I just learned through Houston Chronicles that the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has free first Sundays. That means this coming Sunday, folks!! I’m thinking of taking the family after church to hang out and enjoy the time…
Anna’s Very First Day of Kindergarten!
So… am I insensitive? Hope not ’cause I didn’t cry on Anna’s first day at the Kindergarten. Soojin had already the night before… but as we were leaving, we saw one mom crying her eyes out. 
I am just proud and happy that she grew up for school!
Soojin decided to pick out Anna’s week’s worth of clothing so they don’t waste time in the morning choosing what to wear! 
This is the entire Jang familia at the school!!
And this is Anna’s teacher…
Anna LOVED her first day!! Here’s to a great year of school!! 
Soojin’s Rollercoaster
Soojin’s rollercoaster is located between Clear Lake City Blvd and Pineloch. It’s on the southbound side of El Camino Real. What is it? It’s a bump at an intersection! We were dropping off a gift to Soojin’s friend who lived in Korea for 12 years (though she’s half Caucasian and half Chinese!) and who was going to go to North Carolina with her family (she has 4 kids!) for family reunion! The gift was a box of this newly found ramen called “Teum-sae” Ramen which is rather good and Soojin learned that her friend loves ramen! Since they were leaving tomorrow morning, we dropped it off after Komart and on the way home, she said to take a slight detour to go through this intersection.
She calls it “rollercoaster”. Why? She’s scared to wits of them! So this drive over a bump is her idea and limit on her “rollercoaster”! So says to me, “Can you make a left at El Camino?” I knew then that she wanted her “rollercoaster”. She then tells me to stay on the right side and go faster! 
And as I “fly” over the bump at 45 mph or so, she goes “Woo hoo!”. Cute. She’s such unique person. Please pray for her while I’m gone. Thank you! I will miss you honey! 
ER x 5
I’ve never been to ER in my life… until I lost my eye sight temporarily! 
It happened when I was a Research Assistant at UT and worked with lasers. This one particular UV lamp bounced around a chamber (as a wave) and “fried” my eyes temporarily. My eyes hurt whether I close them or not! It was my very first time at ER…
Then, I got married. Soojin cut her left index fingertip off one day cutting odang (fishcake) and went to ER only to wait several hours. She got it back together thanks to her never-giving up attitude.
Then we went again when Anna was about a year old and her fever was over 104F!! Only to wait like 6 hours and get stupid Infant Motrin! 
We were back earlier again this year when Anna had some kinda stomach virus and kept throwing up even liquids! But we were there for 8 hours!
Then this past Sunday, Soojin and Sanghee went to Texas Children’s Hospital for JJ’s nasty gash! Out of our 5 experiences, we have learned to avoid Clear Lake Regional Medical Center with 100-yard stick and if it’s our kids and not life-threatening, we are better off driving up to Texas Children’s!! 
I avoided hospitals and ERs for so long… but having a family definitely makes that ER avoidance impossible! Oh well… at least we are all better and we have all been to ER at least once!
JJ & ER
Yikes! What a day!
So we are at church. I’m setting up the computer and others for service, and Soojin’s doing her usual greeting preparations… suddenly JJ comes running crying! And what do I see?!! A huuuuge gash on his right rear forehead!! 😮
The gash was about 1/4″ deep and half inch or so long! I’m not that worried ’cause it looked like a bad scar but nothing serious. Soojin takes a look and she is freaking out to the nth degree!!
Eventually, we decide to wait for Sanghee Samonim to get here (she’s a RN) and get her opinion who says at her arrival that JJ needs to get to ER. So Soojin and Sanghee leave for Texas Children’s Hospital.
Eventually, the doctors decide to pull the skins together to apply… some kind of crazy glue! 😮 Yikes… I never knew that there’s an alternative to the old fashioned stitches! Anyhow, Soojin later told me how well JJ was at the ER. He didn’t cry one bit! Even the nurses and the doctor were surprised! He made me so proud.
Kids play and get hurt. I’m just glad and thankful that it wasn’t worse. Boys though do play rougher and are more prone to such larger damage. Oh well. C’est la vie!
How do you work so late??!
For the personal record, I had to work 10.5 hours today! 😮 For some, it’s not that unusual. But see, for me, that’s very very very rare. How rare? Very rare. Like my steak, it’s rare. 😛 Why? Even from my high school years, I decided that I would not be a workaholic and not spend most of my time at work, and lose the time with the precious family.
So for the past 9+ years of working, I have avoided jobs that require too long of hours, too much effort, and responsibility. Don’t misunderstand me. I do my job and give it my best. But I deliberately didn’t want to (and still don’t) be a manager. Way too much politics aside, management not only requires much time and effort, but also much ass-kissing. Yeah, you read that right here. 😛
However, raising kids is expensive. 🙁 So one needs to make more money. Cars are not functioning well either. So one tries to get a better paying job (trust me, rocket scientists definitely don’t get paid). But seeing how I got home close to 8 pm, I barely had an hour with the kids. My cousin used to put in 100+ hours a week and slept at work! 😮 How does one put in so much?! Is it worth all that money?
My kids are already 3 and 5. Anna goes to Kindergarten this fall. JJ is so cute and so energetic. Time flies too quickly. I swore to myself that I would not be a workaholic or too focused on money. I still remember when JJ was a baby… that moment passed so fast!
I don’t want to miss my kids’ growing up. It’s been hard and busy at work. But I can’t see myself working this late for the most of my life! Even four to five hours a day with my family isn’t enough! But one?! Shiiiiiiteeee! I think I will just keep on driving my jalopy and and keep on living in our apartment. 😀 (Please no comments about how it’s a waste of money and should invest in a house. That’s another post!)
Anna’s pictures of la Familia
Anna has been loving to draw and color! Takes after her mom, I think because I hate drawing! 😛 Anyhow, here are the depictions of us from her hands and eyes! 😀
And she kept insisting that she wouldn’t draw herself as the pic on the left would take her place! However, given time, she eventually drew herself… 😀
