Birth Announcement

The newest little guy in my life, Carson, was born on Friday, December 12, 2008 at 8:45am via scheduled C-section.  He was 6 pounds 1 ounce and 18 1/2 inches.  He's an easy-going, mellow little guy.  Such a cutie pie, too.

Big brother Cameron is incredibly sweet towards his "dai-dai".  Every morning he asks to see him, so he can gently kiss his head.  He often holds out his arms and asks to carry him, as well.

I have pics that I will upload after things slow down here - I'm going to get ready for a gathering with extended family now, but just wanted to say a quick hello and share my big news, albeit two weeks late.  Sorry I've continued to be so awful about posting!  I'm thinking of you all this Christmas season and hope to catch up soon.

Love,
M.

What a crummy Xanga friend I am!

Has it really almost been 5 months since I've updated?  Ai-yahhh!  I've been meaning to come back here and catch up with you all for a while now... Really!  I feel I've missed out on so much!  I was explaining to my sil that it just became a bad habit *not* to xanga... Plus, I wanted to come back with a bang - Perhaps with a new background or a rockin' new profile pic at least.  But, hopefully this will make up for the lack of that... I have an announcement to make for those of you who don't know me outside of xanga.  It's a biggie, hehe...

I'M ALMOST 21 WEEKS PREGNANT with A BABY BOY due DECEMBER 29TH!    J and I are thrilled!  And Cameron seems to have some grasp that he's going to have a dai-dai (little brother).  It's the sweetest thing when he cuddles up to and kisses my belly.  Awww...

Now that the big news is out of the way, here's a quick update from the past 5 months:

April 2008 - Spent a month in Hong Kong and J's hometown in Southern China with J, Cameron, and J's mom, dad, and sister.  Cameron was a dream to travel with!  He slept soundly at night while J, my sil, and I went out and enjoyed street food and restaurants within walking distance from the hotel.  We got back home on April 30th and found out I was pregnant when I took a home pregnancy test.  Yippee!

May 2008 - I was stuck in bed all day because the pregnancy symptoms hit me *hard*.  I didn't have the energy to go out and had a horrible time keeping food down.  I lost weight and felt horrible.  But thankfully I was able to enjoy myself during a relaxing weekend vacation at Lake Tahoe with my family.

June 2008 - Mid-June, I began to feel much more like myself.  I counted it a luxury to be able to get out of the house and "only" throwing up around once a week (versus after most every meal)!

July 2008 - I felt well enough to venture off to Toronto for a week with J, Cameron, and my little brother to visit our friends who moved there from Vancouver.  It was Cameron's 4th flight and he did well, as usual.  On July 26th, J and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.  We attended a party that evening instead of doing something romantic, which was fine by us!  We can always do something couple-y another time - We always welcome the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of friends.

August 2008 - I've caught Olympic fever... bad!  From the Opening Ceremonies to Michael Phelps winning 8 golds to all the talented gymnasts to now, diving and track and field!  I love it all!  The other exciting thing this month are two weddings - One for the ring bearer in my big brother's wedding back in 1990.  I got all weepy-eyed while I reminisced about him growing up.  He was one of the "kids" when I was a counselor for the high school fellowship at church. *sigh* I almost lost it during the wedding, but sitting next to J, who always thinks I'm silly when I do a sappy cry, I held it together.  The other wedding (tomorrow) is for my good friend whom I've referred to as my other big bro.  We knew each other since we were in diapers.  In high school we were on the phone almost every night while procrastinating from doing our homework.  We'd talk about life and love (as much as we can as teenagers) as well as frivolous things for hours and hours.  Ah, those were the days...

Well, there's my quick update.  I'm so sorry for my long absence!    Talk to you all soon!  For now, I'll leave you with pics of my big boy from last month in Toronto (in his cheapie US$1 sandals from China! :P). 

FOUND!!!

The cops found our stolen goods!  Can you believe it?  Thanks soooo much for your prayers because they were certainly answered! 

Early this morning at around 2am, J and I were awaken by a phone call.  An officer called to inform us that our laptop was located.  Hallelujah!  The car that was involved in the burglary was pulled over in a part of town that is known to have high drug activity.  The cops discovered our stuff, among other people's stuff, in the trunk and contacted us through the information they found on J's laptop.  How's that for detective work? :P

The officer asked if J could come in and identify which items were ours.  J sprang into action and drove across town to the police station.  When he got there, he was directed to the car and a backpack containing most of our stuff - the 2 laptops, 2 cameras, and the camcorder.  He saw my laptop and said, "Oh, that's definitely my wife's laptop.  It still has the plastic cover on it", lol... He then turned the cameras on and saw the pictures of Cameron displayed.  Yay!  The pictures are still in the camera!  That's all we ever really cared about.  When J came home and told me, we were sooo happy, we couldn't sleep!  We are so thankful to the police department for doing such a fine job with our little burglary case, finding our stuff and arresting the crooks.

Our things are still being held as evidence linked to the case, but we might be able to get them back on Monday if the District Attorney releases it.  Either way, we can't be more thrilled that justice is served and that we will get back what is rightfully ours.

Yay, yay, yay, yay, YAY!!!

Burglarized

We left the house today at 10am.  At around noon, we got a call from the police informing us that our house had been burglarized.  It's one of those things that you think will never happen to you.  We came home to find our bedroom ransacked, dresser drawers opened with its contents strewn on the floor.  Every other room was relatively unscathed, but some valuable items were definitely missing:

- Two HP laptops - one mine, the other J's:  $2,000

- One laptop backpack:  $100

- One Canon SD900 Camera (which was bought around this time last year when we left our other camera at the nursery at our hospital):  $400

- One Nikon D40x Digital SLR Camera (My Christmas present from J a few months ago):  $800

- One Sony Digital Camcorder:  $1300

- J's watch:  $300

- Cash (including 4 Ziploc bags-full of change):  $300

So... over $5000 worth of stuff.  Ugh... But the most devastating thing they took is worthless to them but priceless to us - All of the pictures and videos on my laptop and cameras that we hadn't backed up yet... about 3 months worth.  I was planning to share a bunch today for Cameron's 16th month update of him...

- laying down flat on his back and "reading" his grandpa's Chinese newspaper
- bending over at the waist and looking at me upside-down through his legs
- intensely walking across the room
- scribbling on paper with markers
- wearing his cute green argyle sweater vest yesterday on Easter Sunday

I was beyond mad when we first discovered we were victims of a crime... Mad at the thieves for invading our space and taking our stuff (and breaking one of the drawers in my nightstand), mad that I had to pick up after them, mad at the situation that led them to steal in the first place (Yes, the empathetic side of me actually kicked in and I actually blamed society for a bit there), mad at myself for not being more proactive about protecting our home, and mad for not backing up all those photos and videos.  But yes, I realize that the important thing is that we're safe and that in the grand scheme of things, this is just a rough patch.  It just sucks really bad for now.

Well, hopefully they catch the felons.  I directed the CSI Unit to some blood I spotted on my bathroom door after they said there was no evidence for them to collect (I felt so cool! :P), so maybe that will lead to an arrest.  There are some good leads - Our neighbor said there were 3 young African Americans in a white Lexus.  The police said that this group has been canvassing the neighborhood for some time, so they've already been looking for them. 

The really cool thing about this experience was that I got to meet so many of my neighbors.  They all saw the police lights in front of the house and came over to say they were sorry about what happened.  I always wanted to get to know my neighbors better (Love thy neighbors, right?) and I never imagined it would happen under these circumstances, but I'm glad I finally got to.

It's been way too long... We should get together soon!

Yes, long title for this post, but that seems to sum up my sentiments towards xanga, as well as friends I haven't seen in a while.  I'm up late again (as usual), but there have been a few nights of late where I was in bed early (Well, early to my standards) so I haven't had time to xanga since I usually update and comment in the evenings (if you've noticed).  Hm... that again was ann incredibly lengthy sentence, with an over-use of parentheses, but oh well! :)

Here's a quick update:

- Cameron is now 15-months-old (I need to work on a 15-month udpate post!).  He took his first steps - *first steps*, woohoo! - two weeks ago!

- I've been praying about whether I should return to work for a few hours a week to prevent my skills from getting too rusty and to help out a bit financially.  I'm also praying about how I should serve in church again (I previously served on the worship team and as a high school fellowship counselor).

- J and I strolled Cameron to church Sunday morning, then to a restaurant nearby to have lunch with my bro, sil, and niece... Then to J's parents' place in the afternoon - A total of over 5 miles!  For those of you who think that's not a big deal, well pretend that you're impressed! :)

Here are some pics of the little one from February (since recent pics are still in my camera):

Cameron's Chinese New Year outfit:

Jailed by the baby gate:

Ah, the sweet taste of freedom!

I can walk, but why, when there's zero risk of falling when you're crawling?

I hope to come visit your pages soon!  Missed you all!