Category: Family

Posted on

Ah the perils of parenthood… decisions decision, decisions!!

I hated it when my father couldn’t make it to anything… be it our sports events, let alone spend more time with us.  He was always busy, and he had “good excuses” too… after all, he was a pastor!  Though I somewhat understood the price of being a PK (Pastor’s Kid), I had told myself that I would never let my kids pay the “price of ministry”.  Well, I’m not a pastor but here I am in the perils of things…

Soojin has been very brave and has been taking the kids to Young Nak’s VBS (Vacation Bible Study).  Someday, Pathways will have our own… but till then, this will do.  Well, tomorrow night is special.  Instead of typical 1 to 4 pm meeting time, tomorrow is from 3 to 9 pm!  And get this, the children are doing some kind of presentation at 7 pm or so!!  So I was at a dilemma of things…  It is someone’s special dinner that it coincides with! 

I was arguing with myself on what to do… but I came back to that decision one more time… that I would not let my kids suffer, especially at such young and tender age.  Anna already showed me some of the motions to a song that they will be doing tomorrow!  Ah…

So I am sorry that I won’t make the dinner…  Learning to put my kids first is turning out to be quite a difficult process!

Posted on

The Cost of Inconvenience

Well, my mother-in-law is leaving to go back to Korea tomorrow.  It’s a mixed feeling really personally.  As some (mostly guys ) suggested, it has been a bit … inconvenient past near 3 months.  Having to keep an eye out to make sure I don’t do stupid things or say stupid things to her most of the time…

We’ve had “mild” clashes having different minds and all… but overall, it’s been anything but bad.  Awesome food.  Kids love her to death.  Soojin’s happy (most of the time).  So what if it’s slightly inconvenient?!  I almost thought that if she didn’t mind this place, I would ask her to just *GASP* live with us! 

But alas, she hates it here, not the kids or us, just being so… displaced.  She misses seeing people on the street and not being able to go around as she pleases.  Oh well… The tough part is in the (coming) separation.

Just last night as she tried to explain to my daughter how she will be returning to Korea, Anna told her to “just go and sleep for a day and come back with lots of presents.”    When she figures out that she won’t return for at least a year (if not more), she’s gonna be devastated.  Not to mention even JJ will miss her… 

And don’t even get me started on Soojin!  She already started crying…   Sheesh… crying is my sheer weakness.  Sad faces and tears just make me weak…  I guess it’s my version of kryptonite.  Please pray for Soojin to be strong, to keep God in her focus.  But what will make it even tougher is that I will be gone too from Wednesday thru Friday night.  I will be joining our church’s (Pathways Church) mission team to go to near New Orleans to help rebuild and clean up the neighbors near us.    So she will be by herself trying to play with kids who have been spoiled (in a good sense) by their grandma.

Ah… the perils of humanity… is only to draw closer to another human.  Why?  Because the fear of attachment (and separation) is what we fear…    I will end this entry with the quote from old Monkees’ song, “Daydream Believer“. 

Cheer up, sleepy jean.
Oh, what can it mean.
To a daydream believer
And a homecoming queen.

Cheer up Soojin.

Posted on

Hairdo & Circus

So I found out that the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus was coming to town!  And since both Anna and JJ were somewhat old enough to enjoy it, I bought some tickets and took the whole family last night!    Well, it also turned out that Soojin had never gone to one!  Double bonus!

But prior to the event and unbeknownst to moi, my mother-in-law did this to my poor li’l boy JJ… 

Yeah, yeah… my wife thought it was really cute…    And this was his hair “in action”…

And here’s the circus in action…

The best of the show was the guy in the above picture… that’s right… the guy that looks like Vanilla Ice!   

He was DA BOMB!  Such a good combination of the comedy acts and acrobat acts!!  Couldn’t get enough of him!!  The best of his stuff was the bouncing acts from the jumping board!  You know it if you went to the “Greatest Show on earth!” 

Here’s the mother and the daughter pic…

Posted on

Pics from WWE Summer Slam!!!

That’s Batista up there!  The last match… she LOVES him!   And she was so happy that his team won!

There she is… the WWE lovin’ granny!!

Another of her favorite… Rey Mysterio! 

There’s my poor attempt at “group picture”! 

Rey was up against this “King” Booker T.  What a joke… 

Posted on

The Worm Song

So I play a bit more with the kids today and Anna brings over a Sesame Street book and find Oscar. As we talk about Oscar’s dirty trash can, we talked about worms as well and spontaneously, I sang her this song. The original Korean lyrics (written by yours truly) is:

지렁이는 씹으면은 맛이없어요.
씹으면은 물컹물컹 웩웩웩!
Roughly translated, “Worms are yucky if you chew them. If you chew them, slimy slimy, wook, wook wook! (gesture of throwing up)” Well, it was a sure hit! Such a big hit that Anna loved it to death and asked me to sing it only about 100 times!! Then I got so sick of singing it that I decided to record it!! So we recorded it and if it works, it should play when you visit this site!! LOL…

If it doesn’t play and you wanna listen, it’s here at this link.

Posted on

Bah bah Black Sheep

My kids love songs… and most of times, they like it before sleep. One such favorite is “Bah bah Black Sheep”…  Know it?  Well, it goes something like this…

    Bah bah Black Sheep, have you any wool?
    Yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full.
    One for the master, one for the dame.
    One for the little boy who lives down the lane.

Well, there’s a second verse… white sheep.  What makes it … funny and memorable is what my Anna did one night.  She asked about OTHER sheep!    So I had to make up new lyrics for Green Sheep, Pink Sheep, and Blue sheep and on!!  Well, the thing is you have to find PEOPLE to replace the lyrics with!!  😮

So I decided to use families I know with kids I know!  For example…

    Bah bah Pink Sheep, have you any wool?
    Yes, sir, yes, sir, four bags full.
    One for Sarah, one for Sammy.
    One for Pastor Shawn, and one for Samonim.

Hee… and go on with Toby’s family, my family, and so on…  😀  It’s in their nature… They make their own lyrics!!  Gotta hear them sometime…  Hee…