Princess Tea Party

Lien and Mai attended a Princess Tea Party yesterday for their friend's 5th birthday. You have to see it to believe it!

Table... (yes, that is all child size, and the plates and cups are glass)

Nails...

and Make-up.

So cute! I love this photo.

Presenting the royal court...

and cake!

A special guest arrives...(Mai was in awe)

You're Cinderella? I'm Cinderella!?!

"Mommy Han"

When your mom calls you by your full name you know you are in trouble, or at least that she means business and wants your attention, NOW. Mai has definitely picked up on this. This morning we were in her room and I was getting Lily dressed, and Mai really wanted to show me something. She said, "Mommy Han- look at me!"

Day 5 No power: Wed. 9-17

• I find that I’m still flipping the light switch on when I walk in a room, then for some reason I turn it off. Does it matter?
  Lily had a bad night, so Tai and I are both extra tired.

• It’s nice that Tai doesn’t have to take the time to do his hair before he goes to work. The dryer doesn’t work, so he has to take it (and his hair gel) with him. (In case you are reading this and don’t know my husband, he’s Vietnamese with very thick short black “Asian” hair. The only way to get it to do anything that looks professional is the use a dryer and lots of gel.)


• The girls and I went to a playdate at Steph’s house. Steph is the only friend I still have from kindergarten and she now lives about 4 miles from me and has a son the same age and my youngest. The girls sat mesmerized in front of You Gabba Gabba and Wonderpets. You would think they’d never seen TV before. Steph was one of the lucky few to only lose power for about 12 hours. She did a load of sippy cups in her dishwasher for me- Thanks Steph!!


• We left Steph’s house just in time for Lily’s nap, so she was out like a light in the car. Mai and Lien enjoyed Hannah Mantana on the car DVD player and ate peanut butter crackers and cereal bars for lunch (why is it children don’t get tired of eating the same things OVER and OVER again?). We needed to go for a long drive. Tai had told me one of his bank branches had water and ice for employees so we went to pick some up. All the ice Uncle has brought was almost melted. It took 45 minutes to get down 1960, a drive that would take 15 minutes on a normal day, but having every stop light become a four way stop is not normal.


• We turned into the bank parking lot (the bank was closed) and pulled next to a row of three 18-wheeler trailers. I showed Tai’s pay stub and two very cheerful and polite men proceed to load my car with 2 case of water, 2 bags of ice and a box, and we were on our way. We got home in 20 minutes using the Beltway- no tolls- YEAH!
  What’s is the BOX??? We didn’t know, but when we got home I let the girls open it. You would have thought it was Christmas morning. Lien pulled out cereal- FROSTED FLAKES- mommy never buys that one (it’s a special treat for Grandma’s house). Mai went straight for the fruit snacks. Lily just thought it was fun to dump everything. I was most grateful for powered milk. After all the powered mil we drank as kids, I never though I would ever be so happy to see powered milk. We were not in a desperate situation, we didn’t need this box of supplies to eat, but it was so nice and appreciated to have something new and different. Many grocery stores were still not open and the ones that were had lines to get in and some rationed the number of items you could buy. Not having to stand in line with three kids just to get into a store- that’s a blessing.

• Tai got home from work. We had canned beef stew for dinner- yum (don’t knock it- I have a new appreciation). I went to Emma’s house to do a load of clothes. When I got home we were sitting in the living room with the girls, getting ready to light candles. Tai JUMPED up like I’ve never seen and yelled “Lord have mercy!” I thought he had flipped his lid and hen he pointed at the ceiling fan- IT WAS TURNING!!!! The girls and I started jumping up and down and running to every room turning lights on. Mai was yelling at the top of her lungs, “LIGHTS ON, LIGHTS ON.”


• The girls went to bed. Mommy watched Project Runway. THE END!

Day 4 No power: Tuesday 9-16

Day 4: Tuesday

• Tai had to go back to work- the only branch open in his whole district. People need money. The good news is he gets off at 4:00.
• Grandma came over. Papa couldn’t take the heat anymore and went to visit his parents in Brazoria county- ironically they got power first, and they were in a mandatory evacuation area.
  


• The weather is COLD! It is so nice. We spent the morning outside. You would think we were expecting snow from the way the girls were dressed.





• I drove to the library to return the 6 DVD’s that were now a day overdue ($0.25 per DVD per day, you do the math). I was convinced I would be charged late fees. I was happy the drop box was open even though the library was closed until further notice. I found a gas station with no line (I hadn’t seen that since before the storm), so even though I had half a tank I stopped to fill up. (Tai filled his tank for free after work. His bank had a fuel tanker brought in for employees- nice.)
  
• My brother and I had a big fight. He had been with out power for 12 hours and I had been without for 4 days. He got on my last nerve. I’m sure he think I’m a queen “witch” right now but I don’t care- he’s not my favorite person at the moment either. He and Grandma left as soon as I got home from the library.


• Ok- just me and the girls again. When we were waiting for Tai to come home from work a friend walked by our house. I asked her how her weekend home in Galveston was. She shrugged and said, “We don’t know. If it’s there, it’s there. If it’s not, it’s not.”


• When Tai got home we headed to the park- it had a tree in it, but it wasn’t blocking the swings, so the girls could still play.


• We are all getting used to going to sleep as soon as it gets dark.

Day 3 No Power: Monday 9-15

Day 3: Monday

• What a lovely day! The air is cool. The sun is shining.
  
• What’s that? The garbage man?!? Run!!! We get everything out to the curb just in time.
  
• Play date at Emma’s house with her two small children- one Mai’s age, and one Lily’s age (and one on the way). Tai got to stay home cleaning out the frig- mayo, salad dressing, cheese- it all has to go. I get a load of towels washed while the kids play- like I said, Emma’s a doll.
  
• We went home for naptime and Lily woke up with a terrible cough and sounded like she was wheezing. I called the pediatrician and the nurse said to bring her in. Great- I have to cross the intersection of Hwy.6 and 290 and the lights are out. Lungs clear, ears clear, throat clear- maybe it’s the weather.
  
• The weather was nice so we had a fun filled afternoon of sidewalk chalk.
  
• My younger brother drove in from his voyage to Louisiana. He had been visiting Houston on vacation, and went to visit “friends” (long story- won’t go into it) in Louisiana on Thursday, just in time to escape IKE. He was nice enough to bring 8 bags of ice with him. We shared with my parents, neighbor, and Lien’s best friend.
  
• The mattresses returned to the bunk beds. With Uncle her, he could sleep in the bottom bunk and Lien could sleep in her own bed. Tai slept with lily in te guest room and I slept with Mai. By the time we get the sleeping arrangements down, the power will be back on.
• 

Day 2 No power: Sun. 9-14

Day 2: Sunday (forget narrative, I’m going to bullet points)

• We don’t even know if there will be Mass today. We think about going, but don’t.
  
• We must finish off all food in frig/ freezer- thank goodness for a gas stove. Pasta for breakfast anyone? Only Tai and I eat it. The girls have oatmeal.


• Road trip! We heard on the radio that our HEB will be open, and go looking for ice and milk- we got neither. The ice machine makes one bag of ice every 20 minutes and at least 10 people were waiting in line (limit one per family).We bought dried fruit and flavored water and sat in the HEB café snacking and enjoying the AC. Several people had brought in their cell phones to charge.


• In the afternoon my friend Emma (who lives a mile away) calls to say she has power (gurrr!!!!) She’s a doll, and invites me to bring all my freezer food over before it thaws. I took all food in the deep freezer to Emma’s house just before dark. Driving home was SCARY. The house lights stopped at the end of Emma’s street, the rest of her neighborhood was pitch black. Jackrabbit Road was black, the light was flashing, turning into our neighborhood was black. Even with a full moon, it was scary. Note to self- no driving after dark until lights come back up.


• We move the twin mattresses from the bunk beds to Lily’s room since we can’t move her crib to the living room. Tai, Lien, Lily and the baseball bat (what? her window faces the street, we don’t live in a “bad” neighborhood, but I’m not taking any chances) sleep in Lily’s room, Mai and I sleep in my room. A cold from is coming.

Girls keeping busy...

Reading before bed...

Day 1 No Power: Saturday 9-13

Our house before IKE....

and after.... (a few less leaves on the tree)

Warning: This will be a HUGE blog, with lots of photos! I’ll post one day at a time!

I won’t bore you with the details of getting ready for IKE. I’ll start from the point at which we lost power…

Day 1: Saturday

We wake up to no power- no surprise there! It’s still dark when the girl get up at 6:30 so we have to light candles. I always knew I’d use the fireplace for something.

First goal of the day- drink all the milk in the frig. Everyone has cereal for breakfast. Open the windows and survey the damage outside- it doesn’t look too bad. Most of the leaves are blown off the trees, and we have a few shingles blown off the house, mostly in the back. The neighbors “roof whirly thingy” has landed in our yard. One crape myrtle is uprooted; Tai thinks he can fix it.

We drove around the neighborhood and realized how lucky we were. Many houses had roof damage and down trees and fences. We would find out later that several houses had roof leaks. We decided to drive to Tai’s parents’ house- a 15 minute drive straight down West Road. There were lots of down limbs, but we made it fine. They didn’t have power either.

Saturday was hot, but no miserable.

That night we put the bunk bed mattresses on the living room floor so the girls would be closer to us and we could open all the windows that face the backyard.

I have power!

After five days, the lights are on! As I get used to having power again, I find myself feeling very disconnected from IKE. I lived it, but it only existed in my house, on my street and my neighborhood. I didn’t get to watch the play-by-play on CNN. Tai and I find ourselves scouring the internet for images of what we missed. It’s all very surreal right now. I will be posting a HUGE blog that I am putting together of our five days without power, including photos of the girls playing grocery store with our box of relief supplies from Tai’s work. Stay tuned.

Take a hike IKE

It’s been a busy busy week with my brother visiting. I placed my first order as a Mary Kay consultant. I sold 20 things on ebay that all have to be shipped. Hurricane IKE is heading straight toward us so I had to make sure my grandparents were evacuated. Oh, and Lien is sick with croup and is currently hooked to the nebulizer. I need to go secure patio furniture, so I’ll write more when I have time to breathe!

Virgin Sex

I think I’m clever sometimes, I hope it never backfires somehow. We taught or daughter what sex is when she was 5- it’s whether you are male or female. Perfect, that puts off explaining the other definition of sex for a while. Yesterday she learned virgin- a drink that doesn’t have any alcohol. Today she is at a friend’s house playing. I can just imagine her telling Ms. Carmen, “I know what a virgin is.”

Busy Busy Week!

I’m typing this blog as I watch the RNC, and wait to hear McCain speak. It’s been a busy week. Monday we “chilled” and watched CNN all day hoping New Orleans wouldn’t be devastated yet again. Tuesday was Mai’s first day of 3-year-old preschool. She’ll go three days a week this year. I think baby Lily is a bit shocked from having Mommy all to herself for several hours a day. I spent all afternoon putting Lily’s baby clothes on eBay while Lily napped. Wednesday a miracle happened….I GOT A NAP. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I slept for 45 minutes in the middle of the day! My younger brother, the Marine, flew in Wednesday night just in time to watch Palin’s speech together.



BIG NEWS…
Last night was the first night Mai wore panties to bed instead of a pull-up. She got me up at midnight to take her to the potty- Hooray!! Now just one more child to get out of diapers!