We celebrated Grandpa’s 66th birthday at Grandpa’s favorite restaurant Sakura:
We recycle the candle and we didn’t have another 6 so it was 65+1 = 66 years old:
It sort of looks like Grandpa has a Statue of Liberty hat on but that is just Bryan’s shirt in the background:
Happy Birthday!!
Jack’s science project was optional for his grade but I just assumed more people would do it, but he only had a few classmates participate. In any case, and this will totally sound bias, but I thought Jack did a good job on his project:
A few other kids had print out of their project so no writing or drawing of pictures. They just had to glue it on. In any case, I told Jack that if he did a good job, I would buy him a new iPad game. Jack had been wanting Iron Man2 on the iPad for 4.99 but for the last 2-3 weeks I told him we can’t buy it unless it goes on sale for .99 cents because Daddy can’t afford a 4.99 game….so for a job well done, we bought the game for full price!
This is sort of how Aya and I feel about house hunting:
Aya and I both decided that we will actively look for a new house by the start of the fall school year or we will start to remodel our house and stop our house hunting. Aya and I have been looking over the years but not seriously. If there was an Open House and it looked decent we would go. We also don’t want to remodel our house because we don’t think we will recoup the money back when or if we sell. The problem is we have been saying this for years so instead of enjoying a remodeled house we just leave it as it.
The past few weekends we have been looking at 5-6 different homes every weekend. There was one house in El Segundo the entire family liked but there was already a bidding war and it was near the top limit that we wanted to spend so we backed out. Since that time we have seen other houses we liked but none that we wanted to put an offer on.
We spent Memorial Weekend at our pool and Aya and I both thought it sure is nice having a pool we don’t have to maintain on our own. Half the properties we look at have a pool. If it doesn’t have a pool it has a nice view of the city line or out to the beach but it is small with no yard. It is so hard trying to find the ‘perfect’ place where we can settle down for the next 30 years or so.
Sometimes I forget Stacy is just 2 years old. She seems to do things so much faster than Jack did at the same age. Stacy recently starting playing UNO:
She understands she can change the color with a “wild” card or a different number. She doesn’t know strategy but the kids UNO is pretty easy so it is basically luck of the draw. I must say Stacy is pretty good.
I told Aya taking the kids by myself it pretty hard because Stacy is TROUBLE. This time Aya watched Stacy while I played with Jack at the pool. It all started out nice:
Then Stacy reminded me why she is my child…she dumped water on Aya’s head:
After 4 hours of the pool and some jacuzzi time, Stacy was knocked out watching tv after pool time:
For the past few weeks we have been working on Jack’s science project. The rules stated that it had to be age appropriate and the student has to do all the work by themself.
Jack’s science project was Oil and Water do not mix.
Jack laying out the text and the pictures for his diagram:
Tracing Jack’s pencil with marker and coloring the pictures with crayon:
Almost done:
Finished product before submitting it to the science fair with a jar of oil and water:
The weather was great over Memorial weekend so headed off to the pool. Last time Stacy didn’t want to go to the pool but this time she went and she LOVED it. I mean she loved it!!
Stacy has no fear and it was a full time job watching her at the pool. Jack knew he had limited skills in the water and would just stay on the steps or the safety of the pole. Stacy just jumps in the pool!! Stacy is water safe but she doesn’t know how to swim but she just wanted to jump in and swim like Jack.
I could kick back in the pool with Jack and sort of lounge but not with Stacy. Stacy is trying to swim by herself so even if you hold or carry her in the pool she is trying to squirm out and swim on her own.
Jack had open house at his school last week. What a scam. Sure it is just Kindergarten but there was absolutely nothing really to see or do at Open House.
I thought it would be like the parent teacher conference where you get a status update about how your kids are progressing at school. Nope, Open House was just seeing all the stuff they do at school. Now, all the stuff he does at school comes home every week in Jack’s folder so if you go thru that as a parent then you really don’t need to go to open house.
Just a scam for you to leave work a little early, shave (for me) and walk around campus thinking you are looking at nice stuff like this:
This was basically a self portrait of Jack…that he named Jonathan. What a spaz?! Who draws a picture of himself and calls him ANOTHER name?? Genius.
As most of you know Aya goes to work early due to the Stock Market opening. Typically, Aya will be up at 4:45 am and out of the door just after 5:00 am. The week before Memorial weekend Aya was waking up at 5:45 or 6:00…so basically for her sleeping in an extra hour and half.
Right before the END of the 3 day weekend Aya springs this on me:
Aya: Oh, can I get a ride to the airport Tuesday morning. (She is going to Chicago for work)
Miles: What time?
Aya: I dunno, before or after you take the kids over to your parents house.
Miles: What? What time is your flight?
Aya: 8:15 am
Miles: If we go BEFORE I drop the kids off then I have to wake them up so we can leave early. Jack has his science project and he has to be at school early as well. If we go AFTER then it doesn’t leave you a lot of time to go thru security after a 3 day weekend.
Aya: I will make it.
Miles: Yeah, but if I go after, then I can’t sleep in the way you have been sleeping in AND after I take you to the airport, I might as well go to work.
Aya: So.
Miles: So, I don’t want to go to work super early after a 3 day weekend…especially when my boss isn’t going to be there for the next 2 days.
Aya: So I should get a cab?
Miles: YES.
Aya’s company PAYS for the cab ride to the airport as well. Grrr. See this is why I have gray hair, balding and why I am so grouchy.
This is how it all starts! Aya painted Stacy’s nails one week and now EVERY week Stacy wants her nails done. Aya and Stacy went to Rite-Aid and Stacy picked out 4-5 different colors and Aya paints Stacy’s nails every weekend.
After Aya painted Stacy’s nails, I noticed that the nail polish on one finger was gone:
Miles: Oh no Stacy, what happened to your nail polish?
Stacy: Where?
Miles: Right there…on your finger.
Stacy: Oh. I pick my nose with that finger.
HAHAHHAHAHA.
It seems like everything for my knee is going as planned. My knee is feeling better every week. I can feel it getting stronger and it feels more like ‘my knee’ again. For a while I had no feeling in my knee or it felt ‘numb’.
I was finally cleared to come into therapy twice a week now. I can walk pretty normal now. I can go to Disneyland and do most every day things now. I still can’t run or jump yet. I run on the treadmill at therapy still but I have to do supervised running. I have not even tried jumping yet but they said NO jumping yet.
Still, it feels pretty good to do most day to day things with no pain or no limitations. My leg is still pretty weak though as you can see all my muscles twitching trying to work and ‘keep up’ during my exercises.
Hopefully I will be able to start riding my bike to the beach for the summer!
I took Jack to the SBY Camp at my alma mater, CSU Dominguez Hills. It was my first time back since I graduated. The campus basically looked the same but a lot of new buildings and parking have been added.
In any case, there was about 80 kids at the SBY Basketball camp:
Jack did pretty well. The had 6 different baskets and grouped the kids together based on skill level.
Jack is 6 years old and he was lumped with the 7-8 year old players.
At the end of camp they had a scrimmage. See the kid in the orange shorts. We was on the other team. Jack went up for a shot and the kid swatted the ball about 5 ft out of bounds….it was a great block. I was pretty happy that Jack went out and played with the older kids.
After I hurt my leg we hired a housekeeper named Elia to clean our house every other week. It has been almost 4 months now and she has been great.
Last week Jack and I were working on his homework and Jack was making lots of mistakes so he had to erase everything and start over. When he used his eraser it made all those eraser ‘droppings’ and Jack just brushed it onto the ground.
Miles: “Stop brushing all the eraser on the ground.”
Jack: “Why? It bothers me”.
Miles: “Because, I will have to clean it from the table AND the ground now.”
Jack: “Why?”
Miles: “Because it is dirty and we need to clean up after ourselves.”
Jack: “But Elia can clean it.”
Grrr. See that is why I didn’t want to get a housekeeper. How or why Jack even deferred that to Elia I have no idea. Aya and Jack….birds of a feather!
We celebrated Uncle Bryan’s 27th birthday at my parents house:
We ordered Tito’s for dinner and my mom made apple pie:
Happy Birthday!
