May (30+ Clubbing Date Night, Church BBQ, End-of-School-Year Activities, Soccer Class, Memorial Day)

Just hopping on here to not fall too far behind again. On to May 2025 with a lot of happenings. On the home front, we had trucks come to tear up the plumbing next to our and others' homes, so it was a lot of noise and dirt and having to park my car further, but hopefully this fixed all the sewage problems for the townhome units across from us. 

Speaking of home, my neighbor came up to me one day to tell me a suspicious man was wandering around near our home. We flagged down some officers passing by, and they spoke to him and he left. They were actually patrolling the area because of a reported scammer who had been going door to door and collecting people's personal and financial information. He came to our door oddly enough a little after the other man had been by our home. This was the first time our security camera footage was requested, and I was able to show it on my phone to the officers, who actually apprehended the man a little while later as he was making another stop nearby.

On a lighter note, Manny got tickets for this 30+ clubbing event (i.e., it started and ended early, and guests could leave early), so he went clubbing for the first time, and I went for the first time in 20+ years. They played a lot of older songs, even from the 70s and 80s. It's all secular music, so not for some of my friends who don't listen to that. The waitresses were also very skimpily dressed. It was fun, though, especially the lights and bubbles. We were out by 6 pm and ready for dinner. We had a delicious Mediterranean meal. Manny picks some really good places.

The month of May meant the end of sophomore year of college for Naomi, so we moved her out of her dorm. Unfortunately one of the two elevators was down, and she lived on a middle floor, so that meant the working one would fill up before stopping on her floor. It delayed us quite a bit, but thankfully we made it. Afterward Manny took us to eat at a Korean-Japanese fusion place. We celebrated the end of the year and Naomi's admission into an intensive and elite graphic design BFA program at her school. She worked hard and did an amazing job on her portfolio. I really would love to share her portfolio with you here, but it's private for her. Out of 400 design students, about 100 apply to two rounds of applications, and only about 25 are admitted at the end.

May was also the end of the year for Lucas's sports class, and the final year for the coordinator. She did an amazing job, and now there are four of us who have taken over to split up all the hard work she did alone. I got her some flowers, but she truly deserved much more, and I feel bad that we didn't do more to show her appreciation. I even only remembered the flowers because my friend had mentioned prior to that how when her child's school music teacher retired, no one really said or did much to celebrate it. I had actually coached for most of the year, and it seems like it will be the case again this year. I would say I enjoy it, but I would rather someone else do it. There were two months last year that another mom coached, and I was really thankful for the break. Our last sport of the year was soccer. Lucas improved from the previous year and got to be goalie a couple of times and did great.

At church we had a discipleship group potluck that was pretty huge and there was a ton of food. I brought a brunch casserole and some black bottom cupcakes that were leftover from the homeschool end-of-year picnic the day before. We sat with three men, and we went around the table talking about what encouraged us about the person next to us in the groups we were in. 

A couple from church also hosted a pre-summer barbecue which was really wonderful. The wife's father was out there grilling. Lucas came with us, but the other kids just wanted to play video games, instead of outdoor games, so he ended up just eating and waiting around for us. I have an indoor grill from my Pampered Chef days that I used to make some food for Memorial Day. I haven't made big meals as much lately, but felt I should that day. 

I took the boys to see Thunderbolts, which I liked. It was a little dark, but also covered themes in a way I hadn't see before in an MCU film (and I've seen almost all of them). The boys liked it. None of them were the original main characters, more like outcasts, but being together they had some form of community. And that's something we don't often realize how much we need. It's hard to come by for today's younger generations. I'm thankful for the communities and circles we do have. For myself personally, I sometimes think I don't deserve my closest friends, but we've stuck by each other through thick and thin.

On a side note, I participated in an AI study at Facebook. I received at $100 gift card, but my primary motivation was to inquire about getting my old account back. But sadly there wasn't anything the AI dept could do.

Getting ready for our soccer drills

I was going to give away this old basket, but Pluto took a liking to it

Memorial Day

Celebrating Naomi's end of school year and getting into the specialized graphic design program

Goodbye to Naomi's second year dorm room

About to find out an elevator is out of service

Can't publish too many photos, but there were probably about 80 guests

Dad grilling some veggies before getting to the protein

Potluck brunch desserts

Some of the potluck entrees

Coach with the Rubik's cube

Mother's Day roses from church

Gelato

Mediterranean dinner with Manny

In da club

This was at 3 pm lol

Thunderbolts with the boys

Soccer (Lucas kicking the ball in the middle). It's hard to coach and take photos at the same time, so I don't have as many this year.

I was at Facebook to beta test some AI

Thank you, Coach S, for all your hard work! I still slouch too much.

April (Naomi's birthday, Easter, Coach birthday, More Meals with Friends)

Updates in captions:

Forgot to mention that I won our March Madness bracket challenge this year. Just me and some of Manny's college friends. He didn't participate this year.

Took the boys to see A Minecraft Movie. Thankfully no shenanigans at our showing, just some cheering and talking here and there. Naomi also saw it with her friends. It was fun and had some easter eggs, but it was more of a Jack Black feature than fully about the game.

Manny took us out to this Mexican place, and even though the kids love churros, none were in the mood for them. The music was so loud! Glad that Isaac had a good number of items he could eat.

A cat wandered around out backyard for a couple of days. Coach really wanted to make friends with it.

Out for Korean rolls and rice cakes (kimbap and tteokbokki) with Naomi during her spring break

I coached soccer in April. Great group of students. Lucas got to be goalie for a couple of games this year.

The cats love every new box. Even though Pluto looks like Coach's shadow, it's usually Coach who follows Pluto around.

It looks like a big brother with his arm on little brother's back while they look out the window (but I think Pluto was just climbing on Coach for a better view).

Manny and I out for hot pot and very hot (spicy) food.

So spicy!

Saying goodbye to our play structure. Well used and loved for over 15 years.

Manny and I out with Lucas for breakfast at a charming Korean-American restaurant

Lucas finished the breakfast above and ate this as well!

Happy birthday to Naomi! Pandan mango cake. It's nice she can still come home for the weekend, and that she still likes My Little Pony 😄I'm still figuring out limiting posts about her now that she's older.

I made some cookies-and-cream cupcakes for her and her college friends. She of course also spent her birthday with a few college friends and an old friend from middle and high school.

Easter dinner was steak and sides this year. Things get more and more simple as the kids get older (or maybe as I get older).

Manny and Isaac were sick on Easter, so it was just Lucas and me at church.

I got this pretty plant for Naomi, but she seemed to have an allergic reaction to it. I gifted it to someone else.

Yep, more box photos

Dinner with my friend O.

Dinner with G. while she waits for her son, whose art class is by our house.

G. gave me some flowers from church which brightened my day.

April 2024 part 2 (Bruce Lee Exhibit with Isaac, Getting Lucas Active Again, Naomi's Birthday and College)

I don't want to get into too much detail, but if it helps anyone to know, Lucas has had a hard time connecting with people for a while. When he was younger, it was easy enough for me to just take him to see friends and family and he would just be loved and accepted. Or sometimes he'd be with his brother and sister while out which was fine for him. Nowadays I can't just schedule playdates and hope and the other kids will just get along. It takes more independent socialization and sometimes opportunity and connection with others, and that has been a challenge for him. Also, just being at home feels a bit suffocating to all of us. So when I could, I'd take Lucas on walks. 

I took him for a nature walk and also to check out the eclipse through a strainer. The sports class was a good thing, too. I expressed a desire with another parent for him to get to know other boys his age from his sports class. And he was invited for one of their birthday parties and it was the first time he'd been invited to one in a long time, but it seems that nothing really came of it. They live kind of far from us as well. I told Lucas that maybe he could consider finding a game that he would enjoy and could play socially. He said how about Magic the Gathering? I thought that was sort of an old game, but something great came out of it. More on that later. In the meantime, I want to say it was too hard for me to pick up even with the app, and I wasn't a very fun or challenging opponent.

I ended up having to coach Lucas's sports class at the end of the year for a couple of weeks because the lead coach was out. I also had to do that for basketball one week. I should say I "got" to, not that I "had" to. It was a good experience for me overall, though Lucas and I of course missed the other coach. This year I took over as lead coach for most of the year. More on that later as well.

Likewise, I think I mentioned how Isaac was longing to have as many outings as he could before middle school. So I took him to a Bruce Lee Exhibit in San Francisco Chinatown before it closed as well as the place where he lived briefly with his parents. Google actually is great for finding landmarks like that. The docent at the museum knows Bruce Lee's daughter and also knew one of his old friends, so he had a lot of interesting stories for us. Isaac and I both enjoyed it. I was hoping to get him some ice cream as well but the place was closed (for good, like many places after Covid, sadly), so we got some boba. He's not actually a huge fan of boba, but they had a nice fruit tea there.  

I know Isaac feels like he missed a lot of childhood. He did actually do a lot, but with the pandemic, our family issues, and being the youngest, he really didn't get to experience nearly as much as his older siblings did before he entered middle school. It's okay if a child doesn't know what he's missed, but Isaac has some inkling. He is actually fairly precocious, especially in his intuition about human history and psychology. He doesn't really like history, and he doesn't watch much TV or movies or read for leisure. He just sort of gets how people of various generations are or were.

Naomi by the end of April was wrapping up her school year, and just like they told us at orientation, she went from coming home almost every weekend to making friends by the spring and not needing to come home as much anymore. She did still come home for her birthday, and I took her out to for dim sum and then we had mango cake and snacks at home with the family. 

Lucas at N's birthday party. We had a German barbecue and they played some puzzles and mad libs together.

Naomi attended a talk with actress Stephanie Hsu

Taking the boys for a run. They ran 2 miles. I jogged/walked 1.5 miles.

Soccer game for the middle/high school group

Resting his head

Happy birthday

Yum yum dim sum mother-daughter lunch for Naomi's birthday

Bruce Lee's home when he was a baby

Mural across the street

Side patio of the museum (garden was closed)

Downstairs area showing a Bruce Lee documentary and various artwork

These miniature replicas of Chinatown homes and shops made by the artist (I forgot his name) were very neat. This was probably about 10-12" wide. So detailed!

Playing our first game of Magic the Gathering. I lost by 30 points, I think.

Very pretty park. We just missed the cherry blossoms.

When he was young, we'd built one of those diy cereal box eclipse viewers and had eclipse glasses from a library event. But now it's just, let's grab the strainer and go for a walk.

5th grade History Day for Isaac (theme was colonial times). They got to fire a small cannon!

Naomi at a concert

Cat boops

I was totally not ready for this. I was also dressed down in my workout clothes, but I guess that's appropriate.

Silhouette projection on the ceiling

Another cool projection upstairs. As Lee once said, be like water! And fire, too!