The Seattle set

Have I yet detailed that I have six nieces and one nephew? Well, there are three from one sister and four from the other. These are the four who live in Seattle. Here are the older three with the (similarly Asian-white mix) neighboring three kids. In the truck that I drove. A little small-town fun.




This is the morning of the last day of 1st grade and kindergarten, respectively, for these two. Fruit and Eggo waffles.







Isn't her hair totally Joan Jett? This is baby.











Baby with a nanny-doo and her big sister subjecting her to sitting in a colander just as she was subjected to in infancy.

My nephew and baby.












My nephew and his mom (my sister) sporting matching nose ow-ies.








Strawberry shortcake. Yum.

Family: the great time warp

Seriously. When I hang out with my family, I kind of forget about the rest of my life. I am only a daughter, a sister, or an auntie. There is no "Irene", only "Xiao A Yi" (pinyin for 'mother's younger sister'). So now I face the biggest blog lapse since I began, I think.

The rest of my time in Richland was packed to the gills with good visits with more friends interspersed with FB Texas Hold Em'. Had a cathartic discussion of sorts with my parents and the fruit of that emotional expression/honesty is still reverberating. If fruit reverberates, that is. Ripening, might be a more contiguous verb. So, again, yay emotional maturation! Yay, counseling! One friend of mine whom I saw a few times during my 10 days in Richland quipped (I paraphrase): you have a lot of patience to engage with a variety of people and really listen to them and remember details about their lives. It blesses me to watch you interact with people. Her words were very affirming as I find her an incredibly upbeat and engaging person.

So I wound up driving the standard-shift, no power steering, cassette tape deck truck to Seattle as my parents went up the day before so my dad could attend my niece's "Special Guy" kindergarten lunch. It wasn't so bad. Dance recital was fun(ny). And I was The Face Painter at her 6th birthday party. All the moms recognize me as such now. One kid asked if it was my job. Maybe I should consider it? Speaking of, my current idea list of jobs come 2010 are: teach, nanny, freelance project management, and nursing school (I realize this is not a job). So kind of broad spectrum. And of course I could become another empty-pocketed writer. Which sounds kind of appealing as well.

So the party was fun and the clown was totally not scary and very funny ("Nothing better than an iced-mustard.") but the memorable thing was that during the party my other sister called to say that my dad was going to take me sick mother to the ER because she couldn't stop puking. And this was on my mom's actual 73rd birthday! So they hydrated her and gave her some medication IV and sent her home. But we were all worried. My mom is a workhorse and kept apologizing for not being able to help out. This was the least of our concern. Anyway, some drama ensued about whether she should go home or stay but eventually she and my dad went home to Richland for a few days before coming back so my dad could present the gospel at an area Chinese church event. I have many thoughts and feelings about the Whole Thing but most importantly, I created a Therapeutic Event (so calls my counselor) in that I am separating from my parents' marriage. It's not mine, I've got no business in it, and boy is that freeing. (Thanks to Kristie who shared some good stuff with me and confirmed that it's the right thing for me to do, emotionally--even if it sounds crazy.)

The rest of the week has been a mix of Play Dough with my 2nd youngest niece, Jackpot (some ball toss game) with my eldest niece and her neighbor friends, wiping up spills, changing diapers, playing Settlers of Catan with my brother-in-law and sister, grocery shopping, researching washing machines, driving the minivan around, and tickling my nephew. I am the 3rd parent.

I did see my high school friend Jason yesterday for coffee. He works at T-Mobile and I hung out with him before he caught the bus back across Lake Washington (well, missed and caught the next one). So that's some peer-level interaction.

My next stops are Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia in Canadia and Banff with Juanita; Bellevue/Seattle for Independence Day; Richland for another week; TBD; camping in Mt Rainier Park; the Olympic Peninsula with Nancy from Richland; and NYC on August 1st.

I'll post some pictures later today if I get a chance.

Love to you, my lovely readers. A quote via my friend Amy: Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable. (And reading my blog = being heard. So there.)

Mom on the recorder

And another thing [my camera was low on memory so this clip is not a complete phrase]: my mom is playing the recorder lately for fun and Alzheimer's prevention. I think she is wary because my grandmother was rather 'out of it' prior to her passing. Emotionally, I think this is very healthy; to see the curses (so to speak) of previous generations and say 'no'. Tiffany has been helping me stay focused on the vision and reiterating all God has done/is doing/will do. For which I am also grateful. Thanks to all of you (my hosts and friends and new friends) for adding to my journey.

Habits

Back in Richlandia! Here's me with Mooch's foster mom, Rachel. Windy got me hooked on FB poker. Which has kind of replaced my crossword puzzle obsession that I had in Vegas. Which is kind of funny if you think about it.









These are the three products of my glassblowing class that I took way back when in New Orleans. I've been waiting to see how they turned out since they were shipped directly back here. Pretty cool!





Richlandia has its own beauty, which I really appreciate after having been in other beautiful places and looking at the creation and people and food. Of course my mom cooks for me here and it's yummy. Old friends have taken me out for some traditional fare: Stacey with Spudnuts and Nancy with Atomic Brewery.




The rest of my time in Vegas was really sweet. More hanging out with Carrie and her family. More cross words and sleeping in 'til I woke up naturally. More cool rock formations, as pictured here at Red Rock Park.

Here's some wildflowers: fuzzballs. I've decided, influenced by Milton's quote from previous post, that it's OK that I don't know or even learn the scientific names for all these flora, I enjoy them all the same.



And comparatively, I am busy now running around seeing my awesome friends in the Tri-Cities. Thank you to all my blog readers and especially cool is Nancy for being my first subscriber! Wow, I feel very loved.

After a few more days here, I'm going to Seattle for my niece's birthday, will be back around, then have a trip to Canada in-planning with Juanita, and later in July a trip to the Olympic Peninsula with Nancy. Hope to camp with Josh & Debbie and do some other fun stuff in between as well.