Christmas Eve

I've lost count...is this the 4th snowstorm of the season? GLOBAL WARMING!!! We are thinking of investing in a snow shovel. The boys are loving bundling up and sledding down a steep hill behind R's house. I've given up and handed over their freedom to go there unsupervised. I despise being cold. After missing 3 school days and being kooked up in the house for a week, our closets are looking pretty organized. I'm ready for the rain to come and melt all the snow away :) Merry Christmas!

Soccer season is over!

I really need to vaccuum out the car. The dead grassy leftovers are a constant annoyance! We get a little break from practices and weekend games, until January. Then I'll be the crazy mom in the bleachers at Basketball games. I'm anticipating that life will speed up from January to April. I'm psyching myself up mentally to work full-time, care for the household and haul the boys around to their extra-curricular activities. I did plant the seed in my husband's ear that if one person cooks, then the other person can clean up. We'll see if that seed grows or withers away.

J gets ready to score (he's number 3)- Left photo

Winds up the kick - Right photo


He misses (the story of the whole season)- Left photo P finds ways to amuse himself

Rainy Saturday

We had one of those days where the rain comes down hard, sideways, drizzly and stops altogether with the sun poking out. Typical Seattle weather...where I tighten up my hood, pull it off, unzip my rain jacket, zip it back up and the cycle continues. The whole time I'm walking the line at J's soccer game.

The Champions are improving and getting close to a win. The score narrows with today's loss 1-2. In the second half, I was screaming my usual encouragement when another mom walked my line. I had to step back because her yelling was actually dominating mine. Haha...I'm sure I sound exactly the same.

I spent the rest of my Saturday working on Flipcharts to help engage my students while learning. Flipcharts are kind of like the modern powerpoint presentations. I always try my best to add humor into my pages and tend to get carried away in my animations and silliness. But I think the students appreciate it :) At one point the power flicked off and I lost some data, I should of known to be cautious as I heard the wind howl outside.

I think Fall has arrived...

School Daze

These lovely blonds are my 4th grade team. The one expecting is my jobshare.

Here are the kiddos on the first day of school. Little J combs his own hair.

We're into our 3rd week of the new school year. There are days when I'm in a daze :) But life is slowing down. The week before school was spent each day setting up our classroom, while J & P were home with a sitter. My anxieties were the upcoming curriculum night but I put it in the darkest corner of my mind. It's funny how we can worry about things and they turn out absolutely fine. The kids both have men teachers. Hmmmm...what do you buy for them at Christmas?? J is getting finally on his own in 5th grade. He's being responsible with getting his snack, packing up his backpack and doing homework right after school, which he's had since the very first day. P is still our baby. But we're working on him. At least he loves school and chatting about it all the time. Big J is busy at his work. WAMU isn't doing so well and the news on the company keeps getting worse. However, he goes in each day and does his job, though it's crazy. Little J is playing soccer now and our Saturdays are spent at his games. Both mom and dad scream so loud. I have decided to tone it down starting the next game. None of the players, I'm sure can hear me, only the parents on the sidelines...haha!

Wild Waves

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Snow Cone Stand

Little J meets R at the bottom of our hill. They are all grown up now and walk down without me. An hour later, he calls to tell me they are selling shaved ice for $1. We decide to show our support and buy some for ourselves. The neighborhood kids are enthusiastic but I remind them to keep their hands free of the ice cubes. Having shaved ice in a cup is tricky b/c as you attempt to drink it, much of it dumps onto your nose and upper lip, as evident on the boys' fruitty red mustaches.

Later in the afternoon, they decide to bring their business to our home b/c the corner has more traffic to bring in customers. R is the marketer and stands with his sign as J produces the goods. Once again the neighborhood children get involved. We had many unexpected visitors who were quite supportive and generous. This may be the beginning of a successful future partnership.

Lincoln City, Oregon

"What do you have underneath there, Peter?"

"Let's go in and cut some cheese!"

Our very own Karate Kid!


"I dare you to touch it ";)





We took our final road trip of the summer to Lincoln City, Oregon with Big J's sister's family and father. Little cousin E kept up with the boys from playing in the sand to putting around at indoor miniature golf. We rented a home with a view of the Pacific. One night the kids used the extra air mattress as a trampoline attempting 360's and other acrobatics. The cold wind often put a damper on our beach walks but we found a spot to observe the kids in an alcove that blocked part of the wind. Big J, little J and P found plenty of rocks & shells to take home.

We took a drive to Depoe Bay and saw the crashing waves against the shores. Over a cliff, we observed surfers and saw an amazing cave etched into the coastal rocks. Our favorite restaurant was Mo's (which we ate dinner twice) and we couldn't skip the outlet mall with no tax. On our final day, we toured the Tillimook Factory where we savored the creamiest ice cream. We also observed the assembly of big blocks to little blocks of cheese, cutting and packaging. This is our second summer vacationing at Lincoln City and the 5 hour drive was a snap compared to our drive to San Francisco. Thanks again R for babysitting our precious Milky :)

San Francisco Road Trip

Entrance to Chinatown

Lake Shasta

Cruise around Alcatraz and underneath the Golden Gate Bridge

Napa Valley

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

Fisherman's Wharf

Here are some photos from our San Francisco trip. We stayed in the heart of downtown and experienced the crowded street cars for travel. Often they were packed so we'd walk for miles to get back to our hotel. One excursion was to the famous "Crooked Street" (Lombard) We had to lean upward or else we'd tumble and spiral downwards... haha! We explored Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf. We attemted to tour Alcatraz but it was unbelieveably booked for the next three days and ended up doing the next best thing, cruising around it, while enviously viewing the lucky tourists actually on The Rock.

On the hottest day, we went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. A highlight was the river raft ride. We shared our raft with 4 other young ladies and as drifted down the rapids, we approached a waterfall and got drenched. Then unknowingly, there were lines of hoses that targeted innocent victims with powerful sprays. But we had our chance afterwards to do the same for only a quarter :) What a laugh! On our final day heading back home, we drove to Napa Valley. We saw rows after rows of grapevine fields and stopped for a little wine tasting, while the boys had their fill of premature grapes. All in all, the hours of driving, with our pit stops wasn't too bad (check out Lake Shasta). It was a memorable 7 days.

The beginning of summer is here!

Hello Family and Friends! Technology is amazing...Visit our blog page to catch up on the Changs. Tomorrow is our last day of school for the kids and we're going on a road trip to San Francisco for 7 days. Thanks to my good friend, J, for introducing me to blogging. I can't wait to tell you about our vacation. Thanks R for babysitting Milky while we are away :)