Month: September 2005

A low-key day today for me and the kids, we spent the day going to the library, eating at McDonalds and Vince taking a nap (Yes!). For about 45 minutes today, both of the kids were napping and I had a few moments to myself, which I spent asleep. Vince really dislikes taking a nap and I don’t often force the issue, but I felt today that he really needed one and he went to sleep after about an hour of “I DON’T WANT TO TAKE A NAP!” But if he takes a nap, then we can go swimming and on an ice cream run before bed. If he doesn’t nap, we usually have to put him to bed right away. I know, exciting stuff, but what can you do? Thank you Kiki for the wonderful Edda name puzzle. It was just waiting for us today in our mailbox. Oh also in the mailbox was a wedding invitation to an old MIT friend. It’s going to be in Puerto Rico in April of next year and I’m hoping we can make it!

Last long weekend, we went for another long trip. We drove about 1,700 miles altogether and visited 5 National Parks. Mom got her National Park’s passport stamped all over and they filled all the blanks.

We went to Dinosaur National Monument in the northwest corner of Colorado and northeast corner of Utah. A lot of Dinosaur bones are still on the quarry wall which is enclosed as a building wall, very interesting. We also walked along the Green River, an upstream of Colorado River. After that, we went to Fruita, Colorado; it is about 30 miles west of Grand Junction, Colorado. We then drove along Grand Mesa near by. We discovered a housing development right along the mountains there. Those houses are huge and with pretty views. 5 acres log itself is about $150,000. They are really nice just like those houses right along side the Scottsbluff Mountain at Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

The next day, we went Archers National Park and walked a pretty long distance to see the famous Landscape Arch which appears on many covers of the traveling maps. Its length is more than a football field and the thinnest point is just about 6 feet. Then we drove to a small town just west of Zion National Park which was named by first Mammon settlers about its beauty and its remoteness, and apparently, without religious persecutions.

The next day, we went to Zion National Park, Utah. There we saw two climbers on a wall. They stayed there overnight half way before going to the top. It is a pretty sight to see two small dots on this wall of a huge vertical sediment rock formation. After that, we went to Bryce National Park. The oldest tree in the world is there, it is about 5000 years old. In both places, we took park shuttles and it is a very neat idea, less driving by individuals and less pollution to the park environment. After that, we drove north to Capitol Reef National Monument, Utah. It is also very pretty. One segment of route 12 is right on the top of a tall mountain. It was very scary when we drove on top of that because both sides are deep cliffs without anything to block your view, very scary indeed.

We stayed in a small town at east side of this park. Next day, we drove home and passing by the famous ski town of Vail, Colorado on route 70.

Well, this week, we have to work to makeup our 40 hours a week to schedule. It is better this way because our per diem and payment rules.

With Mom, I do the dishes; prepare the bed; iron the clothes and move out the trash. Mom is quite surprise to find this 🙂

We had a really nice day today – Jeremy turned 37 and we celebrated by going to Jade Garden at the mall. It was a nice dinner, but the kids were wiped out from a long and wonderful day. We spent the afternoon with Kate, the wife of one of Jeremy’s coworker. She’s from Texas and we met at Julia’s party last Friday. Anyways she’s a cool pregnant lady, (not in the temperature sense, just in the attitude sense) and we had a nice time hanging at the pool at her apartment complex. Then afterwards, we went to the mall near Kate’s house and Vince loves to “craft” which means that he gets to make this plastic window cling. He gets to do this once a week when I have to be out of the house to get it cleaned. Anyways, Jeremy arrived just in time to help out with crafting which took way longer than I thought it would and we were all starving by the time we sat down to dinner.

Well. As we all know, Edda is almost 18 months old and not yet walking. She is the speed demon crawler, but no independent steps – almost no interest in walking. She has inherited the flared out feet – a la her mother and will most likely walk like a duck. I’m a little bit concerned, not like OMG concerned, just a little corner of my brain knows that she’s a bit behind other kids in the walking department. Anyways, I’m happy to report that just in the past few days, she’s been making a lot of progress and seems to really enjoy standing up, clutching a couch. In the morning, when she wakes up, I bring her to our bedroom and then I collapse into our bed hoping to sleep another 15 minutes. She spends the whole time cruising around our bed clutching our bedspread and standing. Woo hoo!

After story time, Vince, Edda and I went to some mall on the island looking for yarn. Vince wants to learn how to knit. Well, we didn’t find the yarn store, but we found a sushi place that has the plates of sushi rolling by on a conveyer belt.

Went to the Botanical Gardens for a storytime today. We didn’t get very far into the gardens, we made it only to the storytime pavilion and then to the cafe as it was rather hot. The orchids were lovely as is Edda in front of them. Vince was a little nervous at first, but eventually moved up to the front row to participate in some of the games, Simon Says and I Spy.

Our friend Shelia in Austin has been working non-stop during the past few days helping some of the displaced people of New Orleans who have reached all the way to the middle of Texas. She has been working her tail off trying to get money, supplies, donations to the people who need them and also working the phones getting families reunited. Bless her heart!

Finished this book by John Irving a few days ago and while I am a fan of Mr. Irving’s this was not his best at-bat. I’d go with Son of the Circus anyday, now that was a good book.

Tonight we had spare ribs with orange/maple sauce. I thought it wasn’t worth the effort, which actually wasn’t that much, it just involved marinating the meat in the morning, then starting the cooking 2 hours before you want to eat and finally preparing the glaze. Jeremy thought it was OK though.

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Thank yous go out to my parents for the thoughtful birthday present(s), it will go towards a nice dinner night out on Wed at the Jade Garden. Yummy! Also thank you to Katherine for Animal Baby and the Big Backyard. Edda is still mainly into eating them, but Vince was very excited to see them in the mail. We also got a 2nd package from Paragon with the same ice cream bowls and the book (which Vince loves and we use everyday, by the way). Hmmm.
Oh yes, and by the way, if you are totally nuts and want to see a billion pictures of us just click on the caption of the picture, I think it will take you to all the pictures I’ve ever taken, starting from a month or two ago.

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Sunday night again, the weekend passes so quickly here in Singapore. I know that it’s Labor Day weekend, the traditional weekend for the Lee family reunion, but I guess it isn’t happening this weekend, so here’s a SHOUT OUT to all those Lees out there, don’t work too hard. Today, I actually spent quite a bit of time away from Jeremy and the kids, grocery shopping, walking around the library looking for knitting needles, walking the dog, etc. Jeremy cooked for me and the kids all day today. Spaghetti for lunch and eggs and noodles for dinner. We were suppose to go see a free concert at the racetrack today, but by 7pm we are gearing down and getting ready for bed.