How They Mock Us

My oldest two have a new favorite game these days. One of them (let's say my daughter) will start by counting to some random number.

She: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven...SPANKING!
They both laugh hilariously.
He: one, two, three, four...SPANKING!
Both laugh hilariously again.
She: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven...SPANKING!
More hilarious laughter.
He (faster now): one two three four five six seven eight...SPANKING!
Rolling on the ground laughing.
She: one...SPANKING!

This goes on until they're tired of laughing. Even my youngest laughs because she likes to copy them. Well, at least they're united and not fighting like usual.

Another New Year

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone. Watch out, all my friends out there who are the same age as me (that would be 24), because it's supposed to be a bad luck year for us. How could Year of the Dog be bad luck for a Dog? Doesn't make much sense to me, either. Hope y'all have a good one.

A Perfect Sunday

I can't believe how busy I've been the last couple of weeks. Between major chores, entertaining, and catching up on my teaching stuff, I don't even have the time or energy to blog anymore. Thankfully, my to do list is shrinking although there's still quite a bit on it.

Today has been a good day. We had a nice filling breakfast before church, unlike our usual eat-on-the-way deal. And church was really good. The message was about generosity, which is something I feel strongly about, and it was well delivered. I was riveted the whole time. One saying that I really liked was "God does not give you more to raise your standard of living; he gives you more to raise your standard of giving." I'll have to remember that when we strike it rich.

After church, we came home and had a leisurely lunch, then played until naptime. During naptime, I was supposed to go work out, but my class was cancelled so I went to plan B which was getting the car's tires rotated and balanced (what - that's not everyone's plan B?). The weird thing was that if my exercise class had not been cancelled, the tire place would've been closed by the time I got there. I can't help but thank God for preventing certain tragedy from happening.

Since my class was cancelled, I also had time to go to the grocery store and browse through the latest Brangelina pictures. I wonder if they made some sort of pact with each other: you leave your wife for me, I'll have a natural child for you kind of thing. Anyway, besides the normal grocery stuff I had to get, I also bought my favorite ice cream for a mere 50 cents. The quart was on sale for 2.50, but I had a $1 off coupon, which got doubled, so that left only 50 cents I had to pay. While the money saved is negligible, the satisfaction is great!

By the time I got home, naptime was over, and we rounded the kids up for dinner out with our friends Andrew & Heena and their kids. The restaurant wasn't so eager to have us, I think, with our 5 kids. But we stuffed ourselves anyway and had a good time catching up. The kids, too, are becoming fast friends.

So that's pretty much it. Nothing individually outstanding, but all together, it was about as perfect as a day gets: worshipping and learning about God, relaxing and playing with the kids, doing a productive errand, getting something good for dirt cheap, and then communing with friends. Actually, the fact that I didn't have to exercise made the day that much better. Top all of those things off with a wind-down blog and a few minutes of reading, and it just doesn't get any better.

Back to Work

Today's FAQ is: are you ever going back to work?

Yes. As a matter of fact, I started today. Through a bizarre and sudden sequence of events, I found myself in front of a group of community college students again tonight. I'm only teaching one lecture and one lab, but the hours are good (evening and weekend) and the money is better. It's been 3 years since I last taught, and I was off to a rough start because for some reason the duplicating office, which was already closed, didn't photocopy my syllabus, and the self-copier was out of paper. And then on top of it, I had to ask one of my students if I was in the right class because the department head said he was going to switch my classroom and then ended up not doing it. Because I was hired on at the last minute, I only had the textbook but no CD images (apparently no one uses overheads anymore), so the students had to rely on my scribbles and scratches on the board. They must've thought I was clueless. Fortunately, teaching is like riding a bike, because as soon as I opened my mouth, words gushed out (common even when I'm not teaching). You know how I ramble on about nothing sometimes? Well, I'm lucky my ramblings were on topic tonight. Seemed to work okay, though, because only one student fell asleep, and he later came up to apologize and blame it on his medication.

Ah, but it was great to be back. The rush that I get up there, the funny but inquisitive questions they ask, and their look when they finally get something they've been taught so many times before, there's nothing like it.

By the way, Lorna, I found your twin. Her name is Angela and she sits in the second row in the middle aisle.

Happy New Year

I know, I know, making New Year's resolutions is so blase, but hey, I gotta ring in the New Year somehow. Since I can't drink because of the kids, and I certainly can't stay out till past midnight also because of the kids, this will have to do.

Kevin and I actually share resolutions because they are so similar and we work on them together anyway. They are:

1. be better children of God
2. be better parents
3. be better children, sister, brother of our families
4. be better friends to everyone
5. be better spouses
6. try new business/career ventures
7. be more healthy

Really, most of these are the same resolutions as from previous years, but the key word is better. The resolutions are the same, but hopefully the results will be different.

We are already looking forward to some upcoming events in the New Year. Kevin's brother, Kevin's childhood friend, and my cousin are all getting married this year. My oldest will be school age, her brother and sister will be potty-trained. One kid will hopefully learn to play piano and swim, another will hopefully learn to stop having temper tantrums, and the third will hopefully learn to talk and feed herself. We might take a couple of plane trips, and we might go sledding and camping. Before you know it, you'll be receiving our Christmas cards again describing these very activities!

We hope the New Year brings you lots of good stuff to look forward to, too. Happy New Year!