BTW..keep forgetting to tell everyone..pass it on

Its that time of year again.
I have joined the march of dimes walk to help raise moneys for premature babies and their famillies.

I hope everyone can help with a donation to this worthy cause and reputable foundation. If anyone would like to join me and walk the more the better.

Thanks for all your help. Here is a link to my personal page at march of dimes:

http://www.walkamerica.org/panayou31



why I'm walking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVghSy-Cens

Kids and their observations

So Gail says to me the other day " hum, you didn't have any coffee yet". As she stares at a the coffee pot disapprovingly. Me "what makes you say that?" Gail "there isn't any spilled coffee on the table (meaning the counter top). How's that for observation? Maybe its because she has a perfect view of the counter top from her vertical angle. Maybe she makes little observations like this all the time and just doesn't discuss them with me. But the truth of it is. I need to wipe the counter top more often after making coffee with my always leaking coffee pot.

Sleep is elusive

Why can't I sleep? If I could stay up till 3 am and wake up at the crack of dawn, like my husband does, refreshed and ready to go I would stay up all hours of the night. But I don't. I've hit the snooze button until the poor clock radio has given up and let me get up on my own accord. That was back in the good old days, back in my college roomy days. I don't get that luxury anymore. That's why I need to sleeep!

OK 1:05 am here. If I get to bed now and the kids poke me in my eye at 8:30.. that's like 7 1/2 hours. That's not bad. It will be like the fourth or fifth time I got less than 8 hours this week. But I gladly give up some sleep to stay up and listen to Regina Spektor "Samson" song and Bon Jovis new song "Let's make a memory". http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=6961441

OK, I need to invest in a good alarm for the 8 am History class I registered for this Fall. I found two that I am debating ordering.

One rolls off the table and doesn't stop rolling around till you get out of bed an chase it down to turn it off.
http://tinyurl.com/2d6mbw

The other is a sensory assault alarm clock "a strobe light, a vibration pad and high decibel sound".
http://tinyurl.com/2zfrz6

Hum which one to get?

Okay 1:19am. Must sleep. Busy day tomorrow.

Kidisms

Chris wakes up, middle of the night, groggy.

Christopher "Mommy, can I have some water?"
Me" Ok honey hold on. I'll get you some"
Christopher "In my blue cup there"
Me "Is this todays water"?
Christopher "No, it's night water"

:) Could just be a mommy thing but I thought his reasoning was so cute.

Mostly packed, weather is looking good

So I am mostly packed. The kids stuff anyway. I tell Will "I think we should be good with this one big piece of luggage". He looks at it with doubt on his face. Damn know it all. In the end we will have five bags, 3 small carry-ons and 2 checked under the plane. Hope we got enough room in the compact car we rented :0)

Its more than a week. I packed enough stuff for each kid for one week under the assumption we will get to do laundry once. That's reasonable right? Gail's spare implant stuff is taking up tons of room. I even decided to leave the dry and store behind because I was worried the bulb would break. I hope Portland doesn't get rainy as soon as we touch down.

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/USOR0275?from=search_10day

Whew, gonna be clear and dry while we are there. Awesome!

Can't wait to see my nephews and see how big my cousins kids have grown. I am gonna spend the better part of this trip just hugging those baby Bagby boys.

Contest.. any film students reading my blog?

http://www.current.tv/ecospot

Make an ad to show what you or others could do to help save the ecosystem/ Earth and win a car.

Barfing, Comfort Stations, and Red Ear Sliders

So my uncle and cousin from Oregon are in town.
My cousin Natalie wanted to go check out some jewelry and bags down on Canal Street and I volunteered myself and Christopher to help guide her around. It was an adventure.

So where is the worst place to take a person suffering from stomach flu/food poisoning? Chinatown. You want to talk about the variety of different smells? just head down there for a couple of hours. The poor thing. We got off the train, trekked up five flights of stairs, started to fight to get into step with all the pedestrians, stopped at a dollar cart for some water and she turned grey.

Thank goodness for the shady nook with big trash cans that we were able to find real quick. Talk about subtle puker. The two people eating lunch near by didn't notice. Christopher did. "Mommy what is that"? Turn his stroller around. "Nothing honey, Aunt Natalie is throwing away garbage". Christopher, "Oh!"

I suggested the park near by for a quick use of their restroom and Christopher could burn off some steam. Well the public park restroom sign read "comfort station". They really need to reconsider the sign. It did have toilet paper and soap so things could have been worse.

Half hour later, one more trip to the rest room in a nice well kept Funeral Home and off we go. Fist we stop at this crazy Chinese candy store. Aji Ichiban I tried the candied fish. Not so good. The candied shrimp better. We bought dried sugary plums and cherries, honeyed strawberries and an assortment of candy with wrappers we can't read.

We walked around and the hunt for the perfect silver bangle and ring ensues. We hunted far and wide but only a ring came of that endeavor. We got solicited for purses but Natalie wasn't up to the half hour search through hundreds of bags after her garbage can experience. Also, I wasn't up to traveling down any dark alleys with my talkative, inquisitive Christopher and stroller. So the purse will have to wait to be found on her next trip to New York.

Lastly a block away from Jaya Malaysian restaurant (to pick up gingered pork for a late lunch for Will and me) we see the cutest little turtles for sale.
http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?restaurantid=2050

Christopher chose the one he wanted us to get. So we now have a new member of the family- Mr. Chow, since he hails from China town. A visit to the pet store and we now know we are owners of a red eared slider turtle very common to southern states in the US :)

We bought him a tank, pebbles, food, and vitamins. Let's hope he makes it.