woohoo!! go alvin! go jenny! congratulations! it's your birthday (jenny)!!

we we had our first ultrasound yesterday. i was so anxious...by the time i was laying down on the exam table, i had concluded that i was going to cry whether a baby was there or not. thank you God, there was our baby...a little peanut about the size of my thumb! we could see her (okay, or his) arms wiggling and heart beating.

thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!!

*lucky*

it's rare when we have a free weekend to spend with g and mads. luckily bible study was postponed a week, giving us a completely free weekend. so we headed up to lansing to spend some time with g, mads, and luci. yay! turned out they were moving back into their old house on saturday. lucky for gary, eric could offer an extra body to move all of their heavy furniture. they finished late, and by then it was snowing too hard to drive all the way back to sterling heights. lucky us, we get to spend another night with the guevaras!

we woke up the next morning, and first thing g tells us is that they're getting ready to go to the hospital. madeleine had some contractions and she just wants to get checked out. note that her scheduled c-section is not for two more weeks. madeleine is taking a shower, because who would want to be dirty when you go in for an examination like that? she comes out of the shower exclaiming that her water just broke. holy cow, she's having a baby today!!!! all of their stuff was packed in the other house, there's no hospital bag ready to go, no one has clean clothes. it got a little crazy. g and mads take off for the hospital...i don't even think they told luci they were leaving. i guess it was lucky that we were there to babysit.

elijah was born by c-section shortly before noon on sunday, december 4, 2005. 6 lbs. 6oz. and 19.5 inches long. he's precious with curly hair! he has gary's eyes and madeleine's nose. mom, dad, new baby, and big sister are fantastic.

fresca is a good thing. why mess with a good thing? sparkling peach citrus fresca...sounds like a good thing, right?

peach - mmmm.
fresca - mmmmm.

or NOT. it tasted like soap to me. so either, i'm right and it tastes really bad or my pregnancy hormones are totally messing with my taste buds. either way, i'm never drinking it again. yechhh.

hello? is anyone out there?

raise your hand if you called in sick today.

thoughts on flying:

• if you didn't get the window seat, and the person sitting in the window seat is not your significant other, family member, or close friend, do NOT stare over them and out the window. it is quite rude.
• if the middle seat is free, split it down the middle with the person on the other side. don't monopolize the extra space with your ugly floral print blazer.
• flying first class is a different world.
• when they offer you a snack in coach, they mean four pretzels in an aluminum bag and 1/3 of a can of soda.
• when they offer you a snack in first class, they mean an antipasto platter and wine. and real plates and glasses. none of this disposable stuff.
• getting home two hours earlier to see your family is waaaaay better than flying first class!

my breakfast:

a mini hershey bar
a mini nestle crunch
a mini twizzlers pull & peel
a cookie with orange frosting
water

mmm...healthy! did you have a happy halloween?

welcome to the world, isaiah mathew!! 7lb. 3oz. and 19 in. long. congrats, jomy and michelle!!

by request:

luci feeding isaiah an oreo.

isaiah after eating an oreo.

luci cleaning the oreo off of isaiah's face.

isaiah after a luci cleaning.

i never posted images on my blog because i was too lazy to code it. but now, i don't have to! thanks, blogger for the add image feature. (and thanks, conehead, for making me aware of it.)

isaiah and luci at the beach. august 2005.

i can't believe our vacation is over. did 3 weeks really just go by? it's good to be home and to not live out of a suitcase. more details to come...probably on eric's blog. =P

i went to starbucks on saturday all ready to order my extra hot caramel macchiato with extra foam when i noticed on the menu... could it be? was it a tease? dare i ask if they really had...pumpkin spice latte???!

they did! although i think it's too early to sell the autumn flavors (after all, summer isn't officially over until thursday), i was not going to deny myself a great coffee drink. they have it, i get it. it's ridiculous. my joy quickly dissipated after realizing that i was dealing with the slowest. barrista. EVER. ever ever ever! did you know that cpk times their pizza makers? you can't be a pizza maker unless you can make pizzas in the required time. they should have that for barristas. barristas are dealing with very volatile people at times. people that require coffee to function. people that need their caffeine fix. people that are used to getting their coffee quickly. people that are very excited about getting their favorite coffee drink and are having to wait more than 10 minutes to get it. even the super busy airport starbucks were not this slow. what drove me nuts was that there was one dude just watching the barrista make coffee...um, hello? HELP HIM. this is way too long to be talking about starbucks, so i'm stopping.

we're leaving for the philippines tomorrow and will be in LA on the 9th. i hope isaiah is a good boy on the flight. he's generally a good boy, but last week he was insane. he was the cutest insane baby i've ever seen. anyway, see you when we get back!

we're going to the philippines next week. i absolutely cannot wait to not work.

i don't have my phone with me. i'm so lost without it. the display on my car dash that shows the time, radio station, cd track, etc. is broken. the only way for me to know what time it is in the car is my phone. so i didn't know what time it was when i drove to work this morning. actually, that's not true. i can kind of figure out what time it is by listening to news radio because of their rigid schedule. traffic and weather together on the 8s. sports at 15 and 45 after the hour. we check your money at 25 and 55 after the hour. cbs news update at the hour and half hour.

i dropped isaiah off at my cousin's house a little after 10 this morning. i was hungry, so i went to mcdonalds because a sausage mcmuffin sounded really good, and i hadn't had one in a long time. as i pulled into mcdonalds, i caught the end of the money report...it had to have been 10:26am because the money report is usually short. i pull up to order my sausage mcmuffin sandwich and the lady tells me that breakfast is over! =( i hadn't even heard cbs news OR the traffic report. i was so disappointed. lesson learned: never let your husband accidentally take your phone to work. and get that display fixed.

i've been thinking a lot lately. (which is not really something i actively do. =P i leave that to eric...he thinks enough for the whole family.) in a nutshell, it comes down to: i believe in God, and i believe that He works everything out to work in your favor. whether working it out in your favor means now or later, in the end, it's for your own good. good, not bad.

eric and i found out on june 4 that isaiah was going to be a big brother. whoa. !! semi-planned...we kind of wanted to wait until after our trip to the philippines, but whatever, it didn't really matter to us. this is exciting! isaiah, a big brother! he doesn't know anything except how to blow spit and he's gonna be a big brother! this was definitely different than finding out about being pregnant the first time. with isaiah, we were both freaked out, a little scared (at least i was), and not quite ready (but, you know, were ready since we had to be). initially, i had to dig beneath the fear and anxiety to uncover my happiness. (don't get me wrong, i was happy.) anyways...this time, it's a whole new ball game. we're ready. we are seasoned pros having done this before. AND this coincides with madeleine and gary's baby boy to come...instant best buddies! so much to look forward to...

the obstetrician makes you wait until you're at least 8 weeks along before your first appointment. my first appointment was on july 8. all the nurses were like "you're here again, ALREADY?!" whatever. they love us. they were happy to see us. i find out that i get to have an early ultrasound. yess!! we get to see the baby (normally you have to wait until your 20th week). so we go on july 14. i was 11 weeks.

*side note: i wanted to wait to tell people about this baby. partly because i wanted our new situation to really settle in my mind and i also wanted to put some good thought into adjusting my immediate future plans to include pregnancy and a new baby, and partly because i quite honestly didn't want to deal with the "already?!", "are you ready for another so soon?", "that was really fast!", and those annoying looks of amused skepticsm from people as if to say "do you think you can handle it?" (which, thankfully, are not too common.)

you never really know how excited you are about something or how much you are looking forward to something until it's taken away from you. i wasn't quite sure what was going on until the tech stopped the ultrasound and told me to follow up with my o.b. later that day.

"is everything okay?" i ask.
"well, i'm not seeing a baby," she said.
what?!

she was so matter-of-fact. almost cold. so cold that i felt stupid and questioned whether or not i really was pregnant (which i had been). but then, is there really a good way to tell a mother and a father that they lost their baby? it was early, and it happens more often than anyone even knows...but, wow, i never thought it would happen to me. what's almost worse than losing the baby is knowing that i'd have to go through the physical symptoms of miscarriage, and the pregnancy symptoms don't go away right away either. every pain in my abdomen, every wave of nausea, every dizzy spell, and every time i don't have an appetite is a reminder of our baby. i came home from the ultrasound and hugged and hugged isaiah. it gets controversial when you think about life before birth. but this is what i know: there was life in me, and it died, and i grieve the loss of our baby the same way i grieved the loss of my dad.

but like i said before...God works everything out for the good. this is one of those things that He gives to us because He knows we can handle it and because He knows it will make us stronger. in His great plan for my life, it will have been a good thing that i've gone through this. [and there are so many things that we'll be able to do because of it (e.g., not missing a third snowboarding season in a row, an easier trip to the philippines, gene's wedding)]

last week i was in pennsylvania. out in the sticks. in the middle of nowhere. i couldn't even mapquest or google map or yahoo map the places i visited because these places were that far out in the middle of nowhere. i couldn't even get crossroads for these places from the people that *worked* there. anyway, i go to my first site, and the guy i'm supposed to meet is tied up, so could i wait for him in the lobby? sure. no problem, i'll just select one of the fine magazines you've left here for such an occasion. my choices: confederate veteran volume I. confederate veteran volume II. confederate veteran volume III. i take a glance outside: pick up truck, pick up truck with the confederate flag where the front license plate goes, pick up truck, another pick up truck with a confederate flag, and so on.

um, i'm in the north, right? i can't remember the last time i was worried that people were going to be really mean to me beause i'm asian. but i was worried. i was actually nervous. all that worry was for nothing, though. everyone was really nice in the sticks of PA...well except for this old lady at the mall near my hotel. she treated me like i was some weirdo. ah, the joys of business travel...

nba summer league is at the cox pavillion at unlv all until the end of next week. word on the street, you'll even get to see darko play. all of you going to vegas should check it out...

there are people in my office that go years (?!!) without taking a vacation. they'll accrue like 3 months of vacation. can you imagine? most people get 2 weeks of vacation a year. that's SIX YEARS without taking time off. i don't know how they do it. *i'm* dying because i can't take a vacation until september when we go to the philippines. i need a break now. i need to not work or think about work for at least a week. i was sick last week, so i called in. ended up working 10 hours at home anyway. isn't that messed up?

anway...eric gets the next two weeks off of work. i'm excited for him. i wish my company would make me take two weeks off. that would be the bomb.

..aand they're back! the pistons have emerged from whatever rock they've been playing under the past two games and took it to san antonio. yesss!! *arm pump*

you know, it's not just up to the pistons. it's up to all of us. yes, it matters that eric and i watch the away games in alvin's living room with chrissy, alvin, j, and chris. and it matters where we sit. and it matters if we wear our jerseys. apparently it also matters that if the jersey has not been washed since the beginning of playoffs, it will remain unwashed until we win the championship. i think for these big games, it's important that i fall asleep at halftime. i know! it's crazy that i can even sleep through any of the game. but lately, i canNOT keep my eyes open. i've been so tired. but it works, so should i really complain? you gotta do what you gotta do to win....

by the way, i'm jealous that you guys got to see stevie wonder perform live.

WOOHOOO!!!

GOOOOO PISTONS!!!!

apparently, that "are you in?" guy has never been inside a meijers. we switched to verizon partly because eric gets a discount through gm and partly because it's supposed to have great service everywhere. um, mr. areyouin?, not in meijers. i'm going to lowe's right now, another place notorious for bad cell phone service. we will see if verizon passes the test. although, i will admit that i can't count down to the exact second where my phone will cut out on 696 in southfield anymore, so one point for the verizon team.

does anyone know how to change the voicemail settings so your callers don't have to hear instructions on how to leave a voicemail? i hate that.

happy friday!!!

dear lola,

thanks for feeding me ramen soup when i was sick and for making us pancakes when we slept over. thanks for teaching me the right way to fold my clothes and for your big smile whenever we saw each other. thanks for slipping me money and always giving me wrigley's doublemint gum. most of all, thank you for all your love and for showing me what it is to be strong despite being in a frail body. i miss you very much, and i hope that you are happy in Heaven. i'm sure you have already found my dad and tita alice. don't forget to stand up straight!

all my love,
your dearest annalisa

wicked! was only okay. totally not what i expected. i was pretty disappointed in the actors. definitely not to par with the originals. of course, i wasn't expecting elphaba and g(a)linda to be as good as idina and kristen (that's right, we're on a first-name basis)...but i expected them to be good at least.



...NOT!


ohmygosh,itwassoooamazing!!!--but i won't get too excited here because i don't want to overhype it. ugh. i LOOOVE wicked!

wicked! in four days and counting...

i was so excited to get coffee before the game today that i forgot to unbuckle my seatbelt before trying to exit the car.

goooo pistons!!!!

i've come to the conclusion that the only way i won't feel dumb wearing a polo shirt or an oxford button-up is if 1) it's part of a uniform or 2) it has my work's logo on it and i'm wearing it at work.

i've recently discovered that you can order your coffee extra hot. i feel gypped* when i get a semi-warm cup of coffee because the person making my latte was too lazy to wait the extra five seconds it takes to make the milk hot. i'm also going to take this time to vent that if you're not going to have pumpkin spice latte available, then take it off the menu. don't tease me. this has only happened to me a bajillion times.

*also spelled "gipped" for those who care.

i've been feeling creative lately:

ode to shin splints
shin splints shin splints go away
come again never ever again.

happy monday!

some people only like to do things that they know they do well. i am not one of those people. for instance: i hate to do laundry despite the fact that i am fabulous at doing it.

we've been so busy lately that i'm actually looking forward to when i get the chance to do yardwork and give the house a good cleaning. the warm temperatures and sunshine must trigger something that makes us want to do those things.

i've had some serious a.d.d. tendencies lately. no focus at all...

hi, it's 5:00 and i'm going home withOUT my computer for the first time in a month. yay!!!

isaiah is crawling. everywhere. this means you can't leave him unsupervised in the house because it hasn't been baby-proofed yet. who knew a coffee table could be so dangerous? it's currently surrounded by all the couch pillows. we've caught isaiah falling head first off of the couch, the bed, the other couch....i mean we literally caught him, not just caught him as in watched him. whew. isaiah learned to roll over (from his back to his tummy), creep, and crawl in the span of a week. they crawl backwards first...bet ya didn't know that. he's growing too fast!! someone make it slow down!

when i was in first grade, my teacher told me not to eat next to the computer because i could break it. i was eating a lollipop at the time. the end.

sd. everytime i go it feels like i haven't been away for a year.

[*tangent* eric wants me to blog about him. he is sitting with isaiah watching 'i robot' wearing his cuddle buddy bracelet. he just got back from the first jedi game of the season. i think he has a sweet jumper.]

anyway..i feel we were able to make the most of my overnight stay. i mean...sushi deli, a coffee shop where the waiters and waitresses (i'm not sure how well they spoke english) wanted to give us cup after cup of coffee, and some lounge with good music. i wish detroit had places where you could dance to good music. i am a bit sad that i missed in cahoots, and consequently hoots squared...maybe next time. (hi, lilly!) you'll have to tell me how that goes. it was tough being away from eric and isaiah...but the amount that i missed them was made up in quality time with friends. =D

they just opened up a drive thru starbucks near my house. you take for granted just being able to run into a store to grab something like coffee before you have carry the baby around in the car seat. (i don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing..might limit my spontaneous purchases.)

going to cali tomorrow. see you guys there!

wicked. i can't get enough of it. got the cd and the music book for valentines day. love 'em! i can listen to it in the car and then come in and plunk out the songs on the piano. i am once again inspired to play the piano well. and i want to play the guitar again. ooh...i can't wait til i can really play the songs.....

*you must realize that i am rarely this excited or inspired about anything these days. i used to live that way, passionate about everything i did, wanting to do soo good at everything i did...class, piano, plays, dance, etc....to have this feeling again is very refreshing.

do you know how much more work you get done when you're not working in front of the tv? it's amazing.

hi. i've been walking around with my fly open all day.

i just ate diet cinnamon toast crunch. 75% less sugar and made with whole grain. now the whole grain, i don't mind at all. but isn't the point of eating cinnamon toast crunch the sugary-cinnamony goodness coating every bit of cereal in every bite? and they just removed 75% of it! so for all you cinnamon toast crunch lovers out there...just stay away from the new version...i wouldn't want you to be disappointed.

i'm rather enjoying working in a group right now. there are other people to bond with over the struggle of this enormous project. the best part is that i'm just helping out...i don't have to submit the final product. i just write little paragraphs here and there about what i see in drawings and that gets added into the report. "whatever you guys don't finish today, i'm just going to finish this weekend." ahh...wonderful words when not spoken by me. =D

i got to work at 7:30am today. is it gross that i'm still drinking the same cafe mocha i picked up on my way in?

almost midnight. why am i up? i should be sleeping. isaiah is such a cuddle-head when he sleeps. if he's not cuddling with a warm body, he's cuddling up to a bunch of pillows we've smushed up against him to simulate a warm body. ha. baby's take up a lot more room in a bed than you would think.

i wonder if connie and eric won the detroit sports bowl with their gm team. they would win superbowl tickets, you know. that would be sweet, although...would they really go if they only got one ticket? and if they could sell the ticket for $2,000 would they still go? would you?

by the way...if you ever need advice on how to get through a 100-foot inflatable obstacle course...chrissy and i are your experts.

embarrassing moment at the detroit sports bowl. while talking to one of the personal trainers from the basketball workshop...

me: so what is the basketball workshop?

basketball workshop guy: oh, we're personal trainers. you know, for high school, middle school, college, and some pro.

me: oh cool, so do you work with any of the lions*?

chrissy: (whispering) basketball! basketball!!

me: (enter sinking feeling of utter stupidity) doh. i mean the pistons.

*in my defense, we were in ford field (where the lions play). regardless...i'm so dumb!

isaiah just turned all by himself in his little play saucer!! usually you have to turn him if he wants to play with different things on the play saucer thing. he keeps looking back at me with a big goofy smile as i type this.

i love him!

phlegm.

if i didn't know that word and i had to sound it out, i would be totally wrong. puhalegum. i just thought it looked funny. it might be the funniest-looking word i know. btw...there is no alternate spelling. can't spell it 'flem'. (in case you were wondering.)

i'm *home and sick. semi-working. don't really want to. it was very nice to sleep all day yesterday (i was home and sick as well). i just found three of my old roommates on friendster and requested that they officially become my friends. already a productive day!

*can't say "i'm home sick" because people will think you're homesick. of course you can't be homesick if you're at home. bleh. the more i type "homesick" the funnier it looks.

helloooo 2005!

happy new year!!

i have been rusty at boggle. must re-install text twist to my pda for practice. =P btw: tet = vietnamese new year. it's a word that's a real word! does it count?