Stuck Like Glue

My hubster and I go about everywhere together. We don't seem to have the "you can't come with me" filter that a lot of people seem to have. Not having this filter doesn't always seem to bode well with others. I took my hubster with me to get my first facial because I didn't just want to leave him at home bored by himself. My previous eyebrow goddess would always let my hubster come with me and we would have a little chat altogether. The new girl that took over my eyebrow goddess' old spot at our salon didn't let my hubster come with me. She gave us the "what the?" look when we asked. Boo! To make up for this bummer story, I posted cute pictures from our mini holiday reunion.

Go to Disneyland on Your Birthday for Free

Tough times for Disney, eh? They're finally giving something away for free. I can't use this a-mazing offer since my birthday falls on a Monday this year. Here's the info if you can. Say hi to Mickey for me.

Free Admission on Your Birthday!

Start your birthday off right with the most magical birthday present of all: free admission on your birthday during 2009 to one of the Theme Parks of the Disneyland® Resort*! It's our gift to you and it all begins right here.

To get this wonderful birthday gift for yourself or your children, follow these simple steps:

• Register yourself—and your children too, if you want.
• Print the reminder email with its confirmation message that you will receive 2 weeks prior to your birthday to redeem free admission on your birthday in 2009.
• Bring proper ID and your confirmation message to the Main Entrance ticket booths outside the Disneyland® Resort Theme Parks.
• If you are an Annual Passholder or already have a Multi-Day ticket you will use on your birthday, go ahead and register and bring the free admission on your birthday confirmation and proper ID to the ticket booth so you can choose from one of our other exciting birthday gifts instead. (see FAQs for details).

Favorite Laughable Infomercial - Snuggie

"There's No Secret Ingredient."

We finally got to watch Kung Fu Panda. After being so excited to see it and hearing that it was just okay, I have to agree it is just okay. I think they could have made the training scenes a bit more meaningful and have a better practice scene than the fight over the dumpling. I did love the kitchen revelation part and Po's dad. :) Next on the list to watch, Wall-E.

Joyeux Noel!

From my parents: Iron Man and Dark Knight in Blu Ray.

My gift to my hubster to mark his new interest in politics.

Hand puppets for my puppet theater for my kiddos.

Yay, the Charlie Brown holiday series!

The parents with their gifts.
They look happy. :)

Happy 10th!

This year we celebrated our first wedding anniversary, but next week will mark our tenth anniversary of being together. Because we're on a bit of a budget, we decided to celebrate our anniversary by going to the Museum of Man, Timken Museum of Art, and Reuben H. Fleet Science Museum and having lunch at Buon Appetito. We had lots of fun learning about ancient Peruvian skull surgery, seeing mummies, and playing with the science exhibits. We learned that we're not going to get uber wrinkly until about 70. Lunch at Buon Appetito was delicious. The sampler plate was filled with goodies and the starting bread with the homemade marinara sauce was uber tasty.

Whoville Christmas tree in front the Globe Theater.

Us in front of the Whoville Christmas tree.

Replicas of Mayan markers.

Hubster playing with the rope squirter.

Me at 70. Hubster thinks I look like a Native American.

My little old tired hubster at 70.

Official Little Italy sign.

That Ostrich was a Jerk

Today, we went to the farmer's market with my daddy. It was fun perusing the stands with my daddy. We stumbled across a turkey and ostrich jerky stand. Of course, my dad was brave enough to try some. He brought a sample over for me to try. I tried it. I must say it wasn't too bad. It was actually pretty tender. My hubster couldn't believe his wife was taking a small bite of ostrich jerky. I heart my daddy, the culinary adventurer.

Turkey Master

This Christmas my hubster took on making the turkey. It was so delicious. He did such a great job, especially considering it was his first time making the turkey and using a new recipe.

Merry Christmas!

Buon Natale! Joyeux Noel! Feliz Navidad!

"I Feel Like I Found Out My Favorite Love Song Was Written About a Sandwich."

All I can really say is that 27 Dresses is predictable yet adorable. Nothing really stuck out for me. My hubster, who isn't the greatest movie predictor, had it all figured out by the second scene. If you're looking for a chick flick, this movie fits the mold perfectly.

Nothing Like the History Channel

I'm finally getting the chance to catch up on all my television watching. Yay! My renewed addiction is the History Channel. I saw an amazing episode about Ethiopia and their Christian traditions.

Catch Up: San Francisco

As previously mentioned ages ago, I convinced my hubster to go into "the city" after Thanksgiving. My hubster has been avoiding it because he dislikes traffic and one way streets. With our trusty google maps in hand, we made it through the city just fine. We're looking forward to our next trip to visit the Exploratorium.

The Hotness

Chilies

Global warming

Dec 18th 2008
From The Economist print edition

TASTELESS, colourless, odourless and painful, pure capsaicin is a curious substance. It does no lasting damage, but the body’s natural response to even a modest dose (such as that found in a chili pepper) is self-defence: sweat pours, the pulse quickens, the tongue flinches, tears may roll. But then something else kicks in: pain relief. The bloodstream floods with endorphins—the closest thing to morphine that the body produces. The result is a high. And the more capsaicin you ingest, the bigger and better it gets. more>>

Oh My <3

The last couple of days have been up and down because it's just finally kicking in that I won't be seeing my kiddos when I get back. As I told my hubster, my heart is hurting. It's not breaking. It's just going through growing pains. It's making room for the new kiddos that are going to be in my life.

Be Mine - Robyn (Nobel Peace Prize Concert

Puppies!

What is Teaching About?

Through this whole process, I've been thinking about my teaching philosophy. Very fancy, no? It's true though. I need to be able to articulate my teaching philosophy during my interviews. I've been fumbling with ideas and metaphors. Then, I stumbled across the following Buddhist medition from An Open Heart by Dalai Lama. This mediation exemplifies what teaching means to me:

So long as space remains,
So long as sentient beings remain,
I will remain,
In order to help, in order to serve,
In order to make my own contribution.

Brat

Hubster: Why aren't you eating these chicken strips? I got all of them for you.
Me: I didn't know they were going to be chicken jerky.
Hubster: You're just being a brat. Brats make brats when they have babies.
Me: (laughs)

p.s.

Yes, we are planning to have kids sometime. Hopefully, they won't be brats! :)

What a Long Nose You Have!

from flickr

This past weekend, we got to enjoy a restful weekend with my Oak Tree School family in Cambria. It was a well-deserved weekend. Gosh, last week was a struggle to get through. Over the weekend, we did all of our favorite Cambrian things including going to garage sales, eating at Boni's tacos, and going to our favorite music box store. We also got to see elephant seals. Just watching them move a few inches was incredible. They are so bulbously blubbery. Only the males were there. A docent told us that the women will be coming at the end of December. Peak mating season will be around mid-January. Around mid-February the birthing of the pups should begin. There's your elephant seal timeline, just in case you were curious.

Flor de Nochebuena

Unexpectedly, I had to read the Legend of the Poinsettia to my kiddos yesterday. It's a beautiful story. When I first peeked in the text, I saw that there were some Spanish words. The words I saw didn't look too bad. I was almost in the clear. Then, came along Flor de Nochebuena. When you're reading it from the side in front of twenty people, your mind could totally freeze. My mind totally froze and I had to have my mentor teacher help me out. She was so glad to do so. Yay!

Dalai Lama is Coming to Town

In April, I'm going to be attending a lecture by the Dalai Lama called Ethics for Our Time. I'm so excited! Now, I just have to figure out which book I want to read before the lecture. I'm torn between The Art of Happiness and How to See Yourself as You Really Are. Just kidding. I just found Ethics for the New Millennium. I think that'll be the winner unless I can be convinced otherwise. By the way, can you believe that my ticket only cost $20. Yay for student discounts!

Catch Up: Really?

Hubster: I was just telling some guys at work that my parents weren't too happy with us getting married.
Me: (slightly worried) What did they say?
Hubster: Sig was surprised. He couldn't get why. He said whenever he sees us together we always look so happy.
Me: Awww...

p.s.
Sig hasn't seen us together that often. It's nice to know we look as happy as we feel.

Dreaming of Hawaii

This past weekend we went to a nearby waterfall. Honestly, we haven't much rain, so there wasn't much to the waterfall. When I looked at other photos when there is a lot of water, it's hard to appreciate the beauty of the algae and the ferns. It was gorgeous and not too far away from our home. Therefore, I'm not going to complain about the lack of water. This spot had us definitely had us dreaming of Hawaii. On our way out, we got to stop by a self-serve farmer's market stand. You pick up your goods and put your money in a barrel. Talk about honor system.

The Old "Call Forwarding from theShoe Phone..."

A few days ago we watched Get Smart on our Blu-Ray player. First of all, it's totally not worth watching on a Blu-Ray player. Secondly, Get Smart is not that smart. I haven't seen the original show, but this movie was not all that entertaining. The humor and timing was eh. Steve Carrell very much acted like Michael Scott. Ann Hathaway didn't do too bad of a job. I particularly liked her line about being an old lady with a dusty uterus. It's interesting seeing her in Chanel rather than a poofy princess dress. The only actor I was somewhat impressed with was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. His acting has gotten much better. He's still not the best, but it's definitely better than it was before. If anything, the puppy that Smart likes is ridiculously cute.

Blue Christmas

Cody (aka My Puppy)

Ginger Lee (aka Sweet Pea)

We lost Cody and Ginger Lee both last year. This is our second Christmas without them. It's always hard to go home and not have them around, especially around this time of year. Christmas was their favorite time of year. Ginger Lee used to just sit and quietly admire the twinkling Christmas tree lights every year. We figured that she assumed we set up the tree just for her enjoyment. Our Codster loved Christmas as well. Each Christmas day, he would run straight towards the tree with his happy tail and bite off the wrapping paper of his gifts. His favorite gift was always his gigantic bone. Oh how I miss them and I always think of them when I hear Blue Christmas.

Mini SF Post

Over the holiday weekend, I convinced my hubster to take me to San Francisco. I hadn't been since middle school. His family only lives 45 minutes away, so it was a reasonable request. He's been hesitant because he's heard terrible stories about the roads and drivers there. Somehow, my begging worked this year and we went. I totally felt like country mouse going into the city. I've gotten way too country these last past couple of years. Anywho, I haven't had time to post any of our pictures. There's lots. Here's one, so my blog doesn't get too saturated with text.

I'm thinking we finally have a cute picture to put on one of those photo Christmas cards!

Text?

Me: Today, we're going to learn about text-to-world connection. Text is a fancy word for something that you already know. Does anyone know what text is?
Kiddo L: Ummm...like you text on a computer?
Me: (smiles) Text does mean that, but I was thinking of text being another way to say book.

Sign of the times when my first grade kiddos associate text with texting on AIM.

Graphing

This week I have taken the challenge of teaching my kiddos how to Make Connections in order to help them understand a story better. Oy! It's a challenging reading comprehension strategy. We had a rough morning with music practice interrupting our language arts flow. My orginial question wasn't concise enough. Once we moved onto math, my first kiddo picked something to graph. She said, "I want to graph people's favorite connections." I heart her. It made me feel so much better. They've actually been listening! At least, she has.

Catch Up: Badminton

This post has to be super short because I have about 8 million things to do. Instead of partaking in the Black Friday madness at Frys, I went to play badminton with my hubster and the in-laws. It was beyond fun. I heart badminton because it takes minimum arm muscle and running. Perfect for fragile me. When we first entered the badminton club, my aba (dad in Cantonese) had to sign us all in. He signed me as Bea T---. I was so happy. It totally made me feel like part of the family.

While we played, both my aba (dad in Cantonese, remember?) and ama (mom in Cantonese) complimented me on my playing. They have never complimented me on anything nor do they compliment their sons often. It was such a privilege to be complimented by them. It finally felt like they genuinely like me. Now, all I have to do is find my old badminton racket and remember to bring my sneaks for next time. Yay!

p.s.
My hubster has learned by tapping technique. He's also acquired his dad swatting technique. It's a perfect competitive combo.

p.p.s.
If you play badminton for 1.5+ hours, watch out. Your derriere and hamstrings will be super sore. Unfortunately, I speak from experience.