Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Spring Break!

The question is asked - what did you do on Spring Break?  Saturday afternoon we went to Grandma's house to do some cleaning.  Sunday was more of the same but then Mama left to go home and back to work, taking the dogs Henry (the black lab mix) and Gracie (the corgi mix) home as well.

However, we went over to see our cousins who live up the road.  Their daughter posed with Yu-Hsuan as he hopes to graduate from 3 wheels to 2.


The boy though being one who likes bigger is better has other ideas for vroom, vroom:


Cousin found a bike no longer in use so Tian could practice more.  She found her balance and started riding all around Grandma and Granddad's place.  An old Big Wheel was discovered for Yu-Hsuan which he used to explore around the grounds.  Keeping both children out of the road kept baba busy.

We did manage to get some cleaning and sorting done and recycle material and trash separated.  The trip was labeled as cleaning house and rest.  Rest was no where to be found but exhaustion was available in large quantities by the time we returned home last night.  Picture loading the car, having to unlock the doors between each trip to the car because some little person keeps shutting and locking the doors as so as baba's back is turned.  What should have taken a few minutes to accomplish took about 3 hours to pack, because there was debris from 2 wild children scattered all over the house, yard and car.

However, all this was interspersed with children young and old having fun as cans and boxes of outdated food, medicine and various other potions was scattered about for the 'wildlife' to enjoy after we left.  Yu-Hsuan has a partially very white head as the bottle of Maalox he was shaking came back down on his hair leaving a nice white smudge.  Baba decided (foolishly) to show the children what Butch wax would do to one's hair which is one tight pile of greasy hair.  I looked like Jim Carrey in A Series of Unfortunate Events.  While there are pictures...don't expect them here.

Friday, March 26, 2010

School Days and Saturdays

The first day of school was March 15th.  Keeping up with the tradition we started with Tian, heading out for school pictures.  Yu-Hsuan is in the 2nd grade at Chattanooga Christian School.





This past Saturday Momma went and bought sand for a sandbox.  Yu-Hsuan and Tian assisted Mama in loading the wheel barrow to move the sand to the backyard.




Spring flowers.



Bicycle Time.


Daddy you walk the bike back.


See Daddy can still sit on a bike.


Riding solo, first time!


Photo shoot by Tian.


Self portraits.



Friday, March 19, 2010

Reaching Out

I often wonder what inspired Poe in his writings, if he pondered while staring into the firelight, for we have so many stimuli today that finding a moment to ponder takes real work or concentration.

Anyway this little blurb came to mind through some stimuli that I cannot point to, as I can not attach something significant to the date it was written, 31 Oct 2006.

It seems fitting to post at this time.


Reaching Out

Reaching out across the strands of time
We seek the silvery threads of family
A memory here, a memory there,
Whispers on the wind, we grasp at these,
Slipping, slipping, slipping,
Down through the sands of time,
Here and there we catch a silvery thread,
A glimpse here, a glimpse there of some family member.

What were their dreams, their aspirations?
How has the world changed since "their time"?
What we would have of theirs?
O' to have a glimpse of their faces, to hear just once more the sound of their voices.
Lonely are we, lost without family.
Slipping, slipping, slipping,
Down through the sands of time.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Home - A New Beginning

Home life begins. We arrived home Wednesday afternoon nearly 48 hours after getting up in Taipei on Monday evening our time, with about 4 hours sleep.  With the time zone difference only 22.5 hours had passed but so had more than 8000 miles beneath us.

Presents that would have been given had our son been home by Christmas are brought out and fun ensues.






Yu-Hsuan gets into the groove quickly but sister drives too fast flying off the track more often than not and soon he is left to himself.  Mama is the pit crew fixing the cars as they need it.




At Lake Chickamauga




Ready to Rumble


Cooking at the Makepeace kitchen
(he pushed in and took over)




Then there are the things that we don't have pictures for because the camera is not handy or it happens in a moment too fast to think of such.  

Coming home from work Monday, when Yu-Hsuan heard me come home, at the top of his lungs - baba! baba! as he rushed to hug me tight.  This happened again tonight as he shooed the dogs out of his way to get to me.

Monday night as we sat for supper and held hands to say our blessing our son indicated he wanted to pray.  So he did.  Only he and God knows what he said even though I did hear mama and baba and jiejie mentioned at least twice.

Tonight Ellen and the children came to my work for supper.  Yu-Hsuan was hugging all the girls, saying hi to the boys and hugging some of them too.  When he hugged on two little girls that were leaving, Tian, who was sitting behind me said - kill me now.  I guess it was embarrassing to her.

Tomorrow is Tian's 2nd anniversary of Gotcha Day.  I wonder what her brother has for her?

Mama's Taiwan Pictures

Mama also took Taiwan pictures that did not get uploaded as we went through our trip. 

Tainan Park






A woman appears.


Poof, she's gone!




Another Tainan Park
multiple views of our princess,
last days as an only child

















Views from the Shangri-la








Gotcha Day!






















High Speed Rail to Taipei