Kids are rather insightful a lot of times. I think it’s their untainted mind that allows them this capability. They will tell it to you like it is. No candy wrappers around what they say… unlike politicians or adults. Case in point – Anna loves to make cards for people. She normally makes cards for us but we found this one yesterday.
You have to pay attention to the details here. You see the nature on the card, right? The sun, sky, flower, and the land? There is a smiley in it… that’s God. Why? According to Anna, that’s because God is everywhere! 😀 That is just so precious! And on the back, the recipient and the sender…
We were so pleased… it made our day! I sure hope my heart will be as pure as hers! God is everywhere…
So with Anna’s diminishing interest in ballet/dancing, she drew interest in piano.
This past Wednesday marked her first tutoring lesson. She was very excited to learn. And the teacher was very good and got along great with Anna. Our take on Anna’s learning to play piano isn’t so much that she would become a professional at it. Far from it. Actually, I hope she doesn’t.
We wanted her to learn music so that it would help her in getting through life. I believe that music, among many other things, can give the person the ability to pull through tough times. I wanted Anna to have that when things got tough and she needed a way to release her emotions and frustrations.
This also meant that I have to oversee her practicing it 15 minutes a day! Yikes! :O But in the end, I hope she will be able to use it to help herself and others get through tough times of life. Is that weird of me?
As most of you know by now, we fared well. I had to finish to some work from home and by 8 pm Thursday night, we were ready to evacuate as we were in the mandatory evacuation zone. 😮 So we headed west to Pastor Shawn’s place not realizing that there were already some evacuees already!
At least it was a good time to meet Pastor Luke and his family, as well as Shelly, who is new to our church. We avoided driving in the daytime because of heat and too much traffic on the road. Surely enough, by the time we left in the evening, traffic was almost at normal speeds.
Staying at Pastor Shawn’s is always a joy as there’s no stress. However, power went out on Friday late afternoon and humidity began to settle in. 🙁 So it was a great excuse to cook up all the Korean BBQ stuff in his freezer!! 😀 Whoot! Then came the Ike later that night. It was rather loud as expected… lots of gusts of wind and cracking sounds… but you know me, I slept like a baby.
On Saturday morning, it was evident that this storm was rather a powerful one. We had anticipated that knowing that this hurricane’s diameter was about 300 to 400 miles wide! However, upon visual inspection, it was even more so. Trees had fallen everywhere and fell everywhere. Power went out in 90+% of the Houston area. And surge had caused most of coastal areas to be flooded. We drove to Mike’s place in order to drop off Pastor Shawn’s freezer goods and noticed that damage was even bigger than we had thought. Here’s our ride in video…
Once the humidity was killing us, we decided to head over to John & Joanne’s place for shelter as they had power as well. We had originally planned to evacuate to Chung & Celeste’s home but they also had lost power. John & Joanne are another very hospitable family. Later on, Pastor Shawn’s family, Luke’s family, and Shelly came over for dinner and hung out. With TV, we had learned that the Houston downtown had suffered quite a bit of casualty as well and that due to more rains that followed, Houston was in flash flood warning!
So Sunday’s service was canceled due to flash flooding. Then Min & Daniel’s family came over for lunch. I had left our answering machine on so that we could find out easily & quickly if we had power or not. Well, power at our place had gone out Friday but came back on Sunday!
So after buying some more food and such from Komart (gotta give it to the Koreans for being open!), we headed home. Traffic and roads were fine. But at least 80% or more of the traffic lights were out due to power and/or damage.
Then I had found out that my work was closed for Monday. Anna’s school was canceled through Wednesday. Eventually, my work place closed for the entire week, and so was Soojin’s school, and Anna’s school! So we are having our unexpected week-long break. We had checked out Target the other day and still milk and dairy, as well as fresh produce were pretty much out. Gas was still in a bit of tight squeeze but we hope the conditions will fare better.
But in overall, we are thankful that all of our friends and family in Christ are well. We wanted to take this time to thank Pastor Shawn’s family and John’s family for always leaving us an open and welcome doors, and for everyone else for checking up on how we are doing.
None of our properties or cars were damaged but if you had, be sure to head over to FEMA website to register for possible reimbursements and repair costs. Be safe everyone!
I love any food, especially meat, smoked. And like many, there’s a good reason as to why.
We all grew up being a bit pyromanic… right? Didn’t we? Well, I know I did. 😛 I remember memories of making my own fire crackers… putting two matches head to head and wrapping the heads in aluminum foil and heating up the foil, you had instant crackers. 😀
However, what was even more memorable was my visits to my grandparents’ place in Namwon. It is (at least it was when I was a kid) a small town about an hour away from Chonju, Soojin’s hometown, and 5 hours south of Seoul. Back when I used to visit, they still cooked food using wood. Rice was cooked in this big black pot that sat on top of fire. My (beloved) grandma used to let us feed wood to that thirsty fire, and my brother and I didn’t care how hot it was, we just kept feeding the fire to it.
Soon enough, I developed a strong liking to the smell of burning wood. When crop was good, there’d be days when my uncle would bring in peas and after they are dried in sunlight, we’d set the whole thing on fire and eat the cooked peas inside the pods. Boy were they good!
So every time I eat or smell either smoked food or burning wood, I always reminisce about the old days. Things were much simpler then… Cooking in fire was even cooler at night. Shucks… I wish I could relive that moment.
So I got a chance to speak with my sister-in-law (my wife’s brother’s wife) in Korea. And she said that she watched the movie Kung Fu Panda recently. Then she started chuckling and started to tell me how the Kung Fu Panda reminded her of me! Me! 😮
Do I really look like Kung Fu Panda? Anyway, she went on to say that the panda’s personality also resembled a lot like me. I have yet to see the movie… so for those of you that have watched it, does the panda really remind you of me?! Is the panda that ssul-lung?! 😛 I thought that was funny and wanted to share.
Today is my Day 18… so it is roughly 4 weeks since I began riding bike to work. It began as 2 days in the first week, then 3 days the following, and the past 2 previous weeks were 4 days each. However, today marks the very first week where I rode in all five days to work! 😀
I am tired… and sleepy. However, I am very glad that God helped me in biking to work for the entire week! So far, I had to bike home in rain twice. Yesterday, rain had stopped, but worse than rain or water are the debris that falls or moves from rain.
All you bikers, watch for the debris and other dangerous things (like broken glass/bottle!) on the road! Sheesh… Here’s to a continual 5-day biking weeks ahead!! Also wanted to thank everyone (ok, 3 of you I think!) for the encouraging words!
Thanks to everyone that has been praying for Soojin and the kids. Soojin is feeling well enough that she can attend church, walk couple of blocks, and take the kids to the local library. 😀
Kids are enjoying themselves in Korea… eating all the Korean popsicles (JJ loves “Jaws bar” and Anna loves Lotte’s “Screw bar” – no jokes please). To keep them entertained, Anna has been loving piano lesson (which is mainly learning how to read notes) and both have just started on some kind of art/painting class. Both love that latter one so much that they don’t want to leave!
I also wanted to take this time to thank everyone that has offered meals and weekend “lodging”. PS was the first to buy me a meal when I returned (though his first words were, and I quote, “I missed you Peter! I had no one to pick on!” 😛 Then that weekend, John and Christine took me in for the Saturday, and though John is semi-vegetarian, he cooked me an awesome (medium-rare!) steak! John and Joanne also invited me over for a meal and offered free room anytime I need it! Andrew also bought me an awesome meal at this nice Italian place near Galleria mall! Joanna has been also super about it… thanks for helping me discover awesome Mexican place! Chung & Celeste always offered meals & room and I would’ve taken their offer if it weren’t for them being over an hour’s drive away! 🙁 It’s great to know that you are taken care of…
