soozenchoo

What do you get when you leave a pair of scissors with a 3.5 yr old?

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:57:41 GMT

I left Jenna for a few minutes playing in the playroom yesterday. When I came back, she was holding a pair of scissors and she said "I cut my hair, Mommy!". The funny thing is that I've left that pair of kid safe scissors within reach for her for a few months so that she can cut paper when she wanted, and she never did anything like that until yesterday. She cut hair on both sides of her face so it looks like she has badly tapered hair. I won't even begin to fix it. I'm not any good at cutting hair. Maybe grandma can fix it for her. =)

Going to Washington this weekend

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:22:03 GMT

We're flying to Washington this Sunday. It is an annual trip we take to visit my in-laws at their vacation home in Kingston, WA. I look forward to the trip but not the traveling part. It is such a pain to travel with two young kids and a dog. Last year, we had to rent a van to fit everyone including Maggie and her large crate to get to the airport. We are doing the same this year. When we get to the airport, Chris will drop all of us off at the curb. There will be Jenna, Lindsay, Maggie in her crate, a couple of strollers, 2 big car seats, and our luggages. We will all wait for 15-20 min for Chris to drive the van back to the rental company and take the shuttle back to the airport so we can check in together. Last year, Lindsay wasn't walking yet so I was able to keep her in the car seat. Hopefully, she'll stay sitting in her stroller while I feed her snacks.

We usually don't take Maggie on trips with us but we figured that Maggie will really enjoy running around outdoors and swimming in the bay. She's such a stinker when she's there though because she loves her freedom that she won't come back to us when we call for her to come back.

more night time visitors

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:10:27 GMT

there were a couple of them last night. chris threw rocks at these poor animals to scare them away. one even hissed at him when he got too close.

oh deer

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:59:14 GMT

something's been eating our roses and the leaves of the pumpkin my mother in law planted a few weeks ago. they've been coming every night. too bad we don't have a fence.

goodbye laptop?

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:36:37 GMT

my toshiba satellite laptop of 6 years finally died on me last week. the hard drive completely failed. i don't know why i thought that the laptop would last me many more years. oh, well. chris is trying to figure out if i can get a new hard drive.

common password

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:43:21 GMT

i haven't checked LJ for years (literally) and when i recently logged in a few weeks ago, LJ prompted me for a new password because the one i had was too common. i guess my favorite word from the harry potter books is a popular password.

Oxybenzone and Sunscreen

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:06:48 GMT

There are news articles all over about the safety of sunscreen. I wanted to get an opinion of what people think. Is this just a huge scare tactic or is there any truth? I don't want to run out and buy the very expensive "non-toxic" sunscreens out there but I would feel guilty applying something that may be toxic to my kids. Sigh....what to do...

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/news/20080701/group-sunscreens-effectiveness-hazy

new lj user

Mon, 02 Jan 2006 14:54:56 GMT

i invited my friend, joyce leong, who some of you already know, to sign up for LJ. you can add her as a friend and she'll add you back (if she wants ;) ). welcome, joyce! her user id is j_leong16.

halloween costumes

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 03:42:03 GMT

i just ordered jenna's halloween costume online. i bought her the infant yoda costume because chris and i thought she would look really cute in it. i remember looking at the costume last month but yesterday, as i was about to order the costume, i saw that it was sold out in most of the stores! luckily, i did find one store that still had some in stock. i'm trying to figure out what kind of costume to get maggie. it would be cute if she was a star wars character as well, but many of these pet costumes look freaky. it just looks weird when your pet has the appearance of 2 legs such as these.

yummy wine from sam's club

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 17:43:03 GMT

a few weeks ago, we were at sam's club when i noticed that they were selling wine. there were only a couple of different ones but i picked up a white wine called pitule (with an accent on the "e") from italy. chris and i tried it last night and it was very sweet and yummy with hints of peach and apricot flavors. it is more like a dessert wine but it went well with our dinner - a light pasta dish. chris normally doesn't like wine but he really liked this one. well, today we went back to sam's club and stocked up (we bought 4 bottles) since i know that some items might be seasonal. i tried doing a search for this wine but i couldn't find any wine stores that carried this particular wine. i still prefer red wine over white but i have to say the pitule is one i would keep buying. i'm still in search of a delicious red wine. i don't like dry wines. i love wines with a hint of sweetness to it.

not appropriate for work

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 18:54:22 GMT

chris forwarded this to me. we don't have cable so i haven't really seen dave chappelle's skits. chris loves him though. this one is with wayne brady.

http://www.thatvideosite.com/view/147.html

the spa

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 00:56:35 GMT

today, chris surprised me with a trip to the spa. i didn't expect it at all but it was really nice of him. before i go on, i should let you all know that i've never gone to a spa to get a massage. the only thing i've gotten done was a facial. anyway, he dropped me off and whisked jenna off to spend a few hours with her.

the first part of my package was a facial. the lady walked me to the women's room and asked me to pick a locker and to change into a robe. then she asked me if i brought a swimsuit for the hydrotherapy (um, chris didn't mention this). i said no, and she said it was no problem and came back with a basket filled with a bunch of different swimsuits. i looked through them and they were all a size 12. what could i do? i picked a two piece nautica swimsuit (a tank and a bottom). i looked ridiculous with the bottom part of the swimsuit sagging and about to fall off of me.

the facial went well and i enjoyed the session. when she started to massage my feet i started cringing (yes, i'm very ticklish down there) so i told her i would like to pass on the foot massage. next up, the hydrotherapy which was done by a guy. he led me into this room with a tub and asked me to step inside. he then proceeded to turn several knobs and the water started pulsating and water was shooting out of the air jets. the funny thing was since my bathing suit was way too big, it started to puff up. the therapist started to massage up my leg with one of the air jets and i was a bit embarassed because the top of my swimsuit was flying up and who knows what was going on with the bottom of my swimsuit. and did i mention, i haven't shaved certain private areas since last week? anyway, i got a good chuckle afterwards. i probably won't be doing that again.

the last part was a massage (by a woman). it was enjoyable and i had a long one hour massage and chat with the masseuse.

i later asked chris about the hydrotherapy and he said he had no idea i was supposed to bring a swimsuit. overall, it was a nice experience. i would get a facial and massage again.

maggie

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:53:08 GMT

my loveable mutt! she is shedding way too much. her hair is all over the apartment and we don't have time to vacuum every single day. i've been trying to brush her more often so that she doesn't shed as much. we clean her ears often if not on a daily basis. the only thing that chris and i won't do is clip her nails. there have been several accidents with her running around bleeding. most of her nails are black so there were times we cut into the quick. taking her to the groomer is out of the question since she's shy around people.

i've taught her how to leave treats until i tell her it's okay to eat them. yesterday, i put a couple of biscuits and a couple of those small liver treats in front of her. before i had a chance to say "leave it", she picked up the small liver flavored treats. i immediately said "no", but i figured it was too late since they were already in her mouth. she then spit them back out and waited for me to give her the okay. that must have taken a lot of self control to spit back out the food. what dog would spit out tasty treats? she is so weird but i'm still proud of her. =) i told her "okay" and she ate the treats. she really isn't into food like most dogs. many times, she's left her bowl of dog food overnight or she'll eat half of it and finish it the next day. the only time when she'll eat all her food in one sitting is when she's hungry or if there's another dog in the apartment with us.

the two obedient classes we took maggie to paid off. she's excellent off leash (but that's also partly due to the fact that she's a scaredy cat and likes to stay near us). she knows how to sit, lie down, stay, stand, and heel. when i'm mad at her, i make her do push ups (sit, down, sit, down, sit, down...). i've taught her how to "play dead", "crawl", "paw" (shake hands), and "leave it". she sucks at "fetch" though. we've tried teaching her but she usually just gets bored or she'll run back right past us with the ball. the next trick i want to teach her is to stay while i put a biscuit on top of her nose.

i wish she would let us know when she needs to go to the bathroom though. sometimes, she'll whine but more often she doesn't let us know and then there will be an accident inside the apt. we tied a bell to the baby gate on top of the stairs and i've been trying to teach her how to touch her nose to the bell so that it rings every time i take her out. i've done it for a couple weeks now but she still hasn't gone to ring the bell on her own. hopefully, she'll figure it out. i've heard of dogs that sit in front of the door when they need to go out.

on a completely different note, it's super hot here. it was in the 90s yesterday but it was still bearable. we are expecting scattered thunderstorms this week. i hope it doesn't rain during our finger lakes trip.

finger lakes

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 20:40:34 GMT

chris has next week off and we are going to go to the finger lakes region in western new york for one night. we're bringing maggie (for once) with us. i was able to find a hotel that allows pets and it's only an additional $5 fee for the night. we are planning to stay at the canandaigua inn on the lake. usually, it's difficult to bring maggie with us when we travel but i really wanted to take her with us this time.

there's so much to do at finger lakes such as hiking, biking, rock climbing, water sports, golf, winery tours, and visiting historic sites. since we will only be there for a day and a half, and with a baby and a dog in tow, we'll probably just walk on the groomed hiking trails and check out the many waterfalls along the way. we've been meaning to go to finger lakes for a while now so i'm glad we'll get a chance to explore the area. there are a few other places i would like to visit in the east coast before we leave in a year. i wouldn't mind going to niagara falls again. i was there in high school with my family. i would also love to visit quebec city north of montreal, drive to cape cod, and walk along the boardwalk at new jersey shores. hopefully, we'll get a chance to accomplish some of these things before we leave.

catching up on movies

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 16:37:58 GMT

since we are paying $14.99 a month for unlimited movie rentals at hollywood video, chris and i have been renting a lot of movies lately. we saw "bridget jones diary - the edge of reason" (well, i watched this movie myself), "irobot", "national treasure", and "ray". all of them were entertaining but nothing spectacular. i really liked "ray" though and was impressed by jamie foxx's performance. he's come a long way since "in living color".

we just got "shaolin soccer" and i'm looking forward to watching that. i've heard it was silly but hilarious.

this is bugging me

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 17:09:18 GMT

a few days ago, i looked around our apartment and noticed several opened bottles of water lying around, an opened snapple half full, and the chrysanthemum tea drink (with the straw) opened as well. i knew they were all chris' and i was a bit annoyed that he didn't finish his drinks. i grabbed the chrysanthemum tea and went to his office and told him he should finish all his drinks. he said okay and continued to use his computer. from that point, i have no recollection of where i put the chrysanthemum tea. i'm pretty sure i set it down somewhere. chris asked me a few hours later where i put the drink because he wanted to finish it. he looked for it everywhere. the fact that he couldn't find it is odd because he's very thorough when he searches for things.

the next day, i tried to search for the drink. i even looked through the garbage but couldn't find it. i looked in maggie's crate and it wasn't there. it's highly unlikely that maggie would eat the whole box including the straw. if she did chew it, parts of it would be lying around the floor. we both searched through the apartment again and could not find it. isn't it strange? i must have misplaced the drink but shouldn't we be able to find it? hmmm...

time to shop for a new swim suit

Sat, 04 Jun 2005 20:58:47 GMT

it's been in the 80s the past couple of days and i'm looking forward to taking jenna to the pool. i just bought the huggies little swimmer diapers for her today at walmart. there were a lot of cute bikinis i bought before i got pregnant so i decided to dig them up and try them on today. since i am nursing, i'm a little bit top heavy and the bikini tops are way too small and look terrible on me. they are all x-small because i didn't really have um.. much of a chest pre-pregnancy. maybe a one piece suit would look better so that i can also hide the flab on my stomach that won't go away unless i exercise.

i mentioned to chris that i needed a new swim suit and wanted to get a one piece bathing suit. he immediately said, let's go shopping and get you a bikini. what's up with guys and bikinis? do most guys prefer women to wear a bikini rather than a one piece? there are plenty of sexy one piece bathing suits out there (halters, strapless, etc.) i have a black one piece suit i bought from jcrew a couple years ago but unfortunately, it still doesn't provide enough coverage. i don't particularly like to try on clothes when i go shopping but i definitely need to try on the swim suits.

getting my teeth cleaned

Wed, 18 May 2005 18:08:13 GMT

chris "forgot" to add me to his dental plan so i am without dental insurance until september. i was a bit worried since i haven't had my teeth cleaned in over 3 years (yikes!) and it's pretty bad because i also have periodontal issues. i'm losing the bones in my gums. it's irreversible but if i take care of my teeth and gums really well, i can prevent more loss of bones.

i found out from my neighbor that hudson valley community college had a dental clinic with student dental hygienists who clean your teeth for $10. i saw my dental hygienist 3 times because it takes several hours for her to do an analysis, get x-rays, and get your teeth cleaned. she was super nice and it wasn't as painful to get my teeth cleaned because she was careful and nice enough not to hurt me. =) the full mouth x-rays only cost $15 and i also got to keep a set to give to my future dentist. i still can't believe i only paid a total of $25 for the teeth cleaning sessions by a super nice dental hygienist and a full set of x-rays. she also encouraged me to bring jenna in the last time because i didn't have anyone watching her. the other dental hygienists babysat while everything was getting wrapped up.

the bad news is i have to go to the dentist every 3 months to really get all the plaque out. i'm going to have to be diligent about getting my teeth cleaned by a dentist on a regular basis.

separation anxiety

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 01:20:03 GMT

uh-oh. i never thought jenna would go through this and she was fine last week when we went out with friends in albany. we are in la this week and she basically screams and cries if anyone else holds her. she throws a huge fit! i should capture it on video cam. i don't have much time to myself because i have to hold her all the time. i don't know if it has anything to do with the change in the environment. as we speak, i hear her wailing and my chris' mom is bringing her to me. it's flattering but i also can't get anything done. ok, gotta run and entertain my girl.

funny onesies

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 02:16:25 GMT

one of my favorites...

"I TCP/IP, but mostly IP"

queso would like this one...

"My diaper is like a conservative Republican full of ...."

http://www.cafepress.com/clstudio/540201

finances

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 14:58:11 GMT

i really dislike managing my personal finances. it's pretty bad that i don't even know how much money we have and what mutual funds and stocks we own. i don't do our taxes (chris does it). i have absolutely no interest in managing money and chris doesn't like to do it either. he still hasn't done our taxes this year and knowing him, he'll be filing the day before it's due. i've been thinking that maybe we're better off hiring a personal financial advisor/consultant although i'm afraid that it may be expensive. however, if he/she can balance out our portfolio and perhaps, maximize our returns on our holdings then it is probably worth it.

i'm the kind of person who buys stocks and mutual funds and never want to look at it again. i can never reconcile my checkbooks either. it's terrible. i have tried to be interested in our finances. really. i've done research online and read finance books but i always get bored eventually. we do the basic things such as contribute to our roth ira yearly and we also started jenna's college fund but i know it's not enough. there's cash that's sitting there gaining minimal interest and should be invested in mutual funds, at least. i don't even know how to pick mutual funds or stocks. i usually buy them based on what other friends recommend, which is probably not smart. i just don't have the patience and interest in researching and keeping up with the market on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.

in many cases, the husband or the wife manages the finances and likes to do it. unfortunately, chris and i are both lazy and are not interested. i know i'm going to have to get on the ball and DO something about it or we may be in trouble one day.

resignation

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 14:31:52 GMT

i have been on maternity leave for almost 6 months and i have no desire to return to work. i just emailed my resignation letter to my company today. the hr told me that this (moms not returning to work after maternity leave) happens all the time so it's not a big deal. my company did try to find me a part-time opportunity with the client i used to work with but i don't think it's going to work out in such a short time since i was due back to work next week. with government clients, they are slow in getting the funding they need.

the only things i'll miss are the income and daily interaction with people. other than that, i'll be content staying at home full time with jenna. chris and i should be able to manage financially as long as we're not spending extravagantly. i do think i will want to return to work eventually in the future. i hope it won't be too difficult to return to the work force especially in the IT industry.

Sun, 27 Mar 2005 17:19:16 GMT

You scored as Divine Command. Your life is directed by Divine Command: Your god and religion give you meaning and direction.

“Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion--human religion--but any number of faiths.”

--Mahatma Gandhi

“Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.”

--King James Version of the Bible

More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page...

</td>

Divine Command

90%

Utilitarianism

55%

Hedonism

50%

Kantianism

45%

Justice (Fairness)

40%

Existentialism

35%

Strong Egoism

25%

Apathy

15%

Nihilism

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.02)
created with QuizFarm.com

all parents think their kid is the cutest

Wed, 23 Mar 2005 16:22:02 GMT

i think this study is terrible. how can it be true when all parents think their kid is the cutest? =)

Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:18:51 GMT

spring is here and it's 49 degrees today! what a beautiful day. some of you may be thinking 49? that's freezing! anything above 40 is considered nice out here in the east.

i've been catching up on the LJ posts. sounds like some of you have been upgrading to bigger cars to make more room for the family. chris has been begging for the smart car. hm, shouldn't we be buying a car with more room and not significantly less? anyway, he loves that car and i think it's coming to the us. knowing him, we are going to end up with that cutsy little car.

i've always wanted the toyota prius but unfortunately there's a very long waitlist for that car. you're not guaranteed the color of your choice either.

jenna is still growing and she's grabbing objects more accurately. however, she hasn't rolled over yet and still needs a little support sitting up by herself. at her 4 month checkup, she was in the 10% for height and 50% for weight. the pediatrician said "no offense, but you both aren't the tallest people". i thought that was funny. i don't mind that jenna is petite and not too heavy. it's easier to carry her around.

over the weekend, we put had the webcam on jenna and szu-wei happened to be online so she also put lauren on the webcam. it was cute watching the two babies. jenna was playing in her crib with her cube toy and lauren was sitting in her booster seat feeding herself and throwing her sippy cup on the floor. i'm looking forward to the messes that jenna will make once she's at that stage. ;) thankfully, we live in an apartment so we don't care about this place that much. maggie has had many accidents on the carpet anyway.

maggie had her vaccinations last week. she weighed a whopping 57 lbs! she doesn't even look like she weighs that much. i guess she's getting older and heavier.