Alumni Performance

Emily performed as an alumni for the first time!

We had students from the Class of 2000 to Class of 2015.

At the last KHA Band Awards & Concert, we had a total of 20 alumni and former students come back to perform for the very first time. A few of whom have not taken out their instruments to play since their 8th grade Band Concert. (My daughter would be one of them!)

It was one of the best highlights of all our years at KHA.

They performed with the current KHA band of 24 students (in white polos).

The alumni are wearing shirts from their current schools either high school or college.

They performed outstandingly! KHA's band director, Tony Bolivar, was so proud of his current and former students!

The Highlights of "Star Wars Saga"

"Best Day of My Life"

"It Is Well"

Sadly since the Middle School will be temporarily suspended, there no longer will be a KHA Advanced Band but I hope that the Alumni will be invited to come play annually! It'll be the only opportunity for Emily to have to take out her clarinet and play!

The Last Mile

My last Jog-A-Thon was in March. We met our goal of $10K by raising $12,676 for classroom enhancements such as interactive magnetic white boards, in-class libraries, tech centers and charter buses for field trips.

Thank you to all of you who supported her!

Hannah raised $595 and ran 22 laps in 30 minutes. That's almost 3 miles!

My cohort Brad Monk, KHA's Athletic Director, oversaw the event by keeping the kids running the whole time!

It is bitter sweet to say good bye to KHA. The Middle School will be temporarily suspended starting  next year so Hannah will be going to a new school next year to finish out her junior high. She will start a new adventure in August. Stay tuned!

1 out of 5

Hannah's middle school went on a community service project back in January. They volunteered at the Alameda County Community Food Bank where they bagged oranges for 2 hours. They bagged 8,065 lbs of oranges which will provide about 6,700 meals to the local community.

Food bins that go out to businesses and organizations to be filled.

One out of five residents in Alameda County receive food from this organization. They serve over 116,000 people a month and depend on volunteers to distribute the food to the needy.

Hannah and her classmates bagging oranges.

For every $1 donated, the Food Bank can purchase $6 worth of food. They have that kind of buying power. Their goal is to rid hunger in the county and they do that through buying second hand or irregular produce and foods that the grocery stores don't want to purchase.

The bagging part of the warehouse.

They receive fresh produce daily so volunteers are needed daily to sort. The sorted foods goes out to organizations within 48 hours. Other foods that come in the donation bins also need to be sorted.

The warehouse is like a Costco but it never stays filled. It empties out within 2 weeks. That's how effective the Food Bank is.

The Food Bank has a huge freezer to accommodate all the fresh produce.

Outside organizations like churches, and community organizations come to the Food Bank to gather food to distribute to the needy. Most of the needy are not the homeless but regular families that live paycheck by paycheck; who need to pay their rent or electricity rather than purchase nutritious food for their families.

Our whole family went this time.

The ACCFB also provides food in mobile trucks that go to local schools to distribute food to needy families.

Emily and some of her youth group with Pastor Doug

In May, I took some of our church's high school students along with some people in my bible study along with Matthew's small group to do what we can to help our community.

Matthew with his friend, Gary

We bagged apples, corn, cabbage and carrots. The Food Bank strives to provide nutritious healthy food to their clients. The don't accept candy nor soda donations.

If you would like to donate, know that for every $1 you give, they can purchase $6 worth of food.
http://www.accfb.org/

Ten Years Ago

It is a tradition that our church, FCC  take formal portraits in honor of Mother's or Father's Day.

Mother's Day 2006

Ten years ago I was an extremely tired and busy mother who's time revolved around a potty training toddler and a half-day preschooler.

Mother's Day 2016

Fast forward to today, I still am an extremely tired and busy mother who's time revolves around volunteering and teaching at the school of a middle schooler and planning the 'future' of a high school freshman.

Mother's Day 2010

I'm still working on how to balance work-volunteer-home-family-wife-mother-ministry duties along with losing all the baby weight (how long do I have?), curbing the graying, hair loss, dementia and wrinkles and carving out some desperately needed 'me' time.

Mother's Day 2016

People ask.. "When are you going back to work full-time?"

My response!? "Full-Time? I'm turning 5-0 this year! I'm thinking about retirement!!"

Happy Mother's Day to you all!

Hi-Tech Sushi

We finally hit a new kind of restaurant! Our Buffet Club Pres and VP recommended that we give this one a try. Now I'm not too into those sushi places where all the dishes are the same price. Not because of the cost, but because of the quality of the food. I remember we ate at a place where all the sushi was $1.50 a dish. Well.. all I can say is you get what you pay for.

This new sushi place was $2.25 a dish. I was a little hesitant because that is still cheap for sushi. But I did not have to worry.. everything was delicious!

Our godson, Kyle was home for spring break from Cal Poly SLO, but his sister had to go back to college thus she's on the phone her mother is holding.

But the kicker wasn't only the cost nor quality of food but the hi-techness of the way the food is served.

They had a nice variety of sushi: cooked and uncooked.

All the tables were against the assembly line of sushi that you can grab whenever you want.

If you don't see what you want or want it be made fresh, you can order it on the iPad that is above your table. After you order it, a few minutes later it comes zipping down the conveyor belt and stops conveniently at your table.

The soups came locked with a lid. No spilling!

Once you have finished with your plate, you dispose of them in the plate chute which is also located at the end of each table. Efficient huh? No need to flag down a waitress to take your plates, nor keep them all stacked up to calculate afterwards.

I wonder what it looks like on the other side of this chute.

The computer keeps track of all your plates. And after every 15 plates, you get a free Hello Kitty surprise toy!'

We had 48 plates.. but at $2.25 each it's not a bad price!

Now you may think there isn't anyone waiting on you but there are. They fill your tea or water cups or if you order ramen or something that isn't on a small plate, they can take away those plates.

Their ramen was surprisingly very good for $4.80 a bowl. My girls loved it!

Overall, it was a must-try experience and the food was really good.  I was glad that we got to try it with my cousin and her family!

NOTE: BIG downside to this place was the wait. We arrived 30 minutes before it opened to put our name down and the first page and half of the 2nd page were already full. We had to wait 2 hours for our table. (Arrived at 11 ate at 1) They don't take reservations and it always a ton of people waiting at the door. No big tables. I think a max of 7 (which was our party) was the biggest they could accommodate if we wanted to sit together.

Kula Revolving Sushi Bar
19600 Vallco Pkwy
Cupertino

A Soft Opening

New restaurants are opening all over the Bay Area. We know this because of our friends, Grace and Owen, who frequent these new establishments for free. They go for free because they are invited to their 'soft' openings.

A soft opening is when a restaurant opens to a select few, usually friends and family of employees, to do a trial run,  to get the kinks out before officially opening to the public. Now I'm not sure if Grace and Owen are actually related to anyone who works at these restaurants but they get invited for some blessed reason.

And so did we.. through them!

So this new year of 2016 we got to eat at the new MOD Pizza in our town for free!

And we invited our friends, Scott & Helen

It's pretty similar to Blaze Pizza and Pieology but with a mega size pizza option and milkshakes.

The kids ate everything and loved the unlimited drink station.

It's the new trend of make-your-own pizza. It was good but nothing different from the others.

Thanks Buffet Club Pres and VP! Until we eat again...

Gratitude IMHO

As the year comes to a close, I want to have a positive outlook on life so being thankful is a huge way of thinking positive. There are many things I am thankful for but here are five that I'd like to share for this year..

1. Service Dogs

Paddy (left) and Gilda (right)

These dogs are not only cute and loving but they have a seriously big job to do too. Paddy is a 3-yr old grey standard poodle and she is a 'peanut dog'. Her job is to sniff out peanuts anywhere. She keeps her owner, 11-yr-old Nathan, safe because he is highly allergic to peanuts. She goes almost everywhere with him: school. church, playdates, vacations. You might think this is highly odd but let me tell you, I wish I had Paddy with me a few weeks ago. But I am getting ahead of myself (see #4 in this post)

(left) Anatoli-from Gilda's 2nd litter this past April and (right) Darth from her 3rd litter this past October

Gilda is a part lab/golden retriever and she is a breeder dog for the non-profit assistance dog organization, Canine Companions for Independence. All her puppies become assistance dogs all over the country. She is three years old and has had three litters of puppies for a total of 31 puppies to date. Our friends, Amos and Laura, care for Gilda and volunteer for CCI. We watch their puppy-cam and see the puppies grow up right before out eyes before they are given to the agency to start their training, placement and work. We are honored and privileged to know and love these dogs and I think the girls get more excited to see them than their human families! LOL!

2. Books

This is Emily's current To-Read stack.

I cannot do without my books. And I'm happy that my firstborn agrees with me. I didn't get to read as much as last year but I am thankful that I do have the time to squeeze in and do what relaxes me the most other than sleeping!

3. Movies and Family

Watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens with my extended family

When I was growing up, we would watch movies on the weekends at my aunt's house. My cousins especially love watching horror movies which to this day I abhor! And I'll tell you why. My cousin Andy scared me to death one late night when we were watching either Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street. But I do like action movies. When we were all in college, my siblings and cousins would all go see a movie on Thanksgiving or Christmas. So while our parents were cooking dinner, we all went out to see a movie. We saw the Star Wars trilogy, Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible and even Mosquito Coast. That was over 20 years ago.

Now many of us are married with families of our own and when I heard that Star Wars Episode 7 was coming out,  I knew we had to see this all together as a family. We all bought tickets online back in October and came out two hrs before the show started to get seats for all 18 of us. This was an early 8:30am Saturday morning! It was a great movie and great fun to see it all together.

4. Kaiser Permanente

Hannah getting strapped in and transported by ambulance to Kaiser SC; settling in her new room in the PICU

Earlier this month, Hannah had a severe allergic reaction to eating a dumpling at a Chinese restaurant. Unbeknownst to anyone, it must have had some residual peanut something because she immediately had swollen lips, a stomachache and a tight throat. We already know she is allergic to peanuts but she always felt better after I gave her benedryl. It didn't work this time. After consulting with our friend Patrick (Paddy's owners dad), I took her into Kaiser's ER. They immediately zipped her right into a room and gave her an epi-pen, breathing treatment with albuteral and doses of benedryl, steroids and zantac through an IV. The swelling on her face decreased and I hoped she was on the road to recovery.

I was instructed to stay for 8 hours to make sure the allergen is out of her body and that she doesn't have another reaction. I brought a book and was ready to settle in. An hour later Hannah complained about being itchy all over her body. We noticed that her legs were getting red and hives were bubbling up. Then she vomited. So she got another epi-pen dosage, and another set of IV meds. She got over 100 ml of benedryl in her little body. So if you get two epi-pens it means she needed to stay overnight for observation. Since our Kaiser did not have a Pediatric ICU we were transported to Kaiser in SC by ambulance along with a doctor (we got the director of the PICU), a nurse and a respiratory specialist. The care she received from Kaiser was top notch. I am very thankful for all the doctors and nurses who cared for her.

5. The Power of Prayer

You'd think I would just freak out from this hospital visit for Hannah. But I didn't. I was calm throughout the whole time. How? I totally think that it was through prayer that I was so calm. Lots of people were praying for me and Hannah. Our request was even shared at the pulpit by one of our pastors at church on Sunday. I know that anything health or medical related I would worry about because it was something that was out of my control. I couldn't fix it. I knew that I had to depend on someone bigger than me or the doctors to help. Ask for prayer because it's literally the best gift anyone can give you. Prayer never hurts. It always helps.

Well 2015 has zipped by so quickly. I look forward to the new memories 2016 will bring!