out of your mouth; and you can share in all honesty and vulnerability and know that your words are safe in her heart. Yes it is rare to find one... but to find 5?

Boy do I love these gals! I am truly truly blessed to have them in my life!

Our cruise together just gals in '06

Space ... the Final Frontier

Hannah's 3rd grade class took a field trip to the Chabot Space Museum.

She had a really interesting class lab where they learn "how to live in space".

She got to pretend how to repair something while wearing a partial space suit...

... testing how strong their lungs are in order to live and breathe to survive in space...

...testing throwing accuracy while wearing some non-normal eye wear...

... practice balancing in zero gravity...

... and being airborne!

Big surprise for Hannah.. her BFF, Marissa, from SoCal, was up visiting and came with her family to the museum to see her! Thanks Lisa for bring JD and Marissa to visit with us even though it was such a short period of time!

This trip to the Chabot Space Museum coincided with Hannah's 3rd grade Open House Project which was on the theme of... can you guess?  SPACE!

When Emily was in third grade she made the consellation, the Big Dipper. Easy design... simple materials... no mess! Daddy was happy!

Emily in third grade (which was the class that I taught!)

Hannah, on the other hand, wanted to make the ISS (aka International Space Station). She was very impressed with it when we visited a model of it in Seattle and Florida.

Here the girls are standing in front of a painting of it at Kennedy Space Center.

Hannah inside a life-sized model at the Seattle Museum of Flight.

Hannah with her version of the impressive ISS.

It was a little bit more complex but not too bad my husband said. Hannah did the majority of the work of cutting, painting and gluing. So glad I saved those paper towel and toilet paper rolls and egg cartons!

Pepper Lunch

... in the US! My ingenious husband found a location here in the States.. the only location actually and it's just 20 minutes from our house. (If you read my HK posts, Pepper Lunch was one of our favorite places to eat in Hong Kong.)

So off we went..

Faith and Hannah outside of the restaurant.

We were joined by our Buffet Club President and Vice-President and their girls. (We don't only eat at Buffets.. always on the look out for new restaurants.)

I ordered the beef pepper rice with egg.

Faith ordered the salmon pepper rice.

Hannah (and Emily) both got udon noodles.

Overall I enjoyed it. But it wasn't the same as HK. It's not peppery enough and they don't have a variety of sauces you can choose from. My hubby did not think it was up to the par with HK's version and it's way too expensive here as well!

The Experiments

KHA Science Fair had come around again.

This year all K-8 students each had to ask a question; create their own hypothesis about it; research it, create an experiment about it and determine what your results/conclusion is. That in a nutshell is the scientific method.

In Emily's 6th grade class each student had to create their own topic and display their steps and findings on a tri-fold presentation board along with a written report and oral presentation.

Emily's topic was: Do Different Color Feeders Affect How Much Birds Eat? (are you surprised that it was bird-related?)

Rachel helping Emily paint her feeders.

For one week, she put out 5 feeders (one control and 4 painted in different colors) to see which feeder the birds were most drawn to. Her hypothesis was they would be drawn to the green one more since it's the most 'natural' and familiar color to the birds.

Birdies eating from the red and blue feeders. Personally I think that it didn't make a difference what color the feeder was. As long as it had food, the birds went to it.

She was correct. And she received a Superior ribbon for her project.

All the projects were displayed throughout the Pavilion for all guest and parents to admire.

In Hannah's 3rd grade, the class looked at bread mold. The class divided into small groups to see how mold grows on different kinds of bread. At home, the students continued the experiment further by changing one variable from the classroom such as using a different kind of bread or changing temperature (putting it in the fridge instead of room temp) or light (putting the bread in a brown paper bag instead of a plastic bag).

Hannah took sourdough bread and put it in a brown paper bag in a corner of a counter. Her hypothesis was that mold would grow slower than the sourdough bread that was in her classroom since it was placed in the dark instead of the light.

Bread on Day 18!

She too was correct. Actually after 18 days her slice of sourdough bread still had no visible mold on it! (Hmmm..the bread was purchased from Panera Bakery. I am a little suspicious of this 'fresh' bread now that it had not shown mold in 18 days!)

She received a Science participant ribbon for her experiment. (All K-5 students get a Participant ribbon until they get to 6th grade).

Hannah and one of her group mates, Nicholas.