April 2026 (Naomi's birthday, Michael, dinner dates, Frenchie puppies, Artemis launch)

Naomi had her big milestone birthday in April, and we got to make up for our Hello Kitty Cafe celebration for my birthday by celebrating hers. Her friend joined us, and then they went to her celebration at the escape room where her friend works. Naomi's college friends also threw her a party where everyone dressed up as her favorite things. I thought that was such a cute idea. I usually don't post her pictures anymore, but I'll include some here from her birthday. And then she also celebrated at home, and I got her a medley of different cupcakes. Manny and I also took her to a wagyu sukiyaki house.

I also got to do my make-up birthday yoga with puppies event. I saw an ad for it, and I got so excited at the idea of with golden retriever puppies. The company claimed that runs the puppy yoga says that their puppies are not from puppy mills and are adoptable puppies. I ended up signing up for corgi puppies, which was cancelled at the last minute, so they called up a Frenchie breeder and we get Frenchie puppies. On the one hand, it felt healing to see little Frenchies and remember our sweet Nacho. On the other hand, I don't like the way Frenchies are bred. I wasn't sure anymore where these puppies were coming from, so I decided I wouldn't sign up for one again, maybe unless they are rescue puppies.

Manny went to a Warriors/Kings game with Chris the same day. His car battery died on the way home, but thankfully we have AAA. We went out to a ramen place owned by a Mexican-American family, and the portions were huge. We also went to an Irish restaurant the following week. We go out to dinner more often these days.

Also in April, we took Lucas to see Michael. Michael Jackson's nephew really embodied his uncle, and it felt more like a concert than movie sometimes. After doing some research, I am even less convinced the charges against Jackson were valid, but I don't truly know. At least for the years covered in the movie, from his unconventional childhood to the start of the Bad tour, it was a time of nostalgia for Manny and me. And while I liked the Jackson 5, they were before my time, so likewise Lucas can appreciate Jackson's performances, but the pandemonium was also before his time. 

We played soccer in April for Lucas's sport class. I coached again and played goalie as well when we were short a player. My shoulder really bothered me so I couldn't really throw it in well. Another mom also had a frozen shoulder, and she convinced me to inquire about physical therapy.

Last but not least, I watched the Artemis II launch online. They were the first crew to do a flyby of the moon. For some reason I thought we'd cut back on the NASA launches, so it was special to witness. Victor Glover, a Christian navy captain and astronaut from the crew, talked about his faith in interviews, how he did not see science and his faith conflicting. I feel the same way. We make it conflict depending on perspective and motivation.

Escape room party

Michael

Spring soccer game

Pot pie and shepherd's pie at an Irish restaurant

A big bowl of ramen

Manny got the even bigger bowl.

Manny and Chris at the basketball game

Puppy yoga: she fell asleep

Puppy cuddles

Cupcakes from one of our favorite bakeries (three of us, anyway)

Time sure flies!

Wagyu master

We sat around a huge wooden counter with other patrons.

We have liftoff!

Here for the countdown, by myself. I tried getting my kids into space stuff, but it just didn't take off (pun intended).

With M. at Hello Kitty Cafe for Naomi's birthday and my belated birthday.

February 2026 part 1 (Chinese NY Festival, Olympics, Super Bowl, Quiet Milestone Birthday, Isaac Eating Program)

I enjoy watching national or global sports events. Two of them happened in February with the Super Bowl and the Olympics. I love Winter Olympics as much as Summer Olympics. My favorite winter sports to watch are figure skating, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, speed skating, and curling. I actually watch a lot of curling, even though people joke about it as a sport. Only watching it every four years makes it more interesting, I guess. It's akin to archery for me with the Summer Olympics. The opening ceremony was good. I'm not sure why Mariah Carey was a featured singer, but she looked and sounded great for how long she's had to hit those super high notes. She sang in Italian, not an easy feat. Maybe they just love her in Italy. Andrea Bocelli and Cecilia Bartoli and opera in general made sense. I didn't get to watch as much of the Olympics as usual, but tried to catch most of figure skating and snowboarding. Alysa Liu's spirit was very memorable and impressive. Our pastor even mentioned it would be something to have and express an even greater joy and freedom in Christ. Either the weather conditions or the course seemed to cause a lot of accidents, including the Gaon Choi crashing before coming back to win the women's Half Pipe gold. I have tried to get my kids into Olympics or the Super Bowl to no avail. They just aren't into it.  

I actually applied to work at the Super Bowl since it was in California but did not get selected. It probably was for the best, first because Isaac was on a certain regimen for his eating program, and second because ICE activities really ramped up at the time around us, and my friends and Naomi were nervous for me. I am a naturalized citizen, but I still decided to carry copy of proof around with me. I wasn't particularly afraid of anything happening, but it was just advised at the time. So since I wasn't going to be at the Super Bowl, that weekend I booked an afternoon tea at Hello Kitty Cafe for myself and Naomi to celebrate my birthday. She ended up not being able to make it, so my friend A. drove over an hour down to go with me. It was fun, and I appreciate so much her coming so I didn't have to go alone (no refunds). The sweets were a tad too sweet for me, either being Asian or getting older. I preferred the savory items. I had also invited a friend I usually go to these kinds of places with, but she has to take care of her elderly mom now. It's the case for many of my friends as we get older. 

My friends also gave me a gift card to one of my favorite bakeries for a birthday cake. Originally they wanted to get me a fancier Western bakery cake, and I have had the tendency to people-please and give in, but I had my heart set a certain cake, and it was for my 50th birthday, so I had to be more assertive and ask if we could go with this in-home baker. The thing about home businesses is it takes some time to hear from them, and often they do not offer gift cards. So my friend just transferred the money to me. I did feel bad for a moment for the trouble, but then I was super happy with the cakes I got, and I hope I communicated that well to them in the end. I got my blueberry black sesame hojicha and strawberry lychee rose specialty cakes. Naomi did come later in the week, but could not make it for the cake celebration. The baker also only delivers cakes two days a week, so we had to do the cake ahead of my birthday.

Our church service is in the afternoons because we use another church's (my former church's) facilities, so I missed the Super Bowl but watched the highlights and replay clips and ads later. And we had a nice treat when we pulled into church and saw jets flying over on their way to the stadium. We don't have DVR or anything like that. But it is certainly different than when I was the kids' ages, trying to use the TV Guide when we had one and schedule the VCR to record and hope I had a recordable VHS tape and that the power wouldn't go out. And even then my parents felt we had too much instant gratification. Now I'm the one thinking, "Back in my day..." We didn't get a VCR till I was 13, and my mom never knew how to program one, and I'd feel annoyed. And now here I am asking Isaac for help with my phone or laptop sometimes (rarely, though--tech has also become so user-friendly compared to when I was younger). And now with AI my techy kids are having to shift gears themselves. I'll talk about that in a later post.

On the morning of my birthday, the first messages I received were from my closest friend and my mom. The rest of this is going to sound like I'm complaining, but it's actually just a funny story. I had a nice birthday overall. Manny, who'd been disappointed by my not coming to his family birthday party, initially forgot. Isaac was around me before school. He forgot. Naomi, who had previously noted I didn't say happy birthday to her till an afternoon (because I didn't want to wake her and then was busy picking up a cake, but Manny had texted in the morning), did not say happy birthday till the afternoon. Only Lucas said happy birthday when he saw me. I can understand it, because we did the cake early, and it probably felt like the birthday had passed. Still, this was the first year I did not get to see Naomi for my birthday (we took a rain check) and she actually did not draw or get me anything like she does every year. I have two friends who never fail to say happy birthday every year we've been friends. They also forgot. I did not get a card from family members who usually send one. My friend from church said we'd do something, but then didn't really. No presents, aside from the cake and money from my college friends which was super generous. It was a little weird. Manny did end up remembering later, but he also never forgets. It was just interesting it would happen this year. 

I prayed and figured I'm being humbled here, but also, I could still enjoy my day. I got myself a record player for my birthday. It got lost in transit. So I got a refund for that one and ordered another one. And it arrived late, but came on my birthday. That felt like a huge blessing. Then I ordered my favorite salad from a halal salad place. Yum. After having Covid, I so appreciated being able to taste my food! I had to help Lucas with school, but besides that I was going to take it easy. I didn't want to do too many chores, but Isaac had an Zoom observation meeting with the eating program therapist, where they would observe him trying some new foods and our interactions, so I at least had to clean the kitchen and dining area. But really overall, I had a wonderful birthday. I enjoyed my leftover cake and my halal steak salad.  listening to my one record I had available, a Beatles love song compilation, on the record player. And I prayed and meditated a lot. It was a nice introverted birthday, and I'm never fully alone because Jesus is always with me.

The observation and meetings went well. At this point we were still doing a lot of meetings per week and starting out. The program was effective in getting him to eat more, though his eating still ebbs and flows. I won't get into what might have caused the eating problems, but anxiety plays a big part in it. It just really helps to have a third party encouraging him and also guiding me. One huge change I had to make was to let go of wasted food. That is so so hard for most Asians, and especially the way I was raised and growing up in poverty. I didn't like how my mom would eat anything I had left over, but I found myself doing it too once I had Isaac. He exhibited eating issues very early on, and we tried various things, but ultimately when he wasn't growing at all for a year, we had to enroll him in an outpatient program. I am very thankful for the progress, and I pray that his issues will resolve.

There were some other things I'd planned for my birthday, including watching a Chinese New Year parade and doing yoga with puppies. The parade didn't happen at the start of the city festival as advertised, so we missed it. Manny and I had a nice time walking around and eating, but I didn't want to wait for the parade. It was a pretty hot day, too. Who knew if and when it would happen? The only videos I saw of the parade after that were from the previous year, so maybe it didn't even happen. I did eventually do the puppy yoga in April. 

My favorite halal steak salad

With my two boys and the two cakes. I didn't know my hair was messed up. 😅

Strawberry lychee rose (something the family could eat) and blueberry black sesame hojicha (something only I could really eat, but they tried it)

Birthday tea at Hello Kitty Cafe

Sugar cubes were HK shaped

Birthday chocolate mousse

A nice man asked me to take a photo of him here at the mall, and then took this photo of me.

So nice of my friend to come out at the last minute for my birthday!

Grateful for A. and for HK

Olympics Opening Ceremony in Milan(o)

Mariah Carey singing Volare

Andrea Bocelli

Lang Lang accompanied Cecilia Bartoli. I was too lazy to turn the captions off.

Manny took me and Lucas to a grand opening at this bakery, but they did not have much available after our 45-minute wait. I generally will wait in line for a closing/last day, but I prefer not to for grand openings.

Manny and Lucas vacuuming the car at the car wash, same morning as the bakery opening

Manny having some Chinese beef noodle soup

The Monkey King arrives

Out for hot pot with A. and G.

My birthday present to myself, a record player. So excited to add to my vinyl collection.

November 2025 part 1 (Manny's Family Birthday Party, Birthday Date, Memorial Service)

Manny had his 50th birthday last November. It's taken me a while to post this because I had to get the photos downloaded, but also I was thinking how to approach what happened here. Some will notice the kids and I weren't there. I'm just going to tell you a summary of my version of the events and say that I do wish I could have been there. When we first heard my mother-in-law throwing a party, Manny asked if the boys would want to come, and they didn't want to miss school. He said okay then he'd go ahead and invite two of his good friends, and they went and also stayed at my in-laws'. There was no mention or implication of my going or Naomi going since she was busy at school. I figured he'd have the family party there, and we'd have a celebration here with just us when Naomi was back home.

I didn't think flying there just for the day was possible because that seemed expensive. However, I think that's what Manny thought I was going to do, since I kept talking about how we wouldn't be able to be there. I kept bringing it up because I was kind of bummed, but I think he thought I was trying to throw him off and make a surprise visit (which again, I should have). I really should have asked or clarified if he was fine with our flying down for the day, or maybe he could have told me to. I have never really been one to surprise people. So the day of the party, I went to take Lucas to his game meetup and run errands and then to my friend's father's funeral service. In between, I spoke with Manny, and it became clear that he had wanted me to come down with the kids. I actually looked at flights, but it was already too late. I think it looked very disrespectful for me to not show up, and Manny told me as much. I felt pretty bad.  

I was busy back home trying to put together a birthday video and some gifts and figure out how to make the cake for his birthday. He said he didn't want a big party up here. I can see that flying down would have meant more than all that. I guess I really am that clueless. Then again, when my 50th came around about three months later, the day just came and went for the most part. It's like the same standards did not apply for me. 

The party looked fun, and it was a great turnout. I think it is wonderful that Manny was so loved by the family. He got to have some nice outings with his friends, too. They came from afar to celebrate with him. He looks great for 50!

All that aside, Manny and I had some nice dates in November. We went to see Predator: Badlands, which was surprisingly good. It had good pacing, good acting, good action, not much cursing and violence, no gratuitous scenes, and the story had heart. We also had a very nice Italian dinner to celebrate his birthday at the same restaurant we went to last year for his birthday since we liked it. But this time they didn't have that wonderful pistachio panna cotta. In general, we've just been trying new places since then. We are blessed with a huge variety of restaurants and cuisines around us.

I am thankful, though, that I was able to attend my friend's father's funeral. I had met her dad on many occasions. He was a composer, a music educator who traveled to many countries with his wife to teach music, and just a big musicophile. Yet he loved God even more than music, and I think what really struck me most was the legacy of faith being carried on to the next generations. It's something I really long for in my own family.

Manny with his family and friends at his 50th birthday party

Food is always good

He really does look young for 50.

Dessert table

Even some favor bags with some 80s trinkets

His sister and cousin hosting a mini bar

Manny and JP

Manny with Chris

Just some old birthday photos. Manny as Superman swinging at the piñata.

Out for a movie

Birthday dinner date at A Bellagio

Fancy charcuterie

Man Solo in the carbonite (I think that's what it was called in Star Wars?)

Bell choir that my friend's dad used to lead playing at his memorial service