Performing Tasks with your Eyes Closed

I am thinking about starting a list of tasks that are best performed with your eyes open. Here's the start of my list, based on personal experience.

1. Driving. I rode in a car as a child across the old Wabasha bridge on the way to the Nelson Cheese Factory in Wisconsin. One of my relatives closed her eyes while driving because a truck was coming toward us on the narrow bridge, many, many feet above the Mississippi River. Better option for driving: EYES OPEN.

2. Taking Essay Exams. I studied for an exam late, late into the night once. The next day I was more than adequately prepared for the exam. I understood the question on the exam paper. I was formulating my response in my head when I closed my eyes momentarily to recall a diagram that would help with my answer. I woke up with 5 minutes left in the class. Better option for test taking: EYES OPEN.

3. Diaper Changing. Even when you think you know "nothing's there" and you're really, really tired, something might be there. Better option for diaper dressing: EYES OPEN.

4. Skiing. Enough Said. Better option: EYES OPEN.

5. Reading Books. Well, sometimes I can get away with the eyes closed method. This week I could easily read, The Foot Book, by Dr. Seuss with my eyes closed. The same goes for Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb, by Dr. Seuss. Most new books require eyes open. Better option for oral reading: EYES OPEN.

So what was our reading tonight? We read a new Dr. Seuss book I found called, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut. It was fun reading and pointed out there is more to do, see, and read if you keep your eyes open.

"Oh Me, Oh My, What a lot of funny things go by."

from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, by Dr. Seuss.




It's midweek at the Chung house. Morgan has begun her written report on climate and weather. She will be doing an oral report next week with a visual aid. 2nd grader!!!?????????? I feel like time and things are flying by at record pace; yet time keeps the same pace, no matter where you are.


It's Dr. Seuss week here, too.



While Annika and Woody went to pick up Morgan, Ingrid and I settled into three books:






That wasn't settling enough for Ingrid. We re-read "her" book, The Foot Book, three times.




Morgan picked up reading duties later in the evening by reading Green Eggs and Ham to Annika. Thanks Morgan!!

Tonight's Reading

Morgan and I bought some trout fish for dinner. We grilled the fish and had brussel sprouts on the side. I know, it's weird. All of my kids eat brussel sprouts. Annika's friend Kelly stopped by while we were eating dinner. She stayed and played Wii while we finished. The girls played bowling after dinner until it was time for baths and time to say goodbye to their friend. Kelly's mom stopped by to walk her home and ended up with the Dr. Seuss book, The Foot Book, in her lap among other books. I wonder who was scoping out the new adult reader?

NEA's Read Across America is gearing up with activities. We're ahead of the curve and continued with reading today. Morgan picked up and finished a small chapter book:

Dad got Dr. Seuss duty with Ingrid this evening while he was putting on her pajamas.

We Have A Winner!

This one was an unpublished contest - who was the 1000th visitor to our blog? Has anyone noticed the counter to the left? We now have received over 1000 hits to our blog. Truth be told, many of our visitors are repeats, especially both sets of grandparents. Visitor #1000 was my mom.

Stay tuned, we will be adding a new Chung Family Happenings contest in the near future - this one with prizes!

Dentists Are Our Friends, Not Food

Annika went to the dentist this morning. A glowing report and a perfect patient. She was so excited to see Dr. Fish. Really, his name is Dr. Allendinger. He has a huge salt water fish tank in his waiting room. It was the most exciting moment for my fish loving daughter when she arrived. "Hurry upstairs, Mom! I want to see the FISH!"

Annika proudly brought her toothbrush, toothpaste and Nemo dentist bag back to her preschool after her appointment. When we got home this evening there was a box for Annika that included new fish pajamas from grandma. Super cool Grandma.

This evenings' reading included two readings of Dr. Seuss' The Foot Book.

Morgan continues to read her school book and The Warriors book.

I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle to the younger girls.

Tonight's Reading - Caveat Lector

I read to the older girls this evening. Read Across America starts tomorrow. Hopefully all those with children are hearing the message and starting pledges to read to their children or with their children. We're sticking to the theme and pulled a classic Dr. Seuss book from the shelf. I love reading this book out loud to the girls and changing the voices between the little Who's and Horton.

Throughout the day today, I've been PESTERED to read to Ingrid. The pestering is usually her board book tapping on the back of my head or neck. I'm going to buy a golf stroke wristband counter to keep an accurate count of how many times I've read the same book to Ingrid. By no accurate measure and only counting the last twenty-four hours, I have read the Dr. Seuss book, The Foot Book, more than a dozen times. We alternate between the board book version which is abridged and the longer full story version. Either way, Ingrid is entering the stage of caveat lector, or "reader beware" if you skip a page! She knows!

To the Land of Make-Believe

We've been re-discovering the joys of one of the best children's television show of the 1970's again - Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. We have one DVD with four shows on it, including one about school buses that fascinates Annika. For me it carries a bit of nostalgia. I dutifully watched one episode of Sesame Street and one episode of Mr. Rogers before my nap every day after morning Kindergarten. I loved the trolley.


It was with great delight that I found a replica trolley from the show made in the U.S. Holgate Toys is a wonderful store of well made wooden classics for children, most of which were designed by the brother of Norman Rockwell.

This is definitely a Retro Toy.


In an uncanny move for Morgan, I found her creating a hanger for a toy airplane out of the family Lincoln Log set this afternoon. A roof problem made her rethink the plan. With a little ingenuity, I helped her change it into a horse stable.



This is definitely a Retro Toy.

Organic Saturday

I haven't fully jumped on the organic food wagon yet. We are still sourcing food. There aren't many, if any, local organic produce farmers in this major metropolitan area which is as wide as L.A. County surrounded by the desert.

Morgan's high fat diet sans artificial colors has had us searching for good foods. We have some great stores in the area. When we watch for great sales, we're able to get items, other than produce, at reasonable prices.

The girls' lunch today was no exception. They love the new organic "Bugs" and cheese pasta I found at Sprouts market. On sale, it's the same price as the other big blue box brand. We added Asian pears, fresh edamame, and blueberries sprinkled with honey powder.

Happy Saturday.

The Birthday

For those who want to know, we celebrated my birthday in Chung fashion. It was an obvious choice for dinner - Naeng Myun soup. We went to Hodori's for dinner. This was more special because I've converted my three daughters into Naeng Myun fans. They had the non-spicy version of buckwheat noodles, asian pear slices, zucchini slices in a beef brooth served on ice.

The girls sang happy birthday to me on the way home. My birthday presents included two new Wii games and a small light for the laptop. (Not that laptop, the other one).

We didn't take the camera so here's a stand-in birthday photo from some time ago...

A Milestone

Do I have everything??

1. Birth Certificate [CHECK]

2. Immunization Record [CHECK]

3. Utility Bill with Current Address [CHECK]

4. A wheel-barrow full of filled-out forms [CHECK]

5. Alarm clock set to 4:30 AM [NOT!]

Yep, it must be Kindergarten registration time. I can't believe I'm sending my second child to Kindergarten this summer. One HUGE difference for Annika's registration is the no-pressure registration. That's because there is only one choice for Kindergarten at Jacobson - all day. And, since we live in the boundaries, we are not bound by open enrollment rules for this school.

When I registered Morgan, I set my alarm early and headed out. It was unbelievable that I was already number 35 in line by 5:00 AM. The first mothers actually spent the night! There was limited numbers for all-day and for morning Kindergarten. Arrive by 7:00 AM and the only slots left were afternoon kindergarten. The all-day kindergarten was done by lottery. 40 spots and Morgan got the last one!

Annika's registration was easy-peazy. Her best friend's mother registered right before us. We hope the girls will have class together.

Next step? Shop for a cute first-day-of-school dress.

New Mattress Set and Tonight's Reading

We continue to work with the different entities tasked with helping us regain our bedroom. Today we went looking at mattresses again after work. We have a little over 45 minutes to work with between the time Woody gets home and the time we need to get the little girls from daycare. We usually get them right away but it was easier shopping for a mattress without the little followers. We were successful at our fourth mattress store and the new set will be delivered on Sunday.

Tonight we received our girl scout cookie order from our neighbor, Abby. The girls had a lemon cookie for desert while I read. Ingrid's attention span is growing and Annika is asking questions about the storyline so the interest is being captured, I hope. Tonight's book choice was from our collection. This book's binding is totally worn and there is tape on each page. The tape is from over-reading, not from a ripped book. It's happily worn out.

The Bears' Vacation, by Stan and Jan Berenstain, copyright 1968.

Another Birthday

Today is my cousin's birthday - Tommy. Tommy, or Tom, is grown up, married, and has a young son of his own. Tom's the one in the red overalls in front.

Happy Birthday Tommy.


Also, Happy Belated Birthday to my aunt. Carol celebrated her birthday on Valentine's Day. Happy Birthday Carol.

More battery photos

Our laptop was acquiesced by the insurance company yesterday afternoon. The adjuster and I met today to review the damages to the laptop and the house. We picked up the frisbee'd laptop and flipped it over in order to see the greater damage to the battery on the underside.

Woody arrived home in the late afternoon from work and we set out mattress shopping. This is my first major mattress shopping experience. There's a myriad of choices, almost headache inducing.

University Naming Rights

I took Morgan to ASU for additional audiology tests. For this occasion, we took our time after the appointment and strolled the campus. There was a flury of activity, especially at the middle of the day. Morgan thought the university was a fantastic place. There were so many buildings and each one had its own purpose. She couldn't get over the fact that there was one building to teach you how to be a teacher, one building to teach you how to be an engineer - a building for each subject. And she couldn't get over a school having its own bowling alley (in the Union)!

"How long ago did you go here Mom? Did you go bowling every day?" "Which building is your building?" "Can anybody get a building with their name on it?" - No, Morgan, only with lots and lots of money do you get a building with your name on it. "I want two things when I go here - science discovery and studing the owning a movie theater." Note: Morgan loves science and she is focused also on the idea of owning a movie theater and all the tasks that go with being the owner - deciding the movies, setting the price, etc. She's been talking about this for over a month. She asks a lot of business questions. I enjoy answering them.

Morgan wants to return to take in more of the sights and experiences of the campus of ASU. For now, she enjoyed the day and even posed for a few pictures.

Fire Lessons

If you read our last post, you know we went through a little drama this weekend at the Chung house. We are now able to reflect on the fire and our reaction. We learned a few things and are grateful our experience was small.

1. We were in the same room where the fire started. We saw the flash, the smoke and the flames. All of our alarms were working in perfect order. The bedroom alarm sounded first. I am grateful we have working alarms. If you haven't checked your batteries in a while, do so after reading this post. If you don't have an alarm in each room, get them - it's cheaper than a combo meal at most restaurants. The smoke alarm above, is from our bedroom.

2. Don't overestimate your childrens' abilities in a time of panic. They reacted much differently than we expected and they were limited in their responses. They froze. We will be doing practice drills in our house go forward.

3. Make backups. In our case, the laptop was empty of data. It had programs loaded, but it was not used as our main data storage, like our desktop. We have friends who lost years of information on a laptop, including pictures. We got lucky.

Korean Fire Drill

Yesterday morning we were up bright and early, cleaning and decorating in preparation for Annika's 2nd Annual Valentine's Art party. (Last year's party click here). It had rained for the last two days so we were preparing for an indoor party.

At 9:40, Morgan and I were baking cookies for the party, while the younger girls were in the bath and Woody was in the shower. Woody said he smelled something off but couldn't figure it out. Then he saw a flash (like a light turning on and off). Then smoke. He yelled for me, and, as I arrived in the bedroom, I saw the pop which was the battery of our laptop exploding. The laptop was on our bed on fire. Woody jumped from the shower and smothered the laptop with his t-shirt. I ran for the extinguisher in the family room. I returned and Woody had the laptop down on the floor near the dresser. Woody quickly put clothes on Annika. Morgan was waiting by the front door. I took the smoldering duvet and bed linens and threw them in the backyard. When I returned, the battery had exploded AGAIN, this time on the floor, loud and again on fire. The smoke now was coming out thick. I grabbed Ingrid and headed outside with Morgan. We decided to get them to the neighbors down the street. Woody sent Annika outside with clothes and a towel on her head. She caught up to us and we deposited the kids to the neighbors. I ran back to the house and Woody had removed the smoking laptop and flung it in the backyard in the wet grass. It exploded a third and fourth time in the backyard, each producing flames.

With the immediate danger over, we set out to open windows and start airing the house out. There was an overwhelming toxic acrolein odor that was burning to the eyes.

We also had to start calling Annika's party guests and tell them the party was cancelled, a few minutes prior to the start. One guest couldn't be reached and we had to tell her when she arrived.

After a little over one hour of airing, we went to get the girls and packed them up and went out to lunch. We ate slowly and drove around some before returning. The odor had begun to diminish and we called our insurance. The laptop has a hole in it, the mattress has a hole in it, the bedding has several holes and the carpet melted.

That was our Saturday...

Tonight's Reading

With good intentions, we started getting the girls ready for bed at 7:45 PM. Reading for the younger two girls included a selection of touch and feel books. The plot is a little lacking in these books, but the illustrations and imagination in the layout is fantastic. I bought these books for Morgan when she was still quite little. I thought she'd like the tacitile features.

Morgan was told she had time to read if she wanted to this evening. We only asked that she stay in her bed rather than have multiple "get-ups". For the most part she did for ten minutes, then she came out and asked if going to bed was an option. Yes, it's an option. Small anount of reading was accomplished, but she has made a huge stride in the choice of books. I know nothing about this series, Morgan got the idea to read this series from the neighbor, Delaney, a 5th grader.

Weather Forecast

The rain is evident today but Annika needed a closer look. I like this photo with her reflection on the driveway. I wish this picture had sound so everyone could her her giggles under the umbrella.

Thank You Uncle Andy

Today the younger girls received a long expected package in the mail from California. Ingrid was the first to preview the contents. What a smile on her face when she peered in and found Elephant and Nemo, both of whom were accidently left behind at Harmony and Harabagees at New Years. Both Annika and Ingrid are happy to have them home. Uncle Andy took the time to get a box and get them shipped to the girls. They are soundly sleeping with their "new" old animals back under their arms.

Feb 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day from Woody, Michelle, Morgan, Annika and Ingrid!

Finishing Touches and Tonight's Reading

I'm guessing many houses with children are working on Valentines cards tonight. The little baseball sized cards given to every classmate. That's not so at the Chung household. Amazingly, we finished our cards Sunday afternoon and packed them up ready to go. The proof is here:

With that task out of the way, we focused on a quick mid-week spelling test with Morgan, pot roast dinner, a little Wii, baths, snack with Korean cartoon, and bed.

So what about tonight's reading? Morgan is listening to a Junie B. audiobook; Annika read to Ingrid in the tub (very interesting reading style, I might add).

I'm re-reading this book. It's a personal favorite.

Happenings 2007 Annual, by Michelle Chung. Copyright 2008.

This is a hardcover book that I wrote using a download of our blog from the entire year of 2007. I had it published over New Years as a birthday surprise for Woody and a Valentine's surprise for each set of grandparents. They got their books late last week. The book is 270 pages and includes all of the postings from the last year plus a few added photo spreads. It took a lot of hours of editing to get it the way I wanted and ready for publication. I am very happy with the results.

Front Cover (sorry about the flash) Backcover

What do you think?

P.S. Morgan wants to say Happy Birthday to her cousin Megan in Wabasha.

Tonight's Reading

A typical day for the Chung household. The women of the house are up at 6:30. The man is already out the door and sitting in traffic while we're under the covers.

Breakfast has been Special K plus Berries for quite awhile. Annika is cheering because we remembered to get her some more oatmeal. Hoan-meahah with sprinkahs pleaze.

A minivan is not my first choice in vehicles but there's nothing better for Morgan's school drop off. Get in line, wait your turn for the corner, watch for the 6th grader valet's signal, pull up, put the car in park, hit the door button, say a quick goodbye, take the car out of park and hit the button. The door closes. I need a "That was Easy" button on my dash. I'd hit it every day I drop Morgan off.

On to daycare to sign the girls in and take them to their classrooms.

On to the freeway to work. A short drive and a long day. Going home is reverse of the above. Then prepare dinner. Eat dinner. Clean up dinner. Juggle baths and homework, pajamas and hair. Teethbrushing and reading.

So what did we read tonight? Tonight's reading theme was all non-fiction. Annika asked me to read to her in the tub. She wanted a book about sharks. I couldn't find one on the spot and she was happy with reading from the childrens' encyclopedia - sharks, snakes, starfish and spiders were the pages she wanted to have read to her.

Morgan is working on a non fiction book for her reading rotations - a book about caves.

Finally, Morgan couldn't wait to finish her school book. Admittedly she rushed it to get back to her new science experiment book. She has several bookmarks for experiments she wants to try. I'll need to check out whether I can handle a 7 year old and chemistry!

Now I am focused on getting this post finished and hitting the pillow! Goodnight!

More Wii

Here are some more pictures from Wii play this weekend. Can you guess the sport?








How about this one?

Chung Family Contest # 4 - Who Was the First?

No prize set for this one, but the contest is still on. Name the Chung family member who was the first to lose the Wii remote. For those of you unfamiliar with the Wii gaming, the remote is integral to the unit's function. So if you misplace it, you're in trouble. We didn't misplace ours.

The contest is to name the Chung who let the remote fly our of their hand - a common problem with the Wii, despite the wrist strap. Serious damage can occur for those with actual TV screens or other important electronic equipment. Look at this picture below. I got this off the Internet. This is not from our house. Thankfully, we have a home theater screen, so there would be no damage to the screen, if it were to get pelleted by the remote. Nothing was damaged in our incident today.

So who was the first to let go of the remote at our house? Any guesses?

Bonus question: Name the game that was playing.

Skating Try Outs

Part of my day off was a planned trip to Polar Ice - Desert Coyote Center in Chandler with Annika. She was excited to go and I knew I didn't need to convince her to put on the skates. What I didn't think about was Annika's height. Since she is a lot shorter than Morgan, I had to bend a lot more on skates to keep her up. I'm paying for it now!!! Annika was hesitant and didn't like skating at first. She went very, very slow. Like a snail on skates...

There was a lot of space on the ice during the afternoon session. At a peak there were 25 people on the ice. Surely different from the weekends when Morgan went for a birthday party. We even ran into my work - literally. There was an ad on the wall for the East Valley Tribune showing a picture of Mercy Gilbert and the expansion project. My office window is clearly visible on the picture. Annika recognized Mercy Gilbert as her "work place" too. (See this post: Maniac Monday. )

It was a fun afternoon. We followed up our skating by picking Morgan up after school and stopping for strawberry ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery - a rare, rare treat for us.

This Week's Jacobson Elem. Supreme Team V.I.P. is:

Morgan J. Chung.

Morgan was selected to be her class V.I.P. For this honor, she was asked to complete a poster about some of her favorite things. Her favorite animal is a Bald Eagle. Her favorite food is Pizza. Her favorite books are the Magic Tree House Series. Her favorite color is red. Her favorite activity in school is Reading Rotations. Her favorite activity at home is reading.

This morning Morgan was allowed to bring four items to share with the class that are special to her. Morgan brought her beloved Casey stuffed dog. Casey was given to Morgan after she arrived from Russia by my cousin Katie. It has been Morgan's faithful companion ever since.

Her second object is her (my) Little Professor math helper. This game was popular in the 70's and early 80's. I received it in 2nd grade and loved it. Even better was the successor: Dataman! We have both Little Professor and Dataman which has helped Morgan with her math skills. And she loves it. And even better, it's RETRO. How cool. Her teacher said she had "a flashback moment" when Morgan took it out to show.

Finally, Morgan described the dress she was wearing. She explained it was sent from Korea, but couldn't remember who sent it (her Great Aunts). She said there were only three that came in the box, for her sisters and for her (not for Mom and Dad). She said it was for special occasions. I described Annika's and Ingrid's Doljubee ceremonies and the items they chose. Morgan was beaming and loved the dress.

After this, we quickly excused ourselves to the restroom where Morgan did a quick change. Then back to class for a spelling test! Apparently, V.I.P's are required to take tests. Back to it, Morgan, and Way to Go!!!!