My Last Prom!!!

Okay, I need to clarify... It is not my Last Prom but it is the last prom for me to enjoy seeing my children, all dressed up pretty and having fun with their friends. Brenda just have her senior Prom last Friday. She has this group of friends whom she has known since first grade either at school or at British dancing academy. It was quite challenging to see the process of planning, asking or being asked, scheduling the Party bus and seeing where to eat and what to do. All in all, I think the kids have fun.





The festivity started at everyone meeting at Corbin Sterling's home where we parents get the opportunity to take pictures; then off to school for the formal pictures and afterward, boarding the Party Bus to Anthony's for dinner. We forgot to give Brenda the key to the van which we parked by Experience Music Project, so we have to text them to come down to pick up the key. Mine... there were so many kids all dolled up and pretty. I never have a prom like this in my growing up years, but seeing it first hand makes me smile and wished for a small second, I could join them too...



Afterward, the kids come back one of my friends house for individual pan pizza (they got to make their own), smores around a fire pit, wii and home theater... I was impressed that the kids spend over an hour just talking around the fire pit and eating smores and just having fun... no electronic at all.

The Work!

Brenda find this dress online and so I set out making her senior prom dress. The hardest part were to find the fabric you want. We made a trip to Pacific Fabric in Northgate but there was nothing we could use without costing an arm and a leg. Luckily, we were able to find this fabric at the Lynnwood Joann. I guess because it was a smaller store, there was a lot of selection left becasue most people went to the superstore to get their fabric. Here is the finished product.
See how I am slaving putting sequences on the dress and Brenda is sitting, texting, and relaxing :!

The hardest part of the dress is hand sewing all the sequences on the bodice. It took me two days to do it. I think the dress turns out really pretty. I have to say of all the 10 dresses I made, this has to be my favorite one. I have lot of fun making this, but sadly, I think this will be my last prom dress I will make for my girls :(

Anyone for Cafe Rio?

Sunday May 16 we were invited to join my sister Florence and her children for Cafe Rio Style dinner. They had originally invited their aunt Karmen and family for dinner but last minutes, she cancelled out because of a sickness in the family. We gladly accept the inpromtu invite. They bought everything down to out house and we have great time, visiting and eating. The best part is that I didn't have to cook. Thanks Linsie and Elsie for doing all the hard work cooking. We should do it more often and yes, we will accept any last minutes invite! The food was delicious!

Mary Kay Night

A week ago, (May 22, 2010) Brenda decided to invite some friends over for a Mary Kay Makeup night. Unfortunately, only a couple of them showed up. We were able to call up a few other friends at the last minutes and we have a wonderful time, getting our face cleaned and putting make up on. We also have good food; chicken salad crescent and vanila cream puff. It was a small group but we sure enjoy the company. Favorite of the evening are velvet hand, velvet lip and my favorite eye roller (tested to de-puff and clear dark circle under the eyes).

It has been a year!

Yesterday, May 15, marked the one year anniversary of the passing of my father, Wayne. I could hardly believe it has been a year. It seems he is just on a long vacation with my mom and that they would both be home at my house any time. But the reality is that they are gone and all I have is the memories of all these years they lived with us. Ted and I took a quick trip to the cementary to place some flowers on his grave. I had to hold back tears but I was brave... I said "Dad, it has been a year since you left us", but I couldn't go on... a part of me missed talking to him. The good old times when he said he would lived till a hundred. I missed the little things he did around the house. He was a born engineer. He would be the first one to come up with ideas to fix things or build things around the house. Ted was working in the garden and planning vegetables and I thought my dad would have put up his make-shift green house around the planner boxes so that the new plants would be protected from the unpredictable weather elements. He would have put fertilizer on the Chinese Chives already and he would have given the first cut of these chives to some friends or restaurant in China Town. I will never forget how much he loved my mother. Saturday would be the day he would drive her to Florence's salon to have her hair fixed. He would wait patiently, or he would come home and than go back to pick her up.

I am grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and for the fact that families are forever and they will see and be associated with each other again. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for my family and for this perfect plan of happiness!

Happy Mother Day!

What a beautiful day today; the sun is out and temperture is perfect, an appropriate day to celebrate Mother Day!

I have been thinking about today the last couple days. I don't know how I would feel being this is the first Mother Day since mom passed away. I have been thinking about her and missing her. After church today, we all stopped by the cementary with some flowers. I was glad to see that they had finished the monument with mom and dad's picture. They look so happy there!

We had a wonderful Sacrament. Sean Nicholes gave has farewell talk plus honoring mothers. He is leaving for MTC in a week. You should see him... being the organist, the accompanist for Derek Clement's solo song and speaking all in the same meeting. He did a great job and will be a great missionary. Thoughts learned from the meeting are from a talk given by President Monson: 4 types of mothers: Mother forgotten; Mother Remembered; Mother Blessed and Mother Loved. I feel I am truely blessed for being a "Mother Loved".

After church we went over to the Covington for a early dinner. We have the Wongs/Hodgkins, Nicholes, Covingtons, Yans and Kitty and her daughter there. The food were all great: marinated frank steak, chicken and shrimps, fruit salad, raspsberry jello salad, baked Idaho potatoes, fried string bean, sweet corn, curry string bean with almond, devils eggs, rolls and garlic bread stick and for desert strawberry shortcake. Yummm. We should do is over again!

So we made rolls and bread stick for the dinner and Ted thaw out too much bread. So I left one of the bread roll in the bread pan and when we came home, the bread had risen so high that I had to bake it. Well, being an amateur in making bread, I bake it as instructed, 350 for 15 minutes, but I did not realized that the bread would continue to raise more while baking and so we I open the oven door, I was shocked to see this bread almost touching the top oven element. It is gigantic... standing 7 inches tall! Anyone interest in joining us for bread with beanspout, eggs and spam tomorrow?

A New Milestone!!

It is done. Ada graduated last weekend from Brigham Young University with B.S. in Exercise Science. It seems only yesterday that Ted and I dropped her off at of the Hall at BYU. I still remember... She lived on the first floor at the middle of the hall. That was freshmen year. Time really has a way of escaping us. Then she moved into one of the condo we owned and when she turned 21, she served a mission for the church in the Honolulu, Hawaii Mission. New she is just working to get some experience so she could apply to Physcian Assistance Program. We are so proud of her and excited for what is going to come next... Congratulation Ada!

More pictures

I am getting the hang of these blogging and downloading pictures so here are more pictures:

Joseph Smith Story:

Crossing the ocean and the land:

Multi-cultural, Pioneer and youth:

Friends: William and Kitty Sum

Vancouver B.C. Temple Youth Celebration

A few weeks back we took a short trip up to Vancouver B.C. with David, Jennifer, Monisa and Stanley, Florence and Gary for the Vancouver Temple open house. We run into a Sister Wan, sister missionary serving in Vancouver from Hong Kong. She is the daughter of a old friend in Hong Kong. In fact, her father was the state president when we were baptized back in 1976. Anyway, we also met up with some friends and they invited Ted and I to come up to Vancouver B.C. for the Temple Youth Celebration on May 1st. So Ted and I drive the 3 hours up to Canada Saturday and have a wonderful time seeing the youth performed.

A story was told thru the performances of the history of the Vancouver region, I was touched when I saw the Joseph Smith Story and the pioneers of the Vancouver region. The program ended with a giant size of the Vancouver temple erected in the center of the floor with over a thousand youths wearing white facing the temple. It was owesome!



This is a blurry picture of President Monson, his daughter Ann, President Uchtdorf, watching from the balcony.

Another Try

PART ONE:

It has been a long time since I write in here so I thought I should give it a try before my help is moving away... Yes, Brenda was the one that helped me two years ago while she was taking a class at Kentridge. Now that she is graduating I won't have help if I have any questions. So here we go, I have three months to get myself up to date.

Just a recap of the last few months.

January: Mother passed away eight months after Dad on January 21. We were sad but very happy for her. She is united with Dad and probably enjoying visiting with her family and friends and having all her faculties. I have had couple dreams of her and dad the last few months and they both looked very happy and as usual, more concerned that we are doing good instead. We have a mini get together and grandchildren and greatchildren came to say good bye to mom for the last time.

February: Though we have a lot of freedom now that we are not tied down as much, caring for mom, I still feel I needed to be home. There are times we were on the way to somewhere and I feel I should be home. We have a couple of new additions to the family: Marcus Chan born to Brian and Rebacca and Devin born to Andy and Tanya Sio. It is fun to see those little ones pictures and reminds us the life goes on despite the lost of love ones. I am glad to have the gospel in our lives and knows and understand the purpose of life.