PROOF THAT ALIENS DID LAND IN ROSWELL

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Hi guys. Did you know being president of a company is a vacuum for the rest of life? Jeez I didn't know that somehow.

Anyway, when I am trying to live some semblence of life, I am usually at an ice arena. I thought I would share Sarah's performance from yesterday. People actually paid to see this one. We paid too, for entry fees and the costume. Now THAT is a good commercial enterprise - the workers pay you and so do the customers! I wanna see a balance sheet!



This is a particularly sucky video. It made me think about the act of filming.

When you are filming something like this, you are also trying to watch it. Wanting to watch > wanting to make a good film. So you get shakiness, not too much clarity. I'm hoping that the professionally shot video which comes in January, will be better. Because for them making a good film > watching the kids.

It made me think about Roswell. How could they have POSSIBLY made a good film? Finding alien life is so mind-blowing, the filming was probably secondary to the experiencing.

So there you have it. Sarah's holiday performance tape proves that there were aliens in Area 51. I will now take questions from the media.

Here's something from the show with not a lot of actual ice skating, but pretty entertaining.

HE'S THE MAN!

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

This is hilarious. Describes the pants wearing over here, too.

WILD THING

Monday, October 05, 2009

"Where the Wild Things Are" hits theaters on October 16. But you can view Becca's 1st grade class performing the story - this is from fall of last year!

It's hilarious - to save time, skip to 4:49, where you can see the Wild Things dancing their wild rumpus to Wild Thing. It's more entertaining than what you were doing 5 minutes ago, I'm pretty sure.

BENDY

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Today's Saturday, and usually Becca has gymnastics. But today she is on a campout.

Still, it seemed fitting to share a snapshot from Becca's class with you. This should not be a surprise to those of you who knew Becca from her baby years, when she would flip gleefully over the back of a toddler chair, scaring the devil out of anyone who didn't know she could land it. She would flip herself out of her crib. She would do pushups with one hand on her car seat and one hand on the car door.

Needless to say, these household gymnastics were irritating for us parents. So eventually we fetched our checkbooks so she could do these same tricks in on gym equipment.

Is anyone losing the thread of logic with this?

Anyway, now she can do the splits, land a backbend from a handstand, and climb a rope all the way up to the warehouse-sized ceiling. Okay then. All I know is that if you ever see me in the position depicted here, please call 911. Because it is not going to end well.

Well. I guess I could strike this pose. But you would not be able to see my ribcage.

NEW YEAR BUT SAME OLD SAME OLD

Sunday, September 27, 2009

If you're Jewish, happy 5770!

If not, you can take this opportunity to consider yourself an honorary Jew. Because the turning of a new year is the turning over of a fresh page, and who couldn't use one of those right about now?

Well... except our pets. Below is a compilation of shots from this year, but really, same thing happens every day.

AMUSEMENT PARKS IN THE OFF SEASON

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

I remember when we lived in Illinois, we had no choice but to visit Disneyland or the other major theme parks just in time for everyone else on the planet to visit them. Otherwise known as "the season."

But now we live 15 minutes from Legoland. And we can visit in the coveted off season.

Recently when we went, the park was so empty (HOW EMPTY WAS IT???) that Sarah and Becca rode the Coastersaurus ride 23 times.

It was so empty that the kid working the ride just kept sending the coaster through the starting gate with all the people still on it, over and over!

They started to actually time the camera taking photos of riders so that they could make funny faces at it, instead of it catching them in a more "natural," screaming-at-the-coaster-dips pose.

Is it better to have to wait an hour, the anticipation building for the 1 time you get to cherish the coaster? Or ride it till you know exactly when to smile for the camera? I'm not sure. I am a fan or anticipation and all. Still, as a kid, I think I would have preferred the 23x option.

FALL IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Monday, September 21, 2009

It's the first day of fall! I have lived here long enough to be able to recognize the subtle signs of fall here in California. Because it was in the 80s, so it ain't the temps. And it's only going to get... hotter!

You know it's fall in Southern California when:

• You start getting notices from new teachers. Mostly asking for donations because the classrooms are resource-poor.
• 2 of the trees on your block lose their leaves. In our case, it's the 2 plum trees in our yard. Figures.
• People start to break out the Ugg boots. Despite the 80+ degree temps.
• There are a bunch of Oktoberfests popping up all over. With a "k".
• Christmas decor hits the stores.
• You start to discuss where you'd like to go when you get evacuated during a wildfire.

Ahhh fall. Love the change in seasons.

I LIKE YOU, OLIVIA

Saturday, September 19, 2009

First they hated each other. Then one day, Olivia made a friend list and Becca was on it! From that moment, Olivia and Becca have been best friends. It is not any more logical than that.

Becca cracks Olivia up with her fake dinosaur roaring - it's just like a best friend to adore something that annoys just about everyone else on the planet. And Becca loves going to cheer Olivia on at her soccer games. She even loves to eat whatever it is Olivia eats.

This friendship is part of what we now cherish about Becca. And an unexpected byproduct is becoming close to the whole Yun family. Thanks Becca and Olivia!

HOLY CRABCAKES, IT'S SEPTEMBER 19!

Six months ago, I posted Sarah's very first ice skating competition! Holy smokes.

I'm getting back on the blog, so anything from March 11 forward, I have shamelessly posted now, just to give you a sense of chronology. I always have you in mind.

So why the 6-month blackout? Part of the reason is that facebook has provided an outlet for the daily thoughts and quick on-the-go snapshots of life.

The other part of the reason is that on February 14, I became the president of NYCA! For those of you who ever thought the president of your company had an easier job than you (or that you could do it better than he/she), I can assure you: he/she did not, and most likely you can't. It's been like having a 3rd baby. At this point, the baby is at least sleeping through the night and squirming. Healthy as hell and going to grow up just fine! So I can get back to life.

I wonder what you have been reading lo these many months...

SARAH - MY HERO

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Don't you ever wonder how birds can hearlessly and abruptly shove the baby birds out of the nest? What if they don't fly? What if they aren't ready? But yet, grown birds instinctively eject their young, and the offspring instinctively take flight.

We human beings aren't so deft in our management of our kids. In fact, I would postulate that the more educated and more prepared we and our kids are... the more afraid we are to toss them out of the nest. Funny that.

Until 6th grade camp, Sarah's never spent more than a sleepover night away from us, just a couple of blocks away so we could go and fetch her if she couldn't sleep. Even at 6th grade camp, she knew every face she encountered, so it wasn't so strange to be away.

But this summer, we sent Sarah to camp in Palo Alto for 10 days. We fell in love with the Supercamp program - and no matter how I try and describe this camp to people, it sounds like nerd camp. Even in the video below, it really does look like sitting around and studying.

Sarah wanted to go. Then all of a sudden, she DREADED going. That's when I knew she had to go - to a place without 1 single person she knew, so far away we could never come and rescue her.

Truly, kids say they have a transformative experience at Supercamp. The combination of learning skills, life skills, independence, and social issue exploration is profound for them.

When we retrieved Sarah 10 days later, the same kid that didn't want to go now didn't want to leave - in fact, she bawled her eyes out for half a day. I asked Sarah what she really took away from camp, she thought for a minute and said, "Well, I learned that everyone gets rejected, every day, all the time. So not to dwell on it when someone rejects me. And that if I want to do something, I shouldn't let my fimage get in the way."

(fimage is a camp term for "fear of image." Self-consciousness holds us back from 80% of the experiences that pass us by in life.)

"And I learned how to speed read."

Seriously, I want to go to this camp. And Sarah wants to go back next year - a testament to the positive force they crammed into these kids every minute. After all, there are no swimming pools, horses, TVs, movie theaters, field trips, or other distractions. There are only self explorations.

I read about the Outdoor Adventure Day in the camp materials - the kids don harnesses and walk tightropes. The exercises are meant to help them realize how far they can push themselves. But Sarah is never one to take bodily risk - she still prefers the baby roller coaster. So I figured she would be on the sidelines helping and cheering on her friends - which they totally encourage and don't force anyone.

Anyway, that night I was still awake when the camp posted the daily pictures online (a modern-day phenomenon) at midnight - and I nearly fell out of bed when I saw photos of Sarah! In the harness! Climbing up a 20 foot pole! There was nobody else awake in the house to share this jubilant moment - not even Gizmo. Through the miracle of Facebook, I was able to virtual high five with several Midwestern insomniac friends - I will never forget what I felt in that moment for my baby, for whom I have felt love, anger, fear, disappointment, gratitude, pride, empathy, friendship, and so many other things...

In that moment I added one. Respect.


Music: Hero by Mariah Carey

MIDDLE SCHOOLER

Friday, June 19, 2009

Today, Sarah graduated grade school. Of course I bawled for no reason at all, pretty much the whole time. I didn't cry on her first day of kindergarten, when she was an itty bitty person with a backpack almost as big as she was, hoisting herself onto a school bus. But somehow when she had to leave grade school behind, that struck a chord. And I'm not really sure why; I like being the parent of older kids so much better than I liked the wee little stages. I enjoy her immensely now, deeply. It touches me that she has become who she is. Maybe that produced the emotions.

Anyway, on to middle school! Where she will be the baby once again, relatively speaking.

SARAH'S 2ND COMPETITION - TAKES 3RD PLACE!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The video below might not look too much different from the March video post - but the elements are much crisper and Sarah took 3rd at the Open!


Sarah and her coach, Jami

BECCA TURNS 7

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

We celebrated Becca's 7th birthday at Disneyland! Because the Disney people are evil genius marketers. They pay for your kid to get in free when it's their birthday. You pay for everyone else in your group to get in, and then you proceed to get your kid anything they want all day. Because it's their birthday!

But who cares. Because it's kind of like a triple birthday. Becca turned 7, and Don and I went through rapid-aging during Becca's 1st grade year. Rarely have their been such alliances for the greater good than exist between Becca's teachers and ourselves. I'm sure someone somewhere in the universe has said the phrase "STOP IT RIGHT NOW" more than we. But we haven't run across them yet.

Anyway, we love her! And now she's 7.

Favorite present: Breyer horses.

Sarah! Get your shoes off the table!

2nd favorite present: dinosaur bones. You have to dig for them in a rock. Causing grains of fake sand all over Mom's kitchen. What's not to love?

Sister love waiting for rides at D-land.

Went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 4 times.

Peace y'all.

WATCH SARAH'S FIRST ICE SKATING COMPETITION!

Sunday, March 08, 2009

BUTTERFLIES

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Becca is in a very prolific writing phase - she's starting to write stories. Here's a book she is putting together. It's so good, after she colors the pictures, I might hard bind it. She'll want it later in life.

BUTTERFLIES
Butterflies start as an egg. They hatch in an hour. Then a fuzzy little caterpillar comes out of the egg and starts munching on leaves.
It eats and eats and eats until it is fat! When he has filled his tummy, he starts to make a chrysalis and shuts his eyes and goes to sleep for days and nights.
At day, it hatches from its chrysalis. It's now a butterfly. It has to dry its wings.
It flies around the flowers.
Soon this butterfly will lay eggs.
The eggs will hatch and start all over again.

THE MEANING OF FRIENDSHIP

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Hi there you. Yes, you.

You are reading personal information in a public space. About your friend.

Your friend is someone's niece... someone's daughter... someone's granddaughter... someone's secret crush.

For you to have read information about your friend and threatened your friend to spread rumors about her is not only completely uncool. It's evidence that you are not a very good friend.

I found this poem for you and I hope you can read and understand it. It's about the value of a friend.

Sometimes you only understand the value of a friend after you have lost her. I hope that doesn't happen to you.

Either way, you have taught me something very important: that you are not trustworthy. And so this space will no longer contain information that you can use to hurt anyone else.

A BEST FRIEND
A best friend is always there,whether you need advice,or a pep talk, or even a shoulder to cry on.
A best friend listens with her heart and is always honest with you, even though the truth may not be what you want to hear.
A best friend knows all your secrets, understands your fears, shares your dreams.
A best friend never stops believing in you, even if you give upon yourself.
You are that kind of friend to me.
And no matter what happens, you always will be.
You are my best friend....my forever friend.

By: Renee Duvall

O'REILLY IS DEAD...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

You guys all know this song, right:

O'Reilly is dead and his brother don't know it.
His brother is dead and O'Reilly don't know it.
They both are dead and lying in bed,
And neither one knows that the other is dead.

I used to think - how comforting for them actually. Until today.

While I was wrestling with some purchases for Sarah (the world's pickiest preteen), Don had done all the shopping and was ready to leave Target. I told him - why don't you just go back and load the car, and go somewhere else with Becca while we finish? I took his cell phone and he was to retrieve my cell phone from the car - then we could communicate at will.

Problem was, I was the only one with the car keys. But I didn't know that. I wandered around for hours - trying to call Don and then getting progressively more pissed off because he was ignoring me - then getting worried and wondering what had become of he and Becca.

Meanwhile his cell phone was ringing, but from numbers I didn't recognize. I figured his friends or workmates were trying to get ahold of him, so I let the calls ring through to voice mail. Of course they were Don - trying to call me from other phones because he couldn't get to my cell phone locked in the car.

Eventually, Don and Becca walked home three miles and Sarah and I found the car and drove home. And we each thought we were going to have to call 911 to reporting the other missing!

I don't really know what the moral of this story is. Perhaps it's that cell phones have made us a bit lazy. 20 years ago, parties splitting up would have agreed on a meeting place and time. Perhaps in our house, we ought to go back to that.

TRAUMA FLASHBACK #1

OK so the first major childhood memory that I was reliving in my spare time (in between wondering if Don and Becca were abducted by aliens, and arguing with Sarah): my first bra fitting.

My mom decided that I needed a bra. I'm not sure how old I was - probably she'll comment on this post (in the process of denying the whole thing) and tell us all. Anyway, do you think she saw this as an opportunity to bond with me? Or at least to leave me in a state of high self esteem? Oh no. She was thinking that the most important thing was to have me measured right.

My mom was rather obsessed with measurement. She tested each of us kids 3 different times for IQ during her PhD study but she never told us how we scored. She also liked to take us to Toby's Stride Rite because Toby really knew how to measure feet. Well, my grandfather was a shoe guy too, so maybe the measuring thing got drummed into hear head in her own past trauma, I don't know.

Anyway, she was thinking that she was not trustworthy to put a tape measure around me and haul me over to JC Penny's in peace, so she took me to a place called Margaret's Corset Shop.

Oh yeah. Margaret's does a brisk business - in fact, it's still there on Maryland in St. Louis.

Margaret's is not really the Victoria's Secret of St. Louis. To my childlike mind - it was like a part of a scary movie. Margaret's had a specialty in mastectomy supply. Yup. The mannequins all looked like this:

And corset isn't Margaret's middle name for nothin'. It made me wonder: oh my God, what the HELL IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME??? If I wasn't terrified of maturing before then, I sure was after getting a load of the merch at Margaret's.

suck it in, baby.

My mother did not even bother to warn me so I walked into the freaky woman body part situation completely cold.

The little bell on the door rang. And out crept a small woman. She hobbled over to us - I swear she was no taller than I was at the time - and my mom told her we were there to get measured for a proper brassiere.

So she led me to a dressing room and pulled the curtain shut. I took off my shirt and she took out her measuring tape. And she had THE COLDEST AND GNARLIEST HANDS KNOWN TO ALL MANKIND. And then said, "oh, you're developing nicely, dear."

Really. And I still grew up kind of ok. One of the bras from that trip was white with a little pink flower in the middle. I liked that one. Hey what can I say - such is the nature of a flashback.

TRAUMA FLASHBACK #2

As if that were not enough, I had to wear orthopedic shoes as a kid and my dad used to take me to some cobbler's shop down in the middle of nowhere, and the guy was sort of toad-like and on top of that, had oral cancer or something so he used to talk and breathe through a stoma. Here is a picture of a trach tube because any pictures I could find that even resembled this guy's stoma were just so soul-harming.

Anyway, my father did not even bother to warn me so I walked into the stoma cobbler situation completely cold. The whole experience was startling as a kid. As if it were not bad enough to have to wear blue suede reinforced steel saddle shoes.

That, coupled with the whole Margaret's Corset Shop experience, pretty much sealed my fate as a supernerd.

Sarah should kiss my (feet, ass, ring) for taking her to Target, I tell ya.

YOU PEOPLE SHOULD LISTEN TO ME

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

I can spot a trend a mile off. Read this, you naysayers.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=134080

MMMMMM. BROUP.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Today we went to Panera Bread for dinner. We like it. It was named St. Louis Bread Company before, so, like, I'm supposed to eat there...

I think Panera Bread is a little on the feminine side. There are large wall posters that say BUTTER in a scripty french font and things like that. Don never can find anything substantial to eat there. They are always playing some jazz-like flowery crap on the sound system. Even the conversations are girly - today we voted on whether we felt our hair stylist would have a vaginal birth? or a c-section (everyone was unanimous on the vaginal birth BTW).

We girls always get the soup in bread bowls and love it. The best part is when you get down to the bottom of the bread bowl, some of the bread has dissolved into the soup and it's like you are eating bread completely saturated with soup. This is the part of the meal we call Broup (bready soup). Oh man. You just can't beat broup on a kind of damp cold evening.

(Note to self: get a life.)

BOYZ

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Last week was Crazy Hair Day at school. They have to announce Crazy Hair Day so that you know when the kids are purposefully messing with their hair, as opposed to just the everyday disastrous mess.

Anyway, Sarah decided not to do it. She couldn't find her scrunchies in time. No biggie. We entered campus and enjoyed all the fluorescent teased spiked masses stroll by.

As we approached Sarah's classroom, a boy with green and orange spiked hair came bounding up. I know this boy - he was in her class last year. He looks like a miniature version of Prince William.

"Sarah! Look! I got 3 colors in my hair!"

Sarah didn't even make eye contact. "Well... that's nice..." she said.

This boy just kept on yacking. I finally just kissed her on the head and went to work.

Later I said to Sarah, "I think that boy likes you."

She said, "No, he HATES me. He is constantly picking on me. For example, today I was thinking very hard and my brain got heavy and I had to put my head down. He totally made fun of me."

"Sarah. This is a boy. They don't even realize when their flies are down. And he's noticing your every move? Likes you."

Then today when I got home, ANOTHER boy called our house. To "get the homework assignments".

What the heck is going on here? Don't I have a few years before this starts happening?

HUMILIATION REQUIRED

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Hi there. Boy have I missed you guys! Work devoured January. Hopefully it will use February to digest. But it's not looking that way so far.

It's my favorite time of day. I'm wearing my matrioshka doll PJs and in bed with the laptop. Don is watching Jason Bourne beat up some Tunisian fella - one of them is going to need a chiropractor, I can tell you that much. The dogs are curled up in bed like little fuzzy bricks - somehow they get heavier when they're sleeping, I don't get it. Becca is in bed with a pile of books as big as she is and whenever she finishes one we hear a THUD as she tosses it onto the floor. Tonight she is reading everything from dinosaurs to bumble bees to wiggly teeth. Sarah is in her room reading a book on Egypt after doing every math problem on the face of the earth.

Sarah had middle school orientation today. For God's sake! She's 11. When did that happen, exactly?

One of the news items she was very excited to report is that PE is optional - you can be permanently excused from PE by proving you are in an organized sport outside of school for at least 200 minutes a week. Of course, our time at the ice arena every week more than qualifies...

"Because Mom! If you do PE, you like have to go into a locker room with aaaaallll the other girls at school, and CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES."

"Oh shock and alarm. You are kidding. They make you change in front of girls?"

"Really Mom, don't kid around, I am NOT going to want to do that."

"Sarah, you have to take PE. How else are you going to become self-conscious about your body? This is unacceptable. It's like they are taking a part of the whole middle school experience away from you!"

"Mom you aren't making any sense."

Well, perhaps not. But what is middle school good for, except gaining the knowledge that you are a pod-person, totally geeky and self-conscious and afraid that you might be stuck as a dork forever? PE is Ground Zero for all that. You have to change in front of other girls and you see their bodies and realize Nature is conspiring to change you all. You sweat and smell bad and wonder if your deodorant is going to hold up. You have smelly gym clothes and have to suffer humiliation if they fall out of your backpack. This is the stuff, I tell you!

"I think you just want me to be as humiliated as you were."

Yes I admit it. Humiliation gives you an edge. Everyone knows that to develop muscle, you have to have resistance. Otherwise you're just mushy. I say up with public school PE. It's almost as good as public speaking for building that awkward teenage character.

SERGEANT BECCA FROM SQUAD 1

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Happy 2009! Are you writing 2009 on your checks right now? Tell the truth. Last year was easier - you could just fudge the 7 into an 8 - but turning an 8 into a 9... harder.

I have yet to post my Florida videos. This is because I am waiting on my parents to post their pictures of the vacation on Kodak Gallery. SO DO IT.

(Really that's a lame excuse because both Rebecca and Sarah got new digital cameras for the holidays and they snapped photos of everything down to the TSA dudes. And no, that was not a very good moment for all of us.)

But I wanted to post this hilarious photo of Becca from the trip. We went to this - what do I call it - entertainment venue? amusement park? called Wannado City just outside of Fort Lauderdale. It's a place where kids try out different professions and they "earn money" that they can then spend riding the Ferris Wheel or making a bracelet or something. It's laid out like a little indoor town, you have a bank and a vet and a salon...

http://www.wannadocity.com/
(beware the very loud homepage music)

It was a very fine piece of edutainment. Of course, I still worry a bit that I am creating nerdettes. Everyone else is off skiing over holiday break and my kids are learning how to be CSI agents...

The best event at the place had to be the fake firehouse. Kids learned about fire safety and what it really takes to be a fireman. I know one little person in our house who will never forget to "stop, drop, and roll." Seriously you get to slide down the little slide when the bell rings and get into this miniature fire truck and then the ride off, sirens blazing, to a burning building (fake fire)that they get to extinguish (REAL WATER).

So this had Becca written all over it. The only thing that would have put it over the top would have been the presence of dinosaurs at the actual fire scene, but that was at a different part of Wannado City (yup you could be a paleontologist for 12 minutes).

Have you ever seen a more serious-looking and determined 1st grader in your whole life than in this photo? I think not. (also her nails were looking lovely because she and Sarah had just come from the salon - hah)

She is now convinced she wants to be a firefighter when she grows up. (Unless dinosaurs can be recreated using DNA and in that case she wants to be a dinosaur vet.)

I told her being a firefighter was a really good thing. She would be vital to society. Especially California. And of course, she would have to learn how to cook. (It was news to her that firemen spend that much time in the station and cook for each other.)

"Mom... if I cook and the firehouse kitchen catches on fire... then the firemen can put it out right there!"

Well. Yes. That's true.