On Papa's Shoulders: Photo Series

Nantahala National Park, NC

Driving back to Durham from Blue Ridge we drove through the smokey mountains (I think?) and through Nantahala National Park. This was my third time passing through the park in the past few months, that I decided we'd better stop and take in some of the awesome scenery and even catch a few kayakers braving the rapids down the (name?) river.




The weather was sunny but a bit windy, but not as cold as Kelly's attire would suggest. Kelly always tends to err on the side of over-dressing.

We stopped at a look-out point and took some pictures besides said river. Ethan was all eyes and ears and was very much interested and attentive to everything around him. We even managed to capture a couple family pics placing our camera on some rocks, though the angle is quite low to the ground.





Many folks were already out doing the hiking, kayaking thing. We passed by a couple "outfitter" shops with bike rentals and kayak rentals, and groups of people on motorbikes -- the summer scenes in this area must be buzzing for sure, if this much action is found in April. And only an hour or so from Blue Ridge, we are sure to make more trips to this area and maybe even explore our adventurous sides and do a bit of kayaking or rafting one day.




We will be certain to make trips here when family and friends are over to visit.

The Cabin

Kelly, Ethan and I were treated to dinner by the Tidmans - Lee, Ray and one of their four children, daughter Susan. Dinner was at The Cabin, a rustic mountain cabin eatery famous for their Blue Ridge burger and fried green tomatoes. Lee and Ray were fresh off their 20-year wedding anniversary retreat, having returned from the Grand Cayman islands last night. Both were radiant and smiling and looked great. We stayed (as usual) at their Lake house, which is situated on a private (gated) cove right on the edge (quite literally) of Lake Blue Ridge. It is a short drive away from where our home will be once we move to Blue Ridge in July. I am just so thankful that, even when out of town, the Tidmans always accommodate our travel plans to Blue Ridge and put us in their Lake house. We have sort of taken over the master suite, which boasts a few (dozen) pillows and a plasma TV with satellite. Most of the pillows and comforters are filled with goose down, to which I am allergic, so I usually end up on one of their oversized leather couches with a memory-foam pillow, and a knitted quilt blanket :-) Did I just paint a perfect mountain getaway or what? ... though this is precisely what I need to do in order to get some sleep and keep my allergies under control. So, again, many many thanks Lee and Ray!!
Our love,
Kelly, Ethan, and Max

Landscaping Labour Of Love

Just pics for now... Off to dinner with the Tidmans at The Cabin....Will add details re what types of plants these are we planted, though you may already know what they are, and I will simply do so for my own learning. Enjoy!

Birthday Bash

Krishelle celebrated her birthday a few days ago. We all enjoyed a great meal at Merlion where we feasted on fantastic Singaporean and Malaysian cuisine. We retired back to our home where we had cake (from Madhatter's) and presented Krishelle with her gift. Jessica, Clarissa, Kelly and I all pooled our money to get Krishelle a pair of Nike Plus Air Max 180 women's running shoes, as well as cushy gelly insoles to go with them, and the iPod system and accessories for your iPod Nano that is part of the whole Nike Plus system -- basically it allows you to track your distance, calories, etc.. while still listening to your favourite tunes on your iPod while you run. There is a chip that goes in to your shoe, and a wireless adaptor that hooks up to your nano, and off you go! Quite cool how Apple and Nike, two huge companies known for attention to detail and style, have come together for this product. After cake, we watched the movie The Pursuit Of Happyness starring Will Smith and his son Jaden. It was an emotional and sad movie, but with a happy ending :-) Krishelle's younger brother, Christopher, was also in town from New York (he's an aspiring model -- pretty good with the cam, no?). So HAPPY BIRTHDAY again, Krishelle! See you when we get back in town (still in the mountains!). Here are some pics...

Little G's In Cherry Log

Hello all. We're in Blue Ridge and staying at The Tidman's Lake house as before also. This morning, we went to a nursery of a different variety called Little G's. It is a plant nursery, and I was like a baby in a candy store. Part of our purchase agreement for the home we are buying in Blue Ridge was an allowance to do some landscaping in the front drive way area with the exposed red dirt on one side. I asked to have that side planted with a few flowering trees/plants and made up a little more presentable. So, part of this trip, besides looking for a nursery or nanny for Ethan, was to also select a few plants and maybe even get down and dirty and help plant a little! Fun! So, we selected a lot of really hardy, ornamental, kinda Japanese plants (to go along with the Japanse theme of the design of the house) including: corkscrew willowing trees, weeping cherry blossoms, dogwood trees, rose of sharon, and several others I just forget their names! OK time to rush off to Riverstone to interview interested nannies, and tomorrow, hopefully we can have some pictures of the plants we selected, etc...

Mmmmm..... Cookies!

For nearly every open house that we've held Kelly has been baking cookies to fill the house with the warm, fresh scent of cookies baking in the oven, and to also offer them to interested people seeing our home. This is actually quite a common thing in open houses I have attended, and so we've employed the technique, though most are actually too polite to accept any.

Chocolate chip cookies have been the norm. Kelly did make some chocolate chip oatmeal ones, and also a chocolate chip and raisin oatmeal variety. Today, however, Kelly set an all new standard for moist, super scrumptious, fresh baked chocolate heaven ... I forgot I was describing a cookie for a second ... ahem.. they are chocolate cake mix with chocolate chips in the cookie and drizzled with melted white chocolate chips for presentation (and added taste!).

Hands down, these humongous things will delite any palate :-)

Wintery Blast

Last night was cold. Downright frigid. Kelly and I were lying in bed, having just put our heads on our pillows, when I voiced my concern for our plants and the forthcoming wintery blast of cold air we were expecting. I was not sure if Kelly was listening, if she had fallen asleep quickly, or if she could even be bothered to get up from the very spot she'd been warming in bed all cozy dozy. Just then, Kelly got up, walked over to the closet, started putting on her leg warmers and socks and said, "OK, let's do it. Let's protect the plants (already) as best we can with blankets and plastic bags." Those were my suggestions, as I had read them earlier in the evening on some BBC website on how to protect plants that are not frost resistent. And so we were off, flashlight in hand, garbage bags galore, and all of our not-so-good to our finest linens, all to preserve some plants for one evening weather's harsh treatment. (I wish I took a photo of how our garden looked all wrapped in bags and then covered over in blankets!) The air was so cold (below 24F) last night, that this morning, just before we were expecting an agent to show our home to some clients, I went outside to remove all the bags and blankets covering our garden beds, only to find some completely exposed (wind blew off coverings), and others covered, though the blankets were frozen to the shape of it being draped over some plant. Needless to say, it was a nightmare getting the linens to thaw, even in the sunlight, in order to then fold them, before folks came to see our house! And the effect on the plants, you ask? After all, after going through all this trouble, one would hope at least the plants got the benefit of some less cold air trapped under all the coverings. The truth is, some did ok, while others still "burned" in the frost and chill of the night. Quite literally to, as leaves turned brown and black, as evident in the new growth on this holly (?) bush which all turned black. :-( And tonight is more of the same, though supposedly not as cold, but still below freezing (29F). At least the folks who came to see the house liked what they saw, though who knows really whether they will return with an purchase offer. I'm just impressed (and anyone who knows Kelly would say so as well) at how Kelly full-heartedly (or begrudgingly?) supported my plan (and eased my weary mind) to do our best to protect our plants.

Ethan Laughing

Hey Adeline, ok, so we've posted a few videos of Ethan the past couple of days!! I hope you are content with them for a few weeks :-) We'll try and post videos as much as possible, but been terribly busy with, well, just everything. I can't wait to see the whole family in Singapore in December! Enjoy these vids. (just try to tune out my voice -- so shreaky).

God Loves Laughter

Unfortunate Weather

It's weird seeing blankets on flower beds and yards, no? Well, this is precisely what some of my neighbors are resorting to in order to preserve or trap some warmer air to save their plants. Over the past couple of months, we've had unseasonably warm temperatures, only to be disrupted by unseasonably cold ones. One week, the record high temps 50-years plus standing are on the verge of being broken. Following days, near record lows are expected. It is quite remarkable anything is growing in our garden at all.

I have not taken the same action some of my neighbors have, though I probably should. It just seems unsightly and wrong to blanket your plants! Unfortunately, I don't think this year's garden is going to be as lush and beautiful as last year's. Already, our cannas and elephant ears have come out of the ground, only to be frozen and killed off by a cold snap. And this has already happend twice this spring.

Last night's low temp hovered around freezing (0 C, 32 F) and tonight's low is projected at 29F, Saturday 24F and Sunday 28F. Three straight days of below freezing conditions will surely destroy this year's garden, and any presentation we hoped to have to sell our house.

Sitting Unaided? ... Woops!

Bouncie Bouncy

Music & Memories

Enigma - Return To Innocence

Vanessa Williams - Save The Best For Last

Shy Guy

Mr. Jones

Toni Braxton

Green Day

No Doubt

So many artists, groups, songs. Random single-hit wonders. Timeless classics. I always find it quite remarkable how music can hold so many memories. Just listening to my iTunes list of mp3's is bringing back a flood of old memories, from days of playing tennis at "Reeves" to hitting tennis balls against a wall with Faraz, to bike rides to the lake with Jarek and the boys, summer "competitions" with Winst and Barry, lunches with Shan while working summer lab jobs on campus, basketball with the Citadel Crew, and even older memories -- group play on Andrea's trampoline, Gerry's pool, Milton's basement and large screen TV and satellite ...

The many songs I have on my playlist just evoke so many memories and feelings that transport me to the very day of my childhood, adolescence, youth, university days and on, as if it were yesterday.

I don't have enough time to listen to old songs often these days, though I am not worried, for it seems, when I do find the time, the memories and inspirations associated with each song are always there...

Wyclef

Mary J. Blige

Richard Marx

.
.
.

just random music interwoven into the fabric of my life :-)

Family Update

So by now you all know what Ethan likes or does not like to eat, or what we've tried to feed him at least. But a lot of other exciting milestones are being reached that I have not blogged about yet. Firstly, Ethan has recognized his feet. Pretty typical of 6-months old, Ethan likes to grab his feet and pull them close to his mouth (though he is not quite as nimble as his cousin Ellie Nur). Already mentioned previously (I think), Ethan can now roll over from his back to front, though he's sorta forgotten how to go back from his tummy to his back. He is very good at rolling from back to either side and just laying on his side, and in fact, he prefers to sleep this way (side) which was a bit worrying at first. Noomie is also able to sit unaided provided his hands are in front of him. His lateral control is not quite there yet, and so he tends to fall to his side if he leans over too much. So, he's not quite ready for stage-2 foods which requires that the baby be able to sit unaided (at least according to Gerber).

Noomie news aside, mom and dad are managing ok. Kelly is now on her "vacation" though it has hardly been that since we are still at home trying to make our home available to potential buyers for one week -- i.e. an Open House Week. We've had some interested people come by, so we'll see if any offers results. Next week, however, the day after Krishelle's birthday celebration, we are going to Blue Ridge to "interview" potential nannies or alternative home childcare givers in the area. Kelly's work has put an ad in the local paper there advertising for just this. We are nervous about this decision, but we may have a potential nanny that has come very highly recommended by Kelly's work, and we may jointly hire this person's services, which will be great for Ethan having another friend to play and learn with. So this trip is coming up.

But the clear predominating thought, at least on my mind, has been our immigration matters. We have been working very closely with great attorneys to have our visa applications/petitions submitted timely. The first day that the U.S. immigration services accepts applications for the type of visa we are applying for was Monday, April 2nd. We just got notice from our attorneys last night that the "cap" has been reached (on the first day!!!!) for the number of slots this type of visa is issued every year. And close to 200,000 applications were received for only 65,000 spots. Last year, the cap was reached on May 26th.

Money and time notwithstanding, our fate now comes down to a "lottery" which will be carried out on a date not yet determined. It just seems awfully unfair after everything we have gone through to date, to have a lottery, a chance, determine our immediate future, and consequently whether or not we can legally work in this country.

Thinking positively, it is very likely that Kelly's visa is not subject to this lottery and that she has alternative visas working in her favour, since she has obtained all her education and training in the U.S. Thank God.

For me, however, it is not so straight forward, and the likelihood that I will be a stay-at-home dad for some uncertain length of time is possible and more likely than not. I was very much looking forward to finding my professional interests and starting anew with this job I have lined up already in Blue Ridge, but it would be too disappointing to hope for much, until we know the results of said "lottery".

Then, if lucky, full steam ahead with original plan.

Pear-fect!

Chalk it up to the list of food Ethan likes! It wasn't love at first bite though, but he has taken to eating pear pretty quickly and now really likes it. So among the foods noomie enjoys to eat include: banana, sweet potato, broccoli and pear! Next, we will probably try peas since we have a lot of it.

Brocc'a Brocks

It's been a while since I posted a blog entry. Things are pretty crazy over here. Juggling a lot of things, and, well, some things are just out of our hands. But anyways, Ethan loves his broccoli!! We steamed fresh broccoli and Magic Bulleted it to a creamy consistency, and mixed it with his rice cereal. Noomie can't get enough of his brocc'a brocks -- a chip off his ol' daddy's block.