Ushering In The 30's

Kelly turns 30 today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Honey!!

Perhaps now Kelly will find comfort in answering the same question her many patients ask her: "How old are you anyways? [You seem too young to be a DOCTOR]", by replying: "Well, as a matter of fact, I am in my THIRTIES."

Congratulations, Honey. You know I am so very proud of you, and make it my personal duty to brag about you as much as I can on my blog. :-P

For Kelly's birthday, this morning, I bought a Chinese money plant in a nice white ceramic pot, with itty bitty black stones on the surface of the soil, and a band of bamboo around the pot (very asian looking plant/pot) to keep in her office. Dinner tonight will be at a local Italian restaurant called Cusina Rustica. This restaurant is family owned and operated, and in fact, it litterally feels (or is?) a part (extension) of the owner's home. Their hours of operation is only from 5-9pm and they have seating for about 20 people (or at least it seems this small/quaint the last time we were there).

Tomorrow will be the Tidman's annual summer Lake House party. It is expected to rain with scattered thunder storms starting at around noon. Still, I hope to pop in for a visit, and perhaps in the afternoon the family will go down to Atlanta for some shopping for Kelly, and activities for Ethan (Children's Museum, Aquarium, etc.. to which we have annual family passes that we rarely use).

Looking forward to soon join you in this decade milestone, Honey. (My 30th comes but a couple months later on September 23rd).

One Year In Blue Ridge

We have now been residents of Blue Ridge, GA for an entire year! In fact, July 16, the one year anniversary of our moving day, came and gone as uneventful as ever. Gosh, it really has not felt like a year. Looking back on this past year, it has certainly been a year of learning, and a lot of drama, mistakes, and a few friendships. Woo hoo, looking forward to the next year! Yee-Haw!! Though I joke, and in all seriously, it is a miracle we have not been lost in all the craziness. So many things to be grateful for indeed ...

Ethan Is 22 Months

Ethan turned 22 months this past week, and his mama turns 30 years on Friday. [sorry no pic as apparently I have reached my allowable limit for loading photos on this blog ... time to start another one?]

Ethan's speech is developing more and more each day, although for the most part we still cannot understand what he is saying. He can now put two words together with his more favorite sayings being "all gone" and "my car". His most favorite thing in the world right now? Cars. Every waking moment is "kah", "kah" - like a British person not pronouncing the letter "r".

He runs faster, and is starting to test his jumping abilities.

He can identify certain letters of the alphabet like "O" and "U" and "Q", among others. He can also count to ten. Well, sort of. He "skips" four and quickly says "five", does the same with seven for eight, but otherwise says the other eight numbers.

He weighs 24 pounds and his eating habits are still hit or miss. Oh well. What can you do?

2,044!!!

I just posted a short video of my garden on YouTube and couldn't help but go back to my older video uploads of Ethan. One video, titled "Allah'u'Abha" has received 2,044 views! Hahaha .. I seldom check up on my videos to see if people are viewing them, since I only really post them on YouTube to then get the HTML code to embed the video on this blog. 2,044!!! In case we all forgot what this video looked like, I post it again here :-P

Mwah! (kiss) My noomsie.

Georgia Garden 2008

[Debra H (back) and Deborah A (front), my two research study coordinators, assisting me with planting several baby plants one Friday early evening after work in May]

Spring in Georgia has meant a new season for gardening - my first in the Peach State. Experimenting with new perennial flowering plants, and having received several donated plants from my co-workers (everyone does gardening!) I have created this garden in the front of our house, that still needs a lot of work, but is growing like crazy. One thing that is certain is that EVERYTHING seems to grow to incredible sizes here in Blue Ridge - weeds and all. Hopefully this rings true with the plants I have carefully planted.

I planted Angel Trumpets, Gerber Daisies, Echinacea (and double-Echinacea), Carolina Jasmine, Cannas, Elephant Ears, Hibiscus, Ginger, and more. Having been known to get right to the planting and little with the planning (of where to place plants), I am not sure how the final blooming garden will look like.

But anyways, I include here a picture in the month of May when I first started clearing the garden bed and sought the help of two co-workers to help me plant some 200 baby plants and ornamental grasses. Also included (below) is a short clip of what the garden looks like, as of yesterday, a couple months after the garden was started. Some have grown rather quickly (Angel Trumpets, Bee Balm, etc..) while others are slower to develop and bloom (Echinacea, Ginger - not shown, etc..).



Will post updates probably towards end of this month or mid August and again towards the middle/end of summer in early September.

Long Journey, But Now Back Home

Who knew it would take 24 hours from the doorstep of my cousin's home in Coquitlam, BC to ours in Blue Ridge, GA. We arrived at the airport in Vancouver with just under three hours before our flight, anticipating that my usual interview with immigration would keep me for a while and we may miss our flight (as has happened to me in Toronto one other occasion). Instead, there was no U.S. customs and immigration to go through at the airport, and no place to do my "special registration" notification.

Waiting for our flight, instead, I was thinking of the missed opportunity to attend Carlie and Barry's wedding dinner celebrations at SFU. Even without having my interview at the airport it would have been a task to attend dinner, drive back to my cousin's house, get changed out of our formal attire, then drive to the airport. Witnessing their wedding ceremony, including a touching moment when Carlie fought back tears when reciting her vows to Barry (and Barry responding by pretending to wipe his brow with relief that Carlie got through it all) is something I am honored to have been present for, and I wish them both the best. (still, would have been nice to have made the dinner too... darn!)

Our flight from Vancouver was rough at times. We flew through numerous thunder storms in the upper midwest of the U.S. before arriving a few minutes late at the airport in Chicago. Knowing instead that I had an interview with US customs and border protection in my port of entry at the US meant rushing. We were greeted by a rude (woman) officer. No surprise really, is there? I've done this so long now it hardly phased me really. She escorted me especially to the place where I would have to report and prove my identity (which I am already in the "system" and have been for years). Quick and out, off to claim baggage and see if we can miraculously catch our connecting flight to Atlanta.

No such luck. Several minutes too late, our connecting flight had left, and we were booked into the next flight to ATL -- a 7 hour layover at the Chicago O'Hare airport. We ate. Slept. Ran after Noomsie. Ate some more. Slept some more. All the while building that "freshness" that comes from not eating or sleeping all that well and not showering, though sweating, exerting, rushing, that is traveling.

A ha! At last we made it to Atlanta. Hotlanta did not disappoint - 97 degrees and nearly 5PM. Downtown was a parking lot with traffic barely moving due to construction that reduced a 6 lane interstate into a single lane. No, 7 hour delay at an airport truly is not test enough. But whatever. We were a mere 2 hour plus drive away from our home sweet home in the Blue Ridge mountains.

We arrived about an hour ago making our journey about an entire day. Smile :-D

Now showered and clean, and our house so fragrant from all the wood scents, no greater pleasure is there, surely, than my head now touching my soft, soft pillow.

Congratulations Carlie & Barry!!

Carlie and Barry's wedding, July 11, 2008 in Port Coquitlam, BC.

MANY CONGRATULATIONS to you both!

More to write soon.

Back "Home"

I have to write. An entire month has elapsed since my last entry. Several friends of mine met Ethan for the first time have said how they love following his development through my blog. Ahem, hence my renewed efforts in trying to write more regularly again.

I am writing (typing) sitting here in my aunt's and uncle's home in Coquitlam, BC.

Our trip has been pleasant, and I have seen many of my old friends, and driven through many of my childhood neighborhoods and places I frequented in my youth.

BC is a gem of a place. Lush mountains. Mild climate. A multi-cultural shmorgasborg. Over the past 48 hours, for example, we ate Japanese, Thai, Persian and Mediterranean/Greek. I got my wish for a Slurpee, and attended the rehearsal dinner for my friend's wedding (which will be on Friday). I can't complain.

With all the "homely" comforts of returning to BC for this trip, still, there are many things that have changed that contribute to a feeling of "a home no more":

(1) as much as I have grown up with Asian cultures predominating in BC, the singleness, and overwhelming presence in numbers (in the airport alone) made me feel like I had just landed in Southeast Asia, as with our trip back in December to Singapore/Malaysia -- I am one for diversity, don't get me wrong, so long as there is unity. And one obvious way to display a more outward presentation of this unity would be to identify with the very nation they dwell in. Sadly, for me, a lack of "Canadiana" also means, all these strangers, can gladly keep my old home where once my roots grew deep;

(2) my parents no longer live here -- and up until this stage in my life (where I have my own family), home has always been defined by where "mom and dad" live;

(3) a once close knit group of friends, I may still have contact with all of them, but few are in contact with each other -- this point is not surprising in the least, since everyone is prone to "separation" when significant time is allowed to go on without effort made to keep contact. Life gets in the way. Marriages. Children. Professional obligations. And it is impossible to keep in contact with everyone. Nevertheless, this just shows how much friendships formed and nurtured through one's formative days can really shape the person one becomes as an adult and the long lasting influences in one's life -- and can equally define where "home" is.

With two more days remaining in our visit, I look forward to a dear friend's wedding, and to eat some more of my aunt's delicious cooking.

I will also try to convince my close friends to take on a journey to a small Japanese-style cottage in the USA's "deep south".