Pizza Fart

Simone received some coupons to Pizza Hut for reading 20 minutes everyday.   Tonight we redeemed them for dinner.   We all had personal pepperoni pizzas which our taste buds enjoyed thoroughly.   Their crust is so buttery and their mozzarella is thick and salty.   Our intestines, however,  are in an uproar!  We are all farting like maniacs.  Michael might comment that we always fart, but to him I must say nay.  Our frequency of flatulence tonight is astounding!!

Next Date

Just now, Max asked me with great concern ...

"Mama ... are you going to have another date with Daddy this year?"

"I sure hope so!"

"Why?!"  

"Max, most people who date have dates once a week.  Daddy and I had one 56 weeks after our previous one."

"Oh..."

What the Weather?

Florida Winter is weird this year.  Or maybe it's weird all the time.  When it was Autumn, we didn't get the windy downfall of leaves and seeds as we had last year.   But it wasn't that the trees were evergreens.  They're deciduous!  And they're late!  It's one month left of Winter and now they decide to let go of their leaves.

Maybe the trees are defective because the trees haven't signaled its branches to make seeds.  Last year, we were inundated with the little balls.  Maybe we'll find them in the Summer ...

Roller Max

It was only a matter of time before Max started asking for his own roller skates.  His cousins Brandon and Lauren fulfilled his wish this past Christmas and gave him a set of his own.   The pictures and movie below were taken the day after Christmas.  You can tell from all the toys strewn about in the background!

Romantic Husband

Michael is such a manly man that few people would think he's romantic.  I guess I'm just a special lady because he done some romantic things for me lately!

For Christmas, he gave me a gift certificate to a day spa along with this note:

It came at the right time.  I had been working so much on the bus that I was getting really tired of wearing my work clothes everyday.  My nails were also chipping more often and my skin felt dry.  When I redeemed the spa package, I got a relaxing massage and a mani-pedi.  The massage was so relaxing that towards the end I fell asleep and was snoring.  How do I know?  I woke myself up several times by the sound of my gutteral snores.  The manicure was a bit of a dilemma.  Knowing that I work so much on my hands, I knew that a regular polish was going to erode within a few days.  A new type of polish has come out on the market and it supposedly will last 2 weeks.  I contemplated doing this - until I found out it would have been an extra $25!  That's the amount of a mani-pedi at a regular asian-lady salon - and they have massaging chairs!  Despite the theme of the day being, "Treat Yo' Self," I held back and enjoyed what Michael had bought for me.  

A few weeks later, Michael told me he was going to have our friends babysit the kids so he and I could go and finally have a date!  The last time we had had a date was on December 30, 2012.  I don't have a super memory - I just don't go on dates with Michael very much that I can tell you the exact date they occur!

Michael chose a restaurant in St. Petersburg, which to me had been odd because it was so far away from our friends in Bradenton.  Michael urged me to live it up a little since it was such a rare occasion.  I was easily convinced because it's true we don't have an opportunity like this often.  Before Michael and I went out I had researched things we could do in the area.  I made a list of bars and historic hotels we could check out and shared it with him on our way to dinner.  He seemed enthused but not as much as I thought he would be.  He instead was telling me about the live music we could catch after dinner.  

At dinner we had an incredible time talking about politics, religion and the economy.  It had been a long time since we had could talk without interruption!  Then Michael turned the conversation to China and an allegedly cultish group called Falun Gong, who were being persecuted by the government.  In my earlier research I had remembered that there was a Chinese performance going on in St. Pete.  When Michael mentioned that the Falun Gong uses a dance performance called Shen Yun to spread their message, I pointed out, "Hey, I think they're showing that right around the corner at the big theatre!"   Michael then confirmed, "Yes!  It starts at 8pm and we have tickets."

WHHAAAAAT???!!?  

I thought he was joking, but no ... he had been planning the whole thing since the beginning of the year! Michael is so full of surprises and I love that about him!  Another thing I love about him is his interest in knowledge.  While we waited in our Orchestra seats for the show to begin, Michael pulled out 2 articles regarding the Falun Gong.  One from the Chinese government reflecting the group negatively and another from the US's CIA reporting seemingly objectively.  

I am not an ungrateful woman, but I have to admit that the show was hokey.  Michael even warned me it would be, but I took it with a grain of salt since he's not a regular patron of such shows as Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, nor Miss Saigon.  But I still enjoyed it in that, armed with the background of the group's intentions and their history of persecution, I was able to review the performance in the additional perspective as a propaganda tool.  It definitely made me sympathize with them, but then again, I usually side with the underdogs.  As a cultural piece, however, it felt more like a bunch of Asian Americans trying to fulfill their dashed dreams of joining a New York ballet troupe.  It's true that I get my history of China from period, martial-arts movies, but the few bits of Chinese opera that I've seen never had so much ballet in it.  

I used to love the Extreme song, "More Than Words," in which the singers talk about showing love through actions instead of professing it verbally.  When Michael I first started dating, it really bothered me he didn't say I love you very much - I was obviously oblivious to the song's message of not needing the words to feel loved.  Michael probably goes years without using the "L" word, but he definitely shows it everyday.  And every now and then, they are grand gestures I cherish.

Near Death Experience

My computer almost died!

That's part of the reason why I haven't written a post in a while.  I was busy trying to revive my computer that 4 months ago warned me its hard disk was facing imminent failure.

To make a long story short, I decided to replace the hard drive with what's called a solid-state drive, or SSD, and to re-install all the files and programs I backed up.  It took a while and I went a couple of days without easy access to the internet.  It felt like surgery!

Not all went well, but the only glitch is a small one.  My wireless card no longer works so I have to hook up to the internet old school style with an actual cable.  That's ok.  I actually stay put more than I thought I would - so much so that I contemplated getting a desktop!

Now that I'm back into the groove of things, I'll be able to post more about our family's going-ons.

Hooray for Self-Sufficiency!

Hooray for Self-Sufficiency in children - particularly in my children!

Simone and Max now know how to take a shower by themselves!  What a relief it is to not have to do this extra chore.  They also like it so much that they want to shower more often than when I would bathe them.

The kids' shower/tub had a beautiful shower curtain that depicted ocean life under the ocean.  I put it down immediately because it was in my way when I would scrub the kids in a bath.  Then at about November 2013, I got fed up with bathing them because they relished in splashing and making a mess.  They also started fighting with each other more so I decreed that there would be no more baths for the rest of 2013.

Then about 3 days ago, I thought, "Simone can take a shower by herself - she's almost 7 years old!"  She was excited to do something independently and did well.  Her hair still had shampoo in it but after washing it a second time, she remembered that she has to scrub her hair extra well to get the soap out.

When Max saw that Simone was having a new adventure, he insisted on trying it!  It went well too! However, the second time he showered was so much fun (i.e. less of a mystery) that he wanted to stay in for a long time playing with the water.  He would stick is butt into the stream of the water and giggle, "It tickles!!!"

These milestones may seem trivial, but they are momentous for a mom!