28 is ummmm great?!!

Looks like 28 is here. 28 seems to be a boring looking number.

Wikipedia has some good things to say about the number 28 here. 

I'm not overly excited about 28 the way I was last year at 27.

27 seemed a coming of age number. 28 reminds me of soda gone flat for some reason.

Last year I took up sewing, or I think re-crapping is a better word for it.
I had a lot of fun, although I have yet to master sewing in a straight line I am going to keep
it up and see how it goes.
I picked up sewing last year as a hobby, so I decided that every birthday I am going to "give" myself a new hobby. This year's hobby will be.... dum dh dhaaaaaaa writing!! 
I am going to revamp my writing skills. If you are reading this,
you have noticed that I am spelling and grammar impaired, as shown in my specialty run on sentence. 
My goal is to write 30 minutes each day. I feel like am not really exciting enough to really keep a journal so thats out of the question. I do like to keep up the blog and use it as a simplified journal of our family.
When Ha Jyn was born I started jotting a few things down every month it was going good, but plateaued at about 5 months. So I will practice my writing on Ha Jyn's book, the blog or elsewhere. 
I am really hoping that taking up this hobby will also lead to my obsession of making a closet into my office. 


Anyways I had a great birthday yesterday. Ha Jyn and Boo surprised me with a new purse and headband. We went back to the Cheesecake Factory ummm so good and to die for. Literally I might die of diabetic shock if I go back there before my next birthday.  Afterwards we finished celebrating by going to a great park in Santa Clara. It was a great day first day of being 28. 

Ahhh Boo's an American!!

Thursday my Boo transformed into an American. 

Actually he gets to keep his Korean citizenship.

So without further ado let me present to you:

Yong Boo the Kamarican!!

I was against him becoming a citizen at first, but he wants to work with 

the government. With his Masters degree finished it is becoming even more possible.

Most of the jobs he is interested in require citizenship.

So now he can vote and everything! I think he really needs to put on about 20 pounds of 

pre-packaged sodium ridden fat to really look like an authentic American. 

I told him if he votes for Palin I would personally denounce his citizenship. 

Ha Jyn with her Kamarican Papa

Celine applauding her new Kamarican Uncle

These two were hilarious durring the ceremony.  Boo had to sit in a 

different section so I had them all to myself. The seats in the auditorium were theater seats.

So I put Celine in my lap and plopped Ha Jyn on the chair next to me. I looked over at her

only to realize she was being eaten by the chair. So I tried to balance my foot on the chair while 

holding Celine, which worked pretty well. Celine and Ha Jyn decided that right when 

the main speaker was giving his, "Today is the best day of your life now that your an

American speech" it would be a good time to have an "ohhhh No!!" shouting contest.

So the speaker would say, "Today is a day you will remember the rest of your life", silence and next 

a loud "ohh noo!!" from one of them, fallowed by a louder "Oh noo!!" by the other one.

I was trying not to laugh while shoving raisins in their mouths, but it was pretty funny. 

I have never been a huge fan of America, but I was really happy for all the people

who became citizens. I hope that in one way or another it enriches their lives. I feel like American culture is pretty bland next to Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Korean etc., But I am really happy to

have more flavor in America. I know I am preaching, but I think that citizenship should be 

an easier thing to come by. That is what America is specialized in right? The whole, "great american melting pot" concept? Well I think it's time to make the pot bigger, thats all.  

To celebrate I busted out the scarves. Ha Jyn is a total girly-girl. She loves 

accessories and for me to paint her toe nails. Yesterday she got a hold of my sports bra and put it around her head walking around saying, "pretty!! pretty!"

Anyways when I was a kid me Grandma had a scarf drawer that gave me hours of entertainment.

Looks like Ha Jyn and Celine are the same way.  

 Next we went to the mall where Celine's Grandma treated us to an 

awesome dinner at Heaven.. The Cheesecake Factory. I had never been there,

but anything that loads chocolate on top of chocolate usually passes in my book.

The girls also got to play in the mall playground. Ha Jyn seriously sat on this fish for a good five minutes. These days she loves the song, "Slippery fish" so maybe thats why.

Adieu to our Juny Ju.....

This decision has not come easy at all. 

Simply put Pre- Ha Jyn Juny and Post- Ha Jyn Juny

are two different dogs. Or maybe we are different parents to Juny.

Either way it just sucks. But when it comes down to it,

I love Juny. But I love Ha Jyn more. 

I feel like I have failed Juny. If we had 

been better trainers or put her in an how-not-to-be-aggressive-towards-unpredictable-toddlers

obedience class it would not have to come down to this. 

She has never bit Ha Jyn, but has aggressively snapped at her with her 

teeth showing and her hair raised. 

For me it was not a question of if, but of when. 

On the bright side we randomly found a good home for her.

We go on walks every night and I run or walk with her in the mornings. 

On one of our walks we ran into a woman who has a Jindo that could be Juny's twin.

We explained how we were contemplating what to do with Juny. That was a couple weeks ago.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was jogging with Juny and ran into Yoon Hee, the woman with the matching Jindo. She told me about her Mother-in-law who's son just moved back to Korea and now she lives in a huge house with just her daughter. The mother-in-law loves Yoon Hee's Jindo. Yoon Hee mentioned us and our dog Juny. Anyways yesterday she asked me if I would be interested in giving Juny to her Mother-in-law. It seems like a great solution. Juny does not end up in some shelter. But I know the heartache is not going to stop soon. Juny has been a loyal running partner, she has made us active because of having to walk with her, she helped me so much when I was lonely in Korea. She's family.... With big sharp teeth. 

After we got Juny in Yoon Hee's car and got back into the house my first 
thought was, "Oh I have to be careful not to let Juny out when I open the door."
By the time I set foot inside our apartment. I lost it. Juny was a huge part of our 
everyday routine. I felt really safe running with her early morning or late at night.
At the same time we knew it was inevitable. She has a great new home and a yard to run around in.
But knowing that does not make it any easier. 
oh this apartment/heart feels empty =(

a song for my Ha Jyn..

The bright beautiful light to this otherwise hard/depressing summer. 

Why I hated July....

The entire reason that we moved to San Jose was for Boo's job.

In the interview Boo got the impression that it was going to 

be a great job with great people to work with.

Fast forward one month later to find it was anything but. Instead it was 

an incredibly tense, stressful and unfulfilling job. After Boo finished his 

5th week of work his boss decided to not fire, but "let him go".

Apparently "let go" is different from "fired". However, for us they are 

both synonymous with, "being screwed over". 

He was "let go" because his boss said he was not a good fit for the

office. The office, slightly bigger than an outhouse containing the 

boss, one other person and Boo. 

Can you smell the bitterness oozing off of me?! 

So after this bomb fell on us we came up with a plan A, Plan B and Plan C. 

There have been good things that came from Boo's being set free.

We have cut everything back in our spending. We were not big spenders

anyways, but you know I guess spending the bare minimum can

be liberating. We also have spent a lot of time pondering out next steps... that can be good right?

Most of all we have been able to spend more time with our friends in Monterey. 

That is definitely the difference between a super bitter, betty ford clinic-bound me and 

the me I am right now.  

I am a big believer in the, "everything happens for a reason" policy. However, when I am really 

bitter I have a short term memory for that policy. I think sometimes things have to 

get worse to get better. Yesterday was our worse day yet. We had mailed our rent 

check to San Jose while staying with our friends, Anna and Scott in Monterey. Almost two weeks later, yesterday we get a call from the property manager saying we had a three day eviction notice!
Ahhh holy crap-my-pants stress! We told him we mailed the rent because we were out of town. 

Which was the truth, but I am sure to that guy it just sounded bizarre. So we had to run around, panic stricken and luckily got a new rent check to him. Now the question is where in the world is the first rent check? Stuck in some postal sorting machine?

Anyways crises over, rent is paid. But that 4hr possible eviction trauma made us 

come up with a plan D. 

As of now I will help watch our friends kids durring the day and Boo will work at a 

Sushi restaurant durring the night, job searching durring the day. We are giving the American job search 

until the end of September. Between now and September we will get our passports and Visas ready to 

move to Korea. So if a job comes up in America then great, if not we go to Korea. I teach English in Korea and Boo finds a job in his field there. Yeah for plan D!!

 As far as I know, between our July, our friends July and some family member's craptastic July

this is the only good thing that happend last month! 

From the Mouth of Ha Jyn

Meet "Ta Jee" as she likes to call herself. 

Her hobbies include:

"coco" (coloring)

"walk walk" (going outside for a walk)

"eww ewww" (farting)

"sesame" (watching Sesame Street)

"Book" (reading)

"outside" (playing on the balcony)

(Ha Jyn, or I mean Ta Gee with her prizes she won

from completing her 1st summer reading program)

She loves her best friend "Seen" (Celine)

as well as her boyfriend "Jeen" or sometimes called "Jace" (Jason)

Other favorite people include: "Papa", "Mama", "Juny", "Gober" (Grover from

Sesame Street) "Bebe" (her baby), "Baaa", (her lamb puppet) "foggy" her plastic frog

"Caa" Her car toy.

Her favorite foods incude:

"Blue" Blueberries 

"Flowers" Strawberries

"water" watermelon

"Nanas" Bananas

"Rays" Raisins 

"Bapple" Apples 

"Pishies" Gold fish crackers 

"Sear"Cereal

"Chee" Cheese

"milk milk" Milk

"Waa waa" Water

She hates it when her rice is "tot" (hot) or when her fruit

is "coe" (cold). 

Her real favorite foods are rice, seaweed and tofu. But she 

has not named them anything yet, probably because when she sees them

she just says over and over, "I wan more! I wan more!"

(working very hard at her free music and movement class 

with the glasses she refused to let me take off) 

Her favorite songs are:

"Bus" Wheels on the bus

"twink" Twinkel, Twinkel

"walk walk" A Sesame street song with three dancing pigs

"bubble" B is for Bubble

"cookie" C is for cookie

I love this phase where everyday she says new things.  I want her 

to stay at this stage forever so she never figures out how to talk back.