Pictures Taken in Japan

I haven't been able to edit the pictures I took in Japan, but here are a few of them that I edited tonight.  Aaah, the beauty!  Japan is a truly a beautiful country.  You discover the beauty of your country when you live oversea.  It is ironic but true.  I hope you can sense the appreciation of comfort and endless fascination I feel towards my country.   I am sorry I am way too tired to add a caption for each but I promise I will do it over the weekend.  I have been working out at the gym every single day this week for an hour of cardio plus stretch and weights.  I will write about it in the next post!  I am finally very angry with my fats.  I am sending them off for good.  Adios, fatos! I hope you enjoy the pictures! 

Campbell's Book Picks

I have been reading to Sean almost every night to introduce him to the wonderful world he can step into through books.  I have read several great books so far but the two that stand out are Wonder by R.J. Palacio and I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. 

Wonder is an amazing read about a boy who has facial deformity by birth and how he and people around him realize a little courage can give a positive impact on others.  I won't get into the details, but Sean was hooked on this book and often asked me to keep reading more.  This is an excellent book to teach youth how important it is to have compassion for others.  The voice changes from the boy to her sister, her mother, his friends etc... so it is very interesting to hear how they perceive things differently and what their experiences are.  I cried reading the last few pages of the book and it left me with a cleansed sensation after reading.  If you have not read it yet, I highly recommend it!

The story about Malala is quite a famous one and since Sean has this age typical "girls sucks" attitude, I thought I would read the book to him to let him know how girls in other parts of the countries are fighting for their rights.  The book is a young readers edition so I think it left out some grizzly details about her shooting incident.  It does mention about flogging and murders committed by Taliban and Sean could not believe someone would choose to do such heinous things just because they don't obey their rules.  At first, Sean was saying that Malala is lucky she didn't have to go to school after Taliban took over, but after a while he was in disbelief about how such a basic thing in America has to become a cause of a battle.  I will show him the video of Malala's speech when she won the Nobel Peace prize.  He is now very interested in Malala's cause and I hope he will learn to be an equality advocate for women in the future.  It is an intense read but it has a great message for every reader. 

I suppose it might be best to avoid reading them before bedtime because you might have a hard time stopping.  I enjoyed reading them to Sean though!  Mike likes to "read" to him by listening to audio book with him, but I like to manually read because I think it will leave a lasting impression to the children and they feel my love for them.  I am a busy Mom but I like to take a little quiet time with my children before their bedtime. 

It is time for me to find another book to read to Sean.  Do you have a favorite children's novel?

Red Carpet Event

Jen and I had a little adventure in a place where I have never imagined, the mall!  We were invited to a special VIP event to kick off the opening of the UNIQLO Seattle from a person who dressed like a baby piggy-backed behind grandma in Capital Hill on Halloween.  We befriended the "baby" named William and it happened that he was the store manager for the new UNIQLO that is to open.  He graciously invited us to the VIP invitation only event flocked by fashion bloggers and we were glad he did! 

I shop at UNIQLO in Japan often because I like their basic design, higher than average quality and price.  They have a weekly sale and I looked forward to Thursdays' flyer for the weekend sale.  I was very happy to hear the news about it coming to Bellevue.  I no longer have to stuff my suitcase with my purchases from Japan!  My shopping life is definitely getting better.  Bellevue is currently reinventing the city-scape and scenes.  Despite being one of the richest cities in America, driving around the city never gives the impression.  There are old strip malls with poor designed parking lots, stores are spread apart so much that people have to drive everywhere, the main roads are congested and panhandlers are on every corner... It is going to change though with the new business district springing up and the light rail system coming to Bellevue.  I do like old buildings and city with a character, but I am excited for it to become a more organized and efficient city. 

Back to the main subject... Jen and I had a lot of fun at the UNIQLO party.  They served hors d'oeuvre and had a couple of bars to get some drinks.  There were many people who were way more stylish than I was mingling happily.  Jen and I checked out the whole store, touching things and finally trying out some jackets and skirts.  The products were the same as in Japan, except they did not have children's character T-shirts.  I was hoping they do since my children like Japanese cartoon characters.  We saw William but he seemed busy so we didn't want to disturb him.  I had a special item in my bag, Sean's football, because I knew a Seahawks player was going to be there.  I was looking around the store and spotted Jermaine Kearse and his wife, Marisa, talking to someone.  In Seattle, spotting someone famous means seeing Seahawks players.  I was very excited to see him there and I was determined to get his autograph for Sean. 

After the Japanese sake barrel pounding ceremony, I approached Jermaine and took a picture together.  He was a darling young man with very clean look.  I asked him if he could sign the ball and he said "sure!" and signed it.  He was smaller than Mike with tiny waist.  I wondered what it feels like to be able to move so nimbly on the field.  I wondered what it must feel like to be a professional athlete.  A very far world from mine but he was very friendly and nice.  I also got a photo with Jermaine's wife, Marisa.  She is a Lululemon model (high-end yoga brand) and stunningly beautiful girl.  I didn't know she was a graduate of University of Washington.  She must be a very smart girl as well!

We ended the night with a happy hour at Applebee's on the way home.  We had a lot of fun!  We now need to be invited to Zara's opening gala.  Anyone want to invite us!?

Yoga Photoshoot

I took my friend and Yoga teacher, Hanae, to the lake to take some artistic pictures of her a few weeks ago.  It was a warm gorgeous day, a bit too bright for picture's sake, but perfect otherwise.  My professional grade camera is amazing and I still feel a bit swallowed by the more complex set ups and not so user-friendly interface.  More practice is needed but I am starting to get a hang of it. 

Hanae is amazing.  She is a pretty girl to begin with but what she can do with her body is a photographer's dream.  She is strong and super flexible.  I have been learning Yoga from her since February, but I am terribly inflexible still.  I am starting to think maybe there is something wrong with my joints!  I gained some muscles but I haven't lost any weight, therefore I look thicker than before.  I should not worry about my size as long as I am healthy, but I do miss being told "you are so skinny!" 

The photoshoot went well.  As an on location photographer, I have to look for the perfect background, light, and pose.  There are also details such as the angle of the face and body, whether the eyes should look at the camera etc... which if you are not in tune with the subject and the location, it gets overwhelming sometimes.  So many choices to make while you are having a light conversation with the client.  In the end, though, I look through the lens and know.  I sometimes do a 360 degrees shooting to see which angle is better.  When it is right I know.  The realization comes though the lens plus when I edit at home.  Like picking a perfect word in a poem, it feels right when the picture becomes as perfect as it can be.

I feel like an artist now.  I am certainly building confidence with every shooting opportunity I get.

Thanks, Hanae!

Halloween Manic

Hi Everyone!  The mountains and forests are very pretty right now with trees on their way to grand finale of their cycle.  It's a busy season for us humans, especially in America, since one of the top three holidays are coming.  Well, one of them just passed last weekend and I am still recovering from the hype. 

We decorated for Halloween outside of the house in early October.  The kids like to help decorate since they want to make our house look spooky for the visitors.  We visited a couple of Halloween stores to see what they have but the kids were so scared of the displays, Sean and Aly never made it inside!  Saya was picked up by Mike and had no choice but go in.  The only kid who didn't care was Noah.  He wanted to touch skeletons and creepy dolls even. 

I made many trips to the local party supply store where they sell lots of Halloween goods since another Mom and I were in charge of organizing two Halloween parties for two classes.  Cindy did the most of the work but I was still busy with preparations.  The 4th graders and 1st graders had a good time at the party.  Of course, the 1st graders were adorable in their costumes and 4th graders were just as cute.  I sometimes treat Sean like he is a teen, but then they are still quite immature even though they want to think they are too cool.  They were squealing and giggling just like the 1st graders :-)  Unfortunately, I could not help out with Alyson's class party.  I promised I will come see her at the next party.

Two nights before the Halloween, I suddenly decided to decorate the dining room with ghostly Victorian style theme.  Sometimes when I am busy, I have an urge to even cram more things in.  It probably is a self-destructive behavior but to others "wow, you are a good Mom" thing.  I think though that I actually enjoy decorating house for the holiday.  I thought it would be fun to surprise the kids in the morning with a fabulous Halloween decoration.  I actually ran to the party supply store at 10 pm (they were open until 12) to get more spooky things to add!  The result was quite good in my opinion.  I created a spooky banquet hall in our dining room with skeleton table cloth, green lighting and few skeletons on the table.  I even threw on the dead roses from the bouquet I bought the week before.  On the chair sat "Skelty", the evil skeleton, ready to dine with the kids.  The wall was covered with portraits of vampires, witches and monsters, and I covered the laundry room door with a picture of dark hallway.   I almost bought a fog maker but I talked myself down. 

The kids couldn't believe it!  They were scared at first, but soon they were checking out the decorations and smiling big.  Noah and Saya were a bit afraid of the wall pictures, but they soon got used to them.  I did have to remove Skelty from the chair because Sean kept teasing the girls with him.  I stayed up late too late for this to happen, but it was worth it!  I will do it again next year.  Many of the Halloween items were gone the night before, so I will be sure to shop earlier next year!

Nana came over to hand out candies to the neighborhood children.  Mike stayed with Noah and Nana since he was very tired.  I took the three children out to trick or treating in the light rain with the Collins. We hit at least 30 homes and the kids collected impressive amount of treats.  The highlight was again the corner house up the hill.  They always have interactive Halloween experience which the kids are terrified of.  Their three teen boys wear scary masks and chase children with the fake chainsaw.  It is a bit much but really no harm is done.  I saw one little girl screaming and shouting at the boys "don't scare me!  I am only little!!" and was ready to burst into tears.  I told the boy "hey, you guys are scaring away the kids," and his response was "that means more candies for us!"  I had to laugh.  The two boys with chainsaw chased Sean and poor Sean ran away terrified.  The girls were screaming and crying at the same time.  They wanted to go home after that, so we hit a couple of more houses and went home.  They each ate one candy and went to bed.  They were pretty tired after the fun filled day.

Jen and I hit the Capital Hill after that to have some fun.  We decided to make this annual event because we all need to loosen up and have fun once in a while.  Capital Hill is a Halloween capital of Seattle since there are many gay bars in the area.  I just love to people watch and admire their costumes because some of them are very creative.   We met a few people and one of them invited us to an invitation only UNIQLO grand opening party tomorrow.  I am so excited because UNIQLO is one of my favorite Japanese clothing brand and Seahawks' Jermaine Kearse is coming, too!  Now I need to think about what to wear.  I plan to take my big camera and maybe pretend like I am a seasoned photographer :-)  It will be a fun night for sure.  It shows it's worth throwing Mom bums to bars once in a while!

We had a super fun Halloween. I hope you had a good one, too!

Almost Halloween

I had some problems with posting photos on my blog and that made me delay in updating the blog.  If you were faithfully checking to see if I had anything new, I apologize!  It was the compatibility issue with the new browser Microsoft Edge and this blogger website.  Mike updated my laptop's operating system to Windows 10 and Edge.  I am not so much liking the Windows 10 because what I loved about using my Surface was the large panel touch screen interface.  It now works more like a traditional operating system and I am not sure why they chose to go back to having a small pop up menu when you press the Window's start button.  Anyway, enough about the new operating system.  Now that I figured out how to post pictures again, it's all good to go.

We have been having a pretty mild fall so far after the hot summer.  We are starting to get chilly mornings though and I finally pulled out the thick winter coats for the kids.  They leave home wearing them, but they never have their jackets on when they return from school.  It is still warm during the day.  It is about to change though this week since highs expected are going to be in mid 50s.  We don't expect a cold winter again this year.  I bet it is not going to snow much, either.  A bad news for farmers and winter sports enthusiasts.  It has been very tough on them for the past few years. 

We took the kids to a lake called Rattlesnake Lake in early October to see a dry lake bed that has been exposed due to drought.  I really wanted to check it out because a part of the village which went underwater by a bad flood in early 1900s reappeared.  That sounded so interesting to me because I love anything historical.   The small village was called Mocton and housed about 200 people.  You can read more about Mocton here: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=2436

The lake was so pretty with many mysteriously large tree trunks.  I suspect the trees were cut when the railroad was built.  The tree trunks had rectangular holes cut out to put a wooden plank in to stand on it while chopping the tree.  The kids were mesmerized by the sights they have never seen before.  Noah soon ran towards the water, tried to get in, got a bit wet, and then ran towards then tree trunks and climbed many of them.  The girls and Sean had fun climbing on as well and competed each other in climbing more challenging trunks.  We took many pictures and enjoyed a beautiful day together. 

When Noah climbed onto a tall giant tree trunk, Mike and I didn't know there was a large hole in the middle of the trunk.  As soon as we noticed it, we immediately tried to get Noah off because we were afraid he would fall and won't be able to get him out.  Noah must have read our mind - despite our plea he disappeared into the dark tree trunk and he cried since it was dark down there and he could not move.  Oh, Darn!!! Was my thought.  Mike quickly climbed on to see how bad it was and his expression didn't look promising.  At that point, I asked Mike if I should call 911 and had a vision of flashing red fire trucks, ambulance and my face as red as those vehicles standing by shamefully.  Mike though got his hulk out and managed to reach Noah's finger tips to pull him out.   I was glad he trains his muscles in the garage that moment because it looked like he used all his power to rescue Noah.  Noah also has a very strong grip so it was a team effort.  I am glad we didn't have to call the rescue team.  That would have been a nightmare!! 

We quickly retreated from the scene and decided to go to a pumpkin patch at a nearby farm in effort to bring the fun back to the weekend.  Carnation WA is a beautiful area with pristine rivers and grassy green fields.  There are many farms that grow fresh fruits and veggies there and it is our go to place to get a little country in us when the weather is nice.  Remlinger Farm is the largest in the area and they created quite an enterprise with children's little amusement park with education centers and producing series of merchandise from fruits pies to salsas.  They are quite tasty.  We particularly like their strawberry rhubarb pie and avocado tomatillo salsa!  Yummy stuff!   We had fun in corn maze and took some pictures at their pumpkin patch.  We had some fresh ice cream at their food court and certainly were successful at cleansing the bad taste from the tree trunk incident!

I have tons more to write about, but I will be just glad I have one new post to report!

Welcoming Fall

Hello everyone!  The school had started and the new routine and new normal are finally starting to sink in.  Our babies are 4th, 2nd and 1st graders.  Time sure flies... chubby little babies are becoming so big, I have to look at their baby pictures to remind me how they looked like as babies.  They are very happy to be in their new grade and adjusted to their new teachers well.  I like to look at their work packed in their backpacks after school.  They are doing well despite not studying much during summer break. 

Summer was fun but I am so glad the school started!  The first taste of freedom in two and half months was so sweet, I smiled all the way home after dropping them off.  Maybe Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" was playing in my head.  I could dance my way home, but I restrained myself since there were many parents around.  I don't want to embarrass my children on their first day, of course.

I will volunteer at schools like last year, but I've decided to tone it down a bit.  My schedule last year was very crazy and it was impacting my stress level and taking time away from my workout regime.  This year, I want to focus on getting fit and being organized.  I am still doing Yoga with my friend and I am a tad more flexible and a lot stronger now.  I have still a long way from where I want to be, but I am on my good path to get there.  I say it's good because now my body and brain crave the rigorous routine at my friend's studio.  As hard as it is, it feels great after sweating off all the toxins.  Yoga for life and I think it is going to help me stay young physically and mentally.

I really want to post some beautiful pictures I took in Japan but since I have so many of them, I will post them bit by bit.  It gets very hot in Japan in July and August and that was affecting my mood to shoot away, but I tried to capture the essence of my trip and the beauty of my birth country.  People from my city, Osaka, is known for being friendly perhaps like how we characterize people from the south in America.  Friendly people have nice smiles, so I enjoyed taking people pictures as well.  I wished I studied more about my new camera as I planned to do so on the plane.  Being stuck on the plane with nothing to do would have been a perfect time to read the manual, but instead I was sucked in by the personal entertainment system in front of my seat! 

This post is a mish mash because I am trying to catch up two months of content into one, which is pretty much impossible.  We had another exciting event in August after the girls and I came back from Japan.  Our cousin Sam got married in Boise to her fiancé, Phil, whom she met in a college internship program.  Her new husband is a sweet baby-faced young man from the Midwest.  He seems like a very nice guy and I am glad they found each other to share their lives.   Sam looked beautiful!  She wore a classy strapless dress and wore her hair in a low bun which made her look like a princess.  I got teary thinking how little she was when I met her and how my little girls are someday going to get married like her...  I tell you, Mom business involves lots of tear production.

The kids did great on the trip for the most part.  The driving was smooth as they watched their favorite DVDs.  The hotel was the least favorite part of the trip.   The room was so small and the door was very close to the beds.  Being in a new place Noah was very unstable screaming occasionally. That made me stressed out because guests in other rooms can hear him screaming.  Sure enough, I could tell our temporary neighbors weren't happy with us when we saw them in the hallway!  It's a good thing we'll never see them again!  As a parent of two autistic boys, it's very easy to avoid going out or taking a trip as a whole family.  I don't want to deal with their public melt-downs or obsessive behaviors because people's stare hurts and I feel like shrinking into a shell and curl up.   A small ripple, but it left a big impression on me.  I promise though we will not give up on going on family trips!  We must not avoid challenges for the fear right? 

We were happy to see many family and in particular grandpa Bob's cousins from Arizona and our special little baby, Olive.  The Arizona cousins were friendly and such a lovely people, we had a good time getting to know them.  Grandma Marie talked about them often and it was great to finally meet them in person.  The baby Olive, my very first niece, was so cute.  I hadn't held a young infant in a while and I enjoyed the soft smell and the warm fuzziness I felt holding her.  The children grow darn so fast and for that moment wished my kids were babies again.  Everyone seemed be having a great time.  I was very impressed with aunt Wilma and uncle Kirk, Sam's parents, for giving their daughter away gracefully and enjoying their happiest day ever.   Congratulations Sam and Phil!  It was great to see our cousin found her happily ever after!

Well, this post if getting ridiculously long and I better stop now.  I am back to this blog after adjusting to the new schedule and recovering from the craziness of the summer break.  I will post regularly now, I promise.  My goal is to post 80 posts per year and I surely can do it now that I have more time!

The photos below are from Japan.  My aunt's family took us to Ise, where there is one of the most famous shrines in Japan resides.  It is a very historic place and was like a time slip to the past.