Our Prayers Answered

DSC_0260, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Just wanted to update to those who wondered about state of my brother-in-law's mother. Richard and Grace have been back from Canada for couple of weeks, and his mother is getting steadfastly better each week. He told me that the doctor thought it was a miracle that she could recover like this from such serious brain meningitis. I am not an overtly religious person, but I do believe in the power of prayers. Thank you everyone for their warm words and thoughts on this.

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My Chakra Color is Gold

DSC_0249, originally uploaded by jisoob.

I had the most wonderful time in my Tuesday evening Yoga class today. We did something different by trying some partner poses. It was challenging yet healing to use one another to try what would have been very hard yoga poses. After the partner yoga poses, we set in a circle and talked about what our feelings were of partner poses. All of us were in sync with the thought that we felt our partners' energy as we were trying these poses. Our teacher went further into the discussion of energy fields, which led to the discussion of Chakra colors, which means "wheel of light and colors" in Sanskirt (Indian). She, the teacher, is a certified Chakra/Reiki Master and was kind enough to spend few extra minutes on each one of us to tell us what our Chakra colors were. The individual Chakra color is what the color of your aura or energy field looks like. When it was my turn, she diagnosed me and said that my Chakra was "vibrant gold-- very gold." The color gold is associated with "yellow", the third Chakra (there are 7 colors total) and it signifies "will power, personal fulfillment, self-confidence, and enthusiasm." I thought it represented me so well since I always get told that I am a very determined person, and as a matter of the fact, I really am.

Too much of "yellow" means that one can become critical, demanding, and workaholic. Hah! I could not believe how dead-on this Chakra was of my personality. And my yoga teacher really does not know me personally beside seeing me as one of her nice yoga students in her Tuesday evening class. I am very grateful for this knowledge.

Find out about otherChakra coclors here.

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This Smiley Face

DSC_0184, originally uploaded by jisoob.

The conversation Amelia had with Brian in the evening after returning from her playdate.

Amelia: Daddy, where is a smiley face?
Daddy: Oh, where is it? Did you get a sticker or something?

Amelia: (points to herself with a huge grin) It's right over here.

Events like this make our hearts melt.

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Amelia Wanted To See the Freedom Ring

On Saturday we headed to Philadelphia to visit my sister, Jieun. She's in the last home stretch of semester at Temple University to become a Dentist. She has been being pummeled through exams after exams and we wanted to delight her with our preschooler entertainer, Amelia. My tired sister couldn't stop smiling at the presence of her only niece.





After lunch, we ventured out to the heart of Philly in search of...

I bet you thought I was going to say "a cheese steak." But no, Brian and I are currently on a diet (more on this later). We were searching for the liberty bell, and we sure did find it without Jieun, who had to go back to her room to study for yet another exam. Seeing the liberty bell in person was inspiring. It was much different than what I thought it'd be. I imagined it would be much bigger and thought it would be carefully guarded behind a glass case. But it was only roped in, making it much more approachable. I believe this was symbolic to iterate that liberty is close to American people, as the inscription on the bell reads:

Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV X
By Order of the ASSEMBLY of the Province of PENSYLVANIA for the State House in Philada Pass and Stow Philada MDCCLIII (source: Wikipedia)









My inspired moments with the liberty bell came crashing down right after the above pictures were taken. Amelia decided to sneak underneath the rope to touch the big bell to see it ring. Brian grabbed her in the nick of the time before she put her three-year old hand print right on "one of the most prominent symbols of the American Revolutionary War. (Wikipedia)" We promptly yanked her into her stroller, strap her down and my mother pushed her out of the exhibit in less than 3 minutes flat. Brian, myself and I never have worked so fast as a team to save ourselves from what could have been a one historical embarrassment.

Luckily the rest of the day went more smoothly. We took a carriage ride around the historical part of Philly.



We even took a picture of the statue who was the founder of American Navy, Commodore Barry. Brian wanted to make sure I took this pic so his Papa, a proud former US Navy sailor, could see it.



All in all, it was a great day even counting Amelia's very close-call with the liberty bell. I try to see if as her wanting to see the freedom ring, it was only her patriotic, American desire, you know? (OK, this is a mother desperately trying to defend her preschooler daughter just being a preschooler).

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World Baseball Classic: Korea Vs. Japan

As an American citizen, I was going to root for USA if they had made it to the finals..but they didn't. So I gotta stick with my original homies and root for my birth land, South Korea.

Korea and Japan are both excellent teams. They both deserve to be there. I want to be fair in this and say..

That KOREA is just way better. And I'm totally basing this on a scientific proof-- the fact that I am Korean and that I am supposed to think that way. I hope nobody (in that I mean anybody whose Japanese reading this) takes offense to my very humble, yet logical opinion.

GO KOREA, BEAT JAPAN'S BUTT! DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO WHOOP THEIR BUTT-- GO OVERLY NATIONALISTIC. The Korean team needs to think about how Japan tried to claim Kimchi as their own by spelling it as "Kimuchi" and also think about that heated dispute of little rock island. I want to Ichiro Suzuki to be crushed and cry like a baby as if he snorted wasabi by accident.

This isn't just baseball. According to our in-house baseball exerpert, Mr. Brian "this doesn't even compare to Yankees vs. Red Sox Rivarly . This is country to country and their prides." My Gosh, I have succeeded in training my husband well :-D This is as passionate as I will get about baseball. But in all seriousness, I am indeed excited that two really good teams are playing against each other. Maybe I am the one who's being trained to become a baseball fan after all the years of living with Mr. Brian AKA our in-house baseball fanatic. Go Baseball!

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Celebrating Amelia's 1/16's Heritage

We were in downtown Baltimore last Saturday and happen to be in the right spot to witness the Irish Festival going on. It neat to explain to Amelia that she should be excited for this parade since this is her heritage too, since she is officially 1/16th Irish (obviously from Brian's side of the family which traces straight back to his Mom and Nana). Hooray for triple heritage! Who says less is more? When it comes to culture, I believe more is much better. I hope by the time Amelia grows up and has to fill one of those annoying census form, in particular the ethnicity/race question line , she would be able to bubble in "more" instead of "other."

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Back to the Aquarium

Fish in watercolor mode, originally uploaded by jisoob.

These are pictures taken from the Aquarium on past Saturday. My camera was equipped with new external flash (sb-400) and 18-200mm SIGMA zoom lens. I don't know if it was the equipment or whether my picture taking skills got a little better, but I am quite happy with the outcome. The above picture is completely unedited-- I somehow took a picture of a purple/yellowish fish as if it was painted rather than photographed.

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Remembering Clouds

DSC_0134, originally uploaded by jisoob.

I want to remember something Amelia said today that I'd liked to document.

While playing outside in our backyard, Amelia looked up at the sky and said the following.

Amelia: Mommy, look at the clouds, they are moving!
Me: They are indeed! Where are they going?
Amelia: They are going to the airport... they are going home.

I guess this is why they say children are amazing. I cherish Amelia's imagination and her youthfulness.

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Amelia Talks Rational

DSC_0031, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Amelia is becoming more logical than ever. She talks back using arguments and reasoning-- something we marvel at but get frustrated because we can no longer get her to do something without explaining exactly why it should be done such way. More reasoning means she just talks back a lot, very convincingly (much to our dismay). She's also been quite sassy too.

For the past couple of weeks, Brian and I have been working out in the morning. Brian would go to the gym and I would work out at home, then we'd switch on the next day, etc. When Amelia woke up this morning and saw that we were both in work out gears, she asked,
"Mommy and Daddy, did you both work out?"
We replied yes. She then said, "Hey, I don't want to stay home by myself!"
I then told her that I stayed home and worked out in the basement. She then quipped:

"But Mommy, you could wake me up to go to the gym with! You are so silly."

No offense to Amelia, but running on a treadmill on an empty stomach is a challenge in itself. I cannot imagine having to do that and tend to her at the same time. That would certainly be a bootcamp workout.

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Our Prayers

DSC_0040, originally uploaded by jisoob.

We just found out that my sister Grace and her husband Richard are on their way to Nova Scotia, Canada to visit his mother in the hospital. His mother has brain meningitis and is currently in an induced coma... The news is that she is not doing very well.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Richard and his family, and we especially hope that Grace and Richard arrive in their destination safely after 20 hours of non-stop driving to Canada.

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My Last Year as a Twenty Something

Today I turned 29. The celebration officially began with friends and family on late Friday and only ended couple of hours ago. I am grateful for everyone who were able to spend time with me over the weekend. I could list all the things I did over the weekend that made it special. And it's not the things that I did that made this birthday great. I didn't get whisked away to Paris or have a grand birthday party. I had few very low-key lunches, dinners, hanging outs and spent time with people who cared for me and I cared for in return. That was all I needed. I could post numerous pics of those special people, things I did, etc... but I decided to scrap that and talk about the most important realization I came upon on my final year as a twenty something.

Every birthday is special, but this weekend's festivities were especially meaningful in that I noticed how much fun I was having. There was not a worry that could take that happiness and joy away from me. I was enjoying the moment and savoring my birthday (or the entire weekend, rather), something I don't remember having done in years. I have always been the kind of person who looked toward the future. I set goals and was good at working hard at them, but was not very good at enjoying the present or putting much value to it. I always thought future was more important than the present; I made the destination more important than the journey itself. After a heart-to-heart talk with my wonderful husband, Brian, and asking myself what I really want out of life NOW (as supposed to for LATER), I decided that I want to enjoy my life in its present tense, not future tense. Therefore, I decided to give myself the biggest birthday gift of all-- I am going to quit my second job. I decided working 10 hours extra a week was something my mind and body can live without.. Sure, I will miss the extra income in this horrible economy, but I will gain so much more.

Happy 29th Birthday to me.



P.S. I know this sounds lame but I cannot help it. I'm very excited to work only 40 hours a week from now on like a normal person. Yay!

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A Hairy Situation: All for the Love of Long Hair

Amelia got her first professional haircut in a salon last Saturday. I was nervous that she would freak out a bit while getting her trim and layering (we want to keep the long hair look), but she did fine, surprisingly.

Many different expressions were displayed on Amelia's face during a 10-minute hair cut.
She had pensive moments (waiting for the next move by the hair stylist?):



She also looked a bit worrisome (don't cut too much off!):



But in the end, she learned to enjoy getting primped. She's such a girly girl:



She even got her hair blow dried for the first time:



Even though Amelia did very well in the salon, I have had some problems with Amelia's hair situation lately. Since her hair is so long, it requires quite an upkeep. It makes it almost impossible for Brian to do anything with Amelia's hair in the mornings I am too busy to do it. I said that I want to send him to a Beauty School just so he learns to style his daughter's hair. He thinks I'm joking, but I was serious after seeing how he couldn't even put a hair band on her head correctly. Until that point, I never realized how hard it was to teach someone to put a hair band on a child's head. To make it worse, Amelia also developed her hate for hair washing which makes a bath time tad annoying. To get her hair washed, it usually requires a brave (?) soul who has to be willing to go in the battle. It is sort of like a military draft: Who is willing to sacrifice for this household and wash Amelia's hair today? As expected, none of us are looking forward to it. We are eagerly anticipating the day Amelia will grow out of this hating hair washing phase. I guess she won't be making a good Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo model after all.

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Snow Day

DSC_0029, originally uploaded by jisoob.

We were both off from work due to massive amount of snow. Yay! Working for government rules :)
We were excited to get 8 inches of snow to finally do some sledding in our front/backyard since our house sits on a massive slope. We went sledding crazy and Amelia loved it. The sledding served us well until it popped :-( I even attempted to make a snowman for Amelia. Did you know you can burn up to 250 calories making a snowman? I only made one big roll for the body and couldn't foster enough energy to make the head.

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