The past few weekends have been extremely busy.  Many joyous, sad, and memorable events have taken place during the last few weeks.  Over the past few weeks, we have experience both life and death and this has helped us put our lives into perspective.  This truly has taught us how to cherish the moment and your loved ones and to be glad for what you have and not to take anything for granted.  During one week, we celebrated my birth into this world and then two weeks later, we mourned over the death of Michael’s grandmother. 

During the last weekend in April, Michael took me to Utah as a birthday present.  There were two purposes for the trip.  The first one was to watch the Kings play-off game in Utah.  The second purpose was a mini vacation from the kids.  The trip was very interesting and relaxing.  I slept through the night for three nights without any kids interrupting my sleep.  It was cool.  I also got to sleep in late.  The one downside to it all was that the Kings lost Game 3.  (Of course we all know now that the Kings won that series.  Go Kings!)  Overall, I had a lot of fun.  I have, however, come to the conclusion that Utah is a very boring place to visit or live.  There isn't much to do around there.  We walked around a mall a lot.  It's very similar to our Downtown Plaza.  We watched Bulletproof Monk.  Michael didn't really like the movie.  He complained that the graphics and special effects were done very poorly. I tend to agree with him on that.  For me, it was an okay movie.  I just like to watch Chow Yun Fat.  He was very cool.  The plot was okay, but like Michael said, the acting was very poor.  We also went to a planetarium.  The show that we watched put me to sleep.  It was very boring.  It reminded me of sitting in a science class and forced to watch an education movie on the big bang and how the universe was formed.   We also watched a 3D IMAX movie. Now that was cool.  Tom Cruise narrated the movie and it was about how the space station was built.  No falling asleep to that movie.

There was one thing that I did not like about the whole trip and that was dinner on Sunday night.  We decided to try this new restaurant inside this mall.  It was Brazilian food.  Yes, me trying new food. The menu in the window looked pretty promising so we went in.  We were seated, but we never got a menu.  We found out that dinner was buffet style.  It was a very different type of buffet dinner.  There was a buffet table where you could get all different types of appetizers and side dishes.  There was also an inside grill where all the meat was cooking.  Each table had a little turning wheel that you would use to tell the servers whether or not you wanted to be served meat or not.  They supposedly had 15 different kinds of meat that was being served and of course, honey glazed pineapples.  Well, the dinner was pretty good overall.  I tried a lot of different types of meat and Michael loved the buffet dishes that they were serving.  The surprise came when we got the bill.  The whole dinner for two and two glasses of strawberry lemonade (the strawberry lemonade was made from real strawberries and lemon) cost $53.00 after tips.  When we got to the airport, Michael got the bill for the car that we rented for two days.  It only cost $52.00.  So, we spent more on a one-time dinner than we did on a two-day car rental.  And of course, we never knew that dinner was so expensive because they never disclosed that information to us. 

I think overall, Sunday was just a rip off day.  When we got back into Sacramento, we went to pick up our car.  When we left the car at the airport, we looked at the daily parking rate and it stated IN BOLD AND BLACK LETTERS that it was $7 for every 24 hours.  Since we got there around 7 PM on Friday and didn't get back until midnight on Sunday, we were guessing the most that we could be charged for was $21.  Well, SURPRISE again.  When we got up to pay for the ticket, it was $30.  We asked why and the lady told us that it was because parking in Daily Parking at the airport was $10 per day instead of $7 even though the stupid sign when you drive in stated $7.  She also informed us that $7 a day was for the Economy Parking.  Boy did that get me fired up.  Like dinner, it’s not about the money.  It’s about being honest to your customers.  If it’s going to be $10 a day, then tell me that it’s $10.  I don’t like being lied to or deceived.  Oh, well, I guess I’ve learned my lesson to always park in the economy parking lot if I ever leave my car at the airport.

Okay, a bit about the kids first before we move onto the next weekend.

Zachary has three teeth now!  The first one came right a little after I wrote the last journal entry.  It’s on the bottom of his mouth.  It’s really cute because when he smiles, you can see this one little tooth sticking out.  Two more came out a few weeks ago.  They are his bunny teeth.  They’re not all the way out yet, but they’re getting there.  I checked a few days ago and I also have noticed two more coming out on the top of the mouth and one more on the bottom.  The two on top are right next to his two bunny teeth.  The one on the bottom is going to be right next to his one stand out tooth right now.  He’s beating his brother at the teething game.  Zachary can also stand by himself now.  We’re guessing that he will be walking in about a month or so.  He can actually take a step or two by himself before he falls down.  He can stand for about 10 – 20 seconds before he loses his balance.  Zachary is getting growing up very fast.  It seemed like yesterday when we bought him back from the hospital.  I can’t believe he’s more than 10 months already.  

Nicholas will be four in a few more weeks.  The last four years have just been incredible.  Not only did I find a wonderful husband, but also I have two beautiful children.  Nicholas is still developing his speaking abilities.  He’s getting better and better everyday.  He is mainly speaking in English, but he can understand Chinese.  I am trying to make him speak in Chinese more often.  We are also teaching him how to count to 10.  He is also learning to recognize the alphabets.  He knows the letter “w” for sure.  I remember when we first started reciting the alphabets with him, he couldn’t say the letter “w” and now that’s the first letter that he can recognize.  Michael was also teaching him how to recognize actual words in a book.  I remember when we were up in Oregon, Michael thought Nicholas to recognize the word “foot/feet” in a Dr. Seuss book.  Nicholas is a smart kid and is learning very quickly.

Okay, this family update is taking quite a long time to finish.  I’ve been at this for more than a month now and I’m still not done with it.  Everything above this paragraph was written over a month ago on May 12th.  Well, a lot has happened in the last month.  We made a trip up to Oregon to see Michael’s father and step-mother.  It was the first time that they got to see Zachary.  They were very happy to see the little one and thought that he was adorable.  He also enjoyed them and the cats.  Nicholas loved the trend mill that was up there.  He wanted to get on it the whole time we were there.  Oh, Zachary wanted to get on it too.  It was a nice weekend getaway and we all enjoyed our time up in Oregon.  I just don’t like the drive up there and the drive back home.  It was way too much time to spend in the car.  Zachary didn’t like the car ride either.  He complained about it every second when he was awake. 

The weekend after that was a very sad weekend.  On May 9^th, Michael got a very heart breaking call in the morning.  It was his mother calling him to tell him that his grandmother had just passed away.  I was on my way to work when Michael called me and I could here how devastated he was by the sound of his voice.  I didn’t know how to comfort him.  I thought about it the whole day at work and Michael never did go to work that day.  He stayed home and did a memorial for Grandma Tuttle on our webpage.  We went down to the Bay Area that Sunday and stayed there until Wednesday.  We went to the viewing and the memorial service, but did not get the chance to attend the burial because it was on Thursday.  Michael was able to see his grandmother one last time and was able to say his good-bye’s to her.  He also got to take the time to visit his old neighborhood again.  It brought back a lot of old childhood memories in him.  I’m glad that he was able to spend most of the time down there with his family during his most unhappy times.  During both the viewing and the memorial, I got to hear many great stories about Grandma Tuttle and how she was a wonderful teacher.  I learn a lot about who she was and how wonderful of a life she lived.

Okay, an update on Zachary. He now has six or seven teeth now. It seems like more of them are on the way.  Also, Zachary can now walk.  He can walk quite a long distant before he resorts to crawling.  Since his mobility is much more rapid now, we have to baby proof the house now.  He’s getting himself into cabinets, drawers, and closets. He’s grabbing everything that he can get his hands on, especially cat food and the water tray.  Oh, yeah, he loves the toilet also.  He thinks it’s a small little pond where he can splash all the water he wants.  We have to keep the bathroom doors closed because of him.  And yes, he loves taking baths.  Kids and water just go together so well.  He loves it when he gets to sit in the tub and splash water all over the place.  He hates it when he has to come out because his hands are all wrinkled. 

Well, it’s time for their little bath so until next time, cherish the moment!