Also, Amy's aunt was also caught up in an elderly fraud scheme and lost a lot of their money/assets. We have been helping her cousin (who is in NYC) call lawyers, CPAs and law enforcement but it has been such a terrible thing for their family. These scammers are really despicable, taking advantage of the lonely and elderly who are most vulnerable.
Of course, with Amy gone/busy, I'm watching the kids and helping around the house more. Jad has started soccer season and is taking spring hip hop dance with Sora. Kai continues with jujitsu and will start school track soon. He opted not to commit to soccer this spring but may sub in to play a few games here and there. He is working on his attention deficit habits which can be frustrating to both him and us but important to develop skills and a good foundation for when school gets harder in the future. Sora has had the most change, adding on Girls on the Run (5k training) and hip hop dance while continuing with piano, Girl Scouts and gymnastics. As you can tell, our calendar is a mess of activities 😅
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| Kai did go on a 4 day Disneyland trip with the middle school advanced orchestra.. he had a great time! |
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| They stopped at In-n-Out in Kettleman City like we always do while driving to Socal |
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| They played a concert at Disneyland one morning but then had 1 1/2 days to enjoy the parks |
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| Good times with friends :) |
We finally made it up the peninsula to see Bonnie and Monica. It was nice to have lunch with them and then we stopped by Drew and Sarah's boba shop.
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| It was nice to see Bonnie and Monica again after many years hiatus .. the kids didn't remember them at all :p |
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| A stop to visit Sarah and Jordan at Kung Fu Tea in Redwood City |
Amy has also been busy with Girl Scouts cookies as usual, though she says this is the last year she's going to do it :p Sora set a new record goal of 400 boxes but ended up selling over 450! She worked hard (with only some prodding from us :) and did a great job.
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| Selling outside the Safeway near our house |
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| Our garage during cookie season :o |
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| I also helped Jad craft some armor from extra cookie boxes :D |
Amy did her Golden Gate Trail Run 30K in Marin as well! She did it with two other guys from our church (Chinh and Henry) and they all did great. Such amazing stamina to run for over 18 miles with an elevation of 4000+ feet. A bunch of other youths and men from the church also joined the 8k (about 1000ft elevation) so Kai ended up running too. He was so fast and ended up finishing 4th overall with the only people beating him being much older in the 30-40 year old range. He's a beast!
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| Amy said it was a very pretty run through the hills in the Marin Headlands |
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| Medal! :) I'm just glad no one was hurt.. well, Amy did sprain her ankle a bit but that's all better already |
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| Kai and Amy are very proud of their run and shirts! |
Other than that, just various little things here and there..
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| I got a (used) squat rack and can now do more exercises at home.. exercise program is going well and I'm getting stronger though my endurance is still very weak (thanks, mitochondria) |
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| Kids got evaluated by the orthodontist.. not much to do yet, I'm glad our orthodontist is pretty conservative and doesn't recommend too much |
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| Awesome field trip for Jad's class to In-N-Out.. everyone got free burgers and got to tour the commercial fridge and use the potato cutting device :) |
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| There was a cold snap a few weeks ago and there was briefly snow on the mountains near our house. Amy took them all up to see it (while I was at work) |
That's mostly it for this time. Cookie season for Girl Scouts is wrapping up but Amy has already become the coordinator for Noble's Science Olympiad as the former lead is stepping down and it would have not happened without someone stepping up. Luckily, she has several other parents who can help and she won't have to do everything. Still, we're so busy, I told her that I'm hesitant to add more activities on. I think, with our limited time, we do have to work on increasing activities that give us real joy and reducing time spent on things that are obligatory. Still working on it!
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| Sunset over Fremont |
Will leave you with this great sunset picture from Amy's mom's house. Take care, everyone!
