10-20-08 Xander's birthday 傑升的生日

Can I have one more? 我可以再吃一個嗎

My friends love my cake. 我同學都很喜歡我的蛋糕吔.

Isn't this cake look so cute? 很有萬聖節氣氛的蛋糕

The finished products. 做好的蛋糕.

Xander's birthday is really close to Halloween and we always find cute Halloween cup cake ideas from Better Home magazine every year. This year Xander picked the bat cup cakes -- becasuse the rest of them are too hard and take too much time to make them. Both kids were having fun decorating the cakes for about 10 minutes and ran away to play something else. Sean came to make sure if that's o.k. that they didn't help me with the cakes and I responed it was much faster if they don't help me.

Khai and I went to Xander's school in the afternoon and helped passing out the cup cakes to his classmates. The class sang him happy birthday song and everyone gave him a birthday hug and wish. It was so sweet.

We decided to stay home and celebrate his birthday since it's school night. Xander chose macaroni cheese for dinner, easy enought that I can make it at home. Xander loved his presents, especially the DS games and the helicopter from grand parents. Khai was being very nice watcing his big brother opening all presents and didn't whine why he didn't get any.

Happy Birthday Xander.

傑升的生日離萬聖節很近. 每年當月的雜誌都會有一些做蛋糕的點子給萬聖節用, 所以我們常常可以做不同的蛋糕給傑升拿到學校分同學吃. 今年傑升選了蝙蝠, 因為其它的太難了, 媽媽不會也沒有時間做. 小朋友們很高興的幫忙做蛋糕, 可是小孩子的專注力還是有限, 過了一會兒他們就跑上樓找爸爸玩了. 爸爸問我說還需不需要小朋友們幫忙做蛋糕, 我小聲的跟爸爸講: "其實沒有他們的幫忙我反而比較快", 不想講太大聲以傷他們的自尊心.

隔天我和煒勳拿蛋糕到哥哥的學校去請同學吃, 在他們班上大家會圍一個圓圈, 先唱生日快樂歌, 然後每個人給壽星一個抱抱及祝福. 傑升有點害羞的讓大家輪流抱抱, 最後美麗的老師也抱了他一下. 然後傑升問他同學們要那種蛋糕他再分給大家, 煒勳坐在哥哥的桌子旁很高興的吃著蛋糕.

因為隔天還要上課, 所以我們沒有出去外面慶祝, 傑升選擇要吃起司麵, 還好這個我會做. 晚上早早的吃完了晚餐, 傑升很高興的拆他的禮物. 他很喜歡玩樂高積木, 所以煒勳及爺爺奶奶送他積木遊戲. 爸爸媽媽送他電子遊樂器的遊戲. 他玩的很高興, 而最難得的是煒勳整晚很乖的看哥哥拆禮物, 一點都沒有嫉妒他自己都沒有禮物. 嗯, 下次煒勳生日時也要對他特別好.

Harvest pumpkins 採收南瓜

Khai is a very strong helper. 我一次可以拉3顆南瓜.

總共有14顆南瓜吔

Dry corn from our garden. 這些乾乾的玉米是我們種的.

The weather forcast predictes that there will be frost in the next few days, so I thought I'll harvest the pumpkins since their veins already brown and dead anyways. Cut the stem and put them on Khai's baby wagon, drag all of them to the front porch. Wow, we had 14 big and small pumpkins. We started with 8 seeds, thin 4 of them, just water them daily and didn't do much and see how many we got out of them. We really enjoy our pumpkin patch this year because their veins are everywhere and so long. Didn't want to hurt the pumpkins, so we don't mow these areas. Being lazy persons, we decided to expand our garden and plant more pumpkins--you probably already firgure out the real reason why we expand the garden. ^_*

We also planted some corns and only ate two big and sweet corns. That was it, we forgot to harvest them and now they are too old to eat. We'll save them until them turn brown, and we can use that as our Halloween decoration.

氣象預告估計這幾天會結霜. 我怕我們的南瓜會被凍壞又想它們的莖及葉子都已經變黃變枯了, 應該是可以採收了吧. 好, 叫煒勳跟我一起去採收南瓜. 割了蒂把南瓜放在小推車裡, 煒勳幫我把它們推到前門去. 我們數了數, 哇, 總共有14顆南瓜呢. 本來只種了8顆種子, 其中拔到了4顆要不然會彼此競爭而長不大..也就只有澆澆水, 拔些草而已, 竟然可以長這麼多. 種南瓜最大的好處就是它的莖很會長也有很多葉子, 所以有莖的地方我們割草時都會繞過..這樣子就讓我想到那我們明年就要把花園再擴大再種南瓜, 讓它的莖到處長這樣就不用割草了..聰明吧.

今年也種了玉米, 有吃到2顆又大又甜的玉米, 可是後來忘記採收等到要採時都已經太老了. 想說就先留著, 等到它們變黃變乾時還可以採下來當萬聖節的裝飾.

10/10/08 Khai's field trip 煒勳的戶外教學

Hurry mom, I only have 5 seconds standing here. 媽媽快點啦,只有5秒鐘可以站這裡吶.
Explain how fire truck works 消防員解說設備.
Boy, this pants is so big..好大的褲子哦.
Firefighter's full gear 消防員的全副武裝.

This week is Khai's turn to go to fire station for his field trip. Fire fighter Larry explained what fire fighters do and how they use their station and fire truck. He opens most of the cabinets and shows us what tools inside and when to use them. Kids get to go inside the station and see where fire fighters eat, sleep, shower, and exercise. They keep their station very clean, they even wash their fire trucks every day. Kids also get to go inside the fire truck and have a seat on the chair--for 5 seconds. At the end they need a volunteer to put on fire fighter's full gear. I rais my hand immediately because I would like to know how heavy they are to put on the whole gears.

After adding pants, boots, jackets, helmet, and finally air tank, it's getting heavy. Fire fighter Larry even asked me to crow on the floor and shake kids' hands. This way kids would know that fire fighters are there to save them. I manage myself to get up w/o any help. The whole gears are so heavy and no wonder fire fighters need to be in their best shape. It was very fun to visit fire station, for kids and myself.

今天換煒勳要去消防局做戶外教學. 消防局離學校只有1分鐘車程.到了消防局,消防員為小朋友們解釋防火安全,發生火災/災變時要在那裡和家人碰面,及介紹消防車的各種設備. 我們後來進去觀看消防員們吃飯,睡覺,洗澡及運動的地方. 整個消防局好乾淨哦, 因為他們沒去救災時就待在局裡清理裡面. 他們甚至每天都洗消防車呢. 我懷疑他們的家裡是不是也都很乾淨--職業病. 後來消防員徵求一個志願者穿上全副消防衣, 我馬上伸手因為我很想體驗穿消防制服. 慢慢的穿上褲子,外套, 手套,面具及氧氣桶,哇,好重吔.要當一個消防員體能一定要在最好的狀態, 要不然你根本就走不了幾步就累了. 小朋友最後可以在消防車上坐一下並照張相, 要快哦, 只有5秒鐘的時間.

10/3/08 Xander's field trip. 傑升的戶外教學

觀看果園如何挑選蘋果.
Hmmm..Yummy fresh donuts and cider.好香的甜甜圈跟新鮮蘋果汁.
Xander picked a good apple from the tree. 傑升也採了一顆大蘋果.
Fresh apple right from the tree. 煒勳從蘋果樹上現採的新鮮蘋果


This is Xander's first field trip in the first grade. The class is going to visit the orchard. We arrived the orchard and sat on the wagon to see the whole orchard. The lady explained how apple trees grow and invited us to pick an apple from the tree. It was fun to pick a fresh juicy apple right from the tree. It smells very sweet. We then went inside to see how they sort the apples and make apple cider. The pretty looking one can sell for very good price, the ugly ones and small ones will be used for making cider. Everyone had a chance to taste the fresh made donuts and cider. So yummy. It was a fun day. 2 friends of mine and myself just bought 8 bushels of apples and we made a bunch of apple sauce, few apple ciders and lots of apple butter. I'llshow you the pictures later.

今天是傑升一年級的第一次戶外教學. 我們到了果園後坐上推車,聽解說園介紹整個蘋果園.下車後解說園跟小朋友們介紹蘋果是怎麼來的並邀請我們去採一顆蘋果. 剛從樹上摘下的蘋果好香好甜哦.煒勳等不及了馬上就開始大啃大吃. 接著我們進去工廠看他們怎麼分蘋果.外表漂亮光滑的就可以賣較好的價錢,有黑點的或是太小的就賣便宜點或是做蘋果汁. 我們到戶外時, 他們端出了現做的甜甜圈及蘋果汁. 很好吃呢. 我前幾天才跟2位朋友買了好幾大袋的蘋果, 做了許多蘋果泥跟幾罐蘋果汁.做蘋果汁擠剩的果肉還可拿來做果醬.改天再拍照給大家看.

9/15 Jury duty

Few weeks ago I received a jury duty summon, this is the first time that I got called for jury duty. Don't know how long would that take, I arranged friends to watch Xander and Khai after schools. I was hoping that this duty would only last few days.

After checked in, the clerk told us that this is a capital murder trial, not a good case to be called and it may last a while. In addition, there were 105 people today waiting to be picked in the jury box.

After an hour waiting, we finally got called into the court. It was very exciting because I got to experience the scene that I saw on TV all the time (jury sit in the box and a judge in the front + lawyers from both sides) but I was also very worried that the computer would pick my name. I've gone through many excuses in my head and none of them sounds very good. The clerk started calling names and the judge asked them questions followed by the lawyers from both sides. They kept excusing some juries and calling new people, and some of the excuses from the jury including: "I have short attention", "I have no pay check", "I've read this case from newspaper", "I have medical condition", "I know about guns"....Every time when they excused one person, the whole group knew they might be the next one to be called. It was 12:10 pm and the judge decided to let us have lunch break and come back at 1:30 pm.

We went back to the court room and heard more names got called. More people got excused again, the whole group even got sent back to the waiting room because the judge and lawyers have to discuss something. Finally after 6 hours of picking, the 14 jury were finalized and we got to leave the court room. It's time to check out and collect our money. The clerk told us that she never seen it take that long to pick jurys ever. I received $36.50 that day, what a cheap labor I am. I'm still on call for the rest of the week and luckly that was it for me. No more jury duty for the rest of the week..Yeah.

Updated: 2 weeks later I read from the newspaper that the jury cannot make a decision so the case will be back to the court in January again.

身為美國公民的義務之一就是要當陪審圑員. 法院的電腦會隨機抽取樣本然後寄通知提醒你什麼時候要去法院當陪審員.當我一接到通知單,一則以喜一則以憂..喜的是可以親身體會在電視上看到的情節,憂的是不曉得要弄多久, 小孩子下課後要找別人看會很麻煩.

辦事員跟我們說今天這件案子是謀殺案,不是個好案子而且可能會弄很久.過了一個多小時終於傳我們到法院裡去, 好興奮哦..一直祈禱電腦不要挑我的名字, 我左右2個男士都被叫到前面去了吔, 我不會那麼幸運吧...2邊的律師可以輪流問這14位陪審員.為了挑有利於己方的陪審員, 2邊律師可以毫無理由的叫任何一個陪審員離開. 電腦會再挑下一個人到前面去坐著.法官會問陪審員們一些問題及讓他們說出審判此案有何因難之處...陪審員們好多都有理由像是:"我注意力很短", "我公司不付我薪水","我要常常上廁所", "我在報上看過這則新聞且瞭解的很清楚" 有的沒有的..被告律師每有一個新陪審員被叫, 他都一定會向前詢問問題,所以整個過程弄的好久

法院說先解散,大家去吃飯, 1點半過後再來集合. 好吧, 那我就回車上吃三明治, 睡個午覺再回來吧..同樣的步驟:挑陪審員, 問問題, 說他/她不能當的理由...過了半個鐘頭之後終於選出了14位陪審員..哦,好險.回去待侯室準備領錢.今天在這待了一天,法院會付你一天的薪水加上從家裡來回的車馬費:$36.50.真是廉價勞工.辦事員告訴我們整個禮拜每天晚上都要打電話看隔天要不要去報到,幸好就這樣子不用再回去報到了..真是新的體驗.

題外話:前幾天剛看到報紙,2個禮拜之後陪審圑過了好幾天還是不能做出一致的決定,所以檢方還會再上訴.