Weekly Family Meetings

I saw an article in our Sunday paper a while ago about family meetings. I think it's a great idea. We had family meetings in our family when the kids were growing up, but it was called dinner time. In fact, the kids talked so much that Art and I had to learn to talk to each other again once they left home for college.

The article mentioned some good steps to take:

1. Start with a plan. Choose a time and place for the meeting.
2. Whiteboard items. Jot down things on a whiteboard during the week so you can discuss them at the meeting when cooler minds are prevailing.
3. Go over the family schedule of events and changes to routine, discuss plans for holidays, etc.
4. Give rewards like having the kids choose a meal for the week, etc.

Sounds good to me. We have a whiteboard in the kitchen right now that my mother refers to so she knows what Art and I are planning for the week. Our meetings even now are at every dinner so we don't need any formal time to meet.

I suppose modern families are having a difficult time getting together. My mother said one of the most important pieces of advice her father gave her before she left home was to always have dinners together. Art and I tried to always make sure we had family dinners where TV was NOT allowed. I wish more families could do that now.

How Art Ruined His Birthday Camera

Art turned 60 in 2004 and the kids wanted to do something special for him. We flew to Washington D.C. where our son, Jon was living at the time. Tif and Ed joined us there. They took us out to a luxurious dinner at a fancy restaurant and presented Art with a bright, shiny, super duper new digital camera.

The following spring my wonderful pilot cousin offered us a voucher for a reduced flight to Australia. Art decided to have us spend most of our time in New Zealand since Australia is so huge.

New Zealand is glorious. We sailed through a fjord in Milford Sound on a boat.

I remember discovering sand flies. They are not fun. We neared a waterfall.


We got closer and closer and it got rather wet.


I covered my camera with my jacket to protect it and warned Art.


However, he was so captivated by this gorgeous pattern at the bottom of the falls that he just couldn't resist taking a whole bunch of photos.


He was a bit sheepish knowing he risked damaging his camera which he did. For the rest of the trip all his photos had a water mark in the corners. We could Photoshop some of them out, but not all. Still, he loves this photo and I have a feeling he's not entirely regretful.

I guess he thought the picture was worth it.

Jin Joo

After that dog show we went to at Thomas Square, we decided to grab a quick lunch at the Waimalu shopping Center. It's actually a sort of big strip mall with lots of different restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores. We decided to try the Jin Joo restaurant since we read about it in the newspaper recently.

There was a huge downpour so the restaurant was quite empty.


The owners were very friendly and happy to have some customers. We usually frequent Yummy Korean B-B-Q which is a very popular Korean fast food chain here. However, we really enjoyed Jin Joo and would go back there. For an even more reasonable price we got a lot more panchan (side dishes). We always love the panchan even more than the main meat course.


For under $8.00, this lunch special was really generous. I had barbecue chicken and meat. I told Art there was no way I could eat all my food. However, I'm embarrassed to say I ate the whole thing (sort of; Art ate most of my rice and some of my meat)...and we finished all the panchan, too.


Art had meat jun and barbecue chicken.

Yup... I do think we'll go back someday. In fact, I think we'll have to bring our Korean son-in-law next time they come back to Hawaii.

If You Think Our Trips are Packed, Look at Their Vacation!

I've been very busy scanning our photo albums and came across a whole bunch of photos my mother sent me in 1992. (Feel free to click on the photos to enlarge them.)

My brother, Dennis and my sister-in-law, Nancy decided to take my mom, dad and their three sons on a two week trip to California and Nevada. I remember sending them some jackets for the cold weather in March.



Well, looking at these photos I'm just flabbergasted! Dennis and Nancy must have nerves of steel, not to mention boundless energy to have done all this. I just grouped some representative sampling here of the places they visited in TWO WEEKS!

On top of all the driving they did around California and Nevada they also had to keep track of their little toddler, Cody, their oldest son, Shawn who is blind and their middle son, Barry who came down with Chicken Pox during the trip!


Mom says they had a totally fabulous time and she has extremely happy memories that still make her smile. She especially loves to remember how happy her grandsons were.

So if anybody ever tells you that WE take hectic trips, here's proof that somebody else is even more so able to squeeze in every last drop of fun for their family.

Wow! I got tired just looking at all the photos!

Kids Surpassing Their Parents

I have this rather demoralizing memory of a race with my son when he was about 8 years old. Maybe he was younger, but I refuse to admit to it. We lived in a village with houses arranged in an oval. One day, as a joke I challenged Jon to a race around the village. What was I thinking?

We started out together for maybe 10 seconds and then he disappeared. By the time I came huffing and puffing back home, he was lying on the grass and asked, "What kept you?"

Art thought that was rather funny.


In April 1990, Jon was in middle school (12 years old). His coach wanted him to compete in a district 800 meter race. Art decided to take Jon out to the track to get him ready for the race. Art was ahead for a good part of the race, but as they neared the finish Jon suddenly darted ahead and crossed the finish before his dad.


I thought at first that Art had allowed Jon to beat him to give him some encouragement. However, seeing Art struggling a little to catch his breath made me realize that indeed Jon could hold his own.

In June we were at Northwestern University watching Jon compete in the District Track and Field Competition. Art had his video recorder ready and started filming when the race began.

Jon was behind for the first lap. We assumed the runners from the other schools were much faster and that Jon was running out of steam when the gap widened. Then, as they ran the last part of their laps Jon suddenly took off and won handily. We could hardly believe it! Art was so excited that he pressed the button on the video recorder incorrectly and turned the machine off. Therefore, to this day (much to Jon's chagrin) we only have a recording where Jon was behind. This is a photo of Jon receiving his 1st place ribbon.

I guess it was rather disconcerting for Art to have his young son surpass him. We knew Jon was a fast swimmer, but running was Art's domain at the time. We got used to the kids surpassing us in many areas rather quickly and were proud and happy that they could. Still...

Art now has that challenge for Jon again. He's run the marathon at age 66 and 67. Let's see if Jon can surpass that.

Something New I Learned

Yes, it's true. Alas! On Thursday mornings after Tai Chi, Art and I do indulge in something that is not healthy... but it's cheap. What can I say? (Please don't tell Master Pong about us.)


For $1.50 we get a rather large hot dog and a drink at Costco. My other weakness is the soft serve swirl for $1.35. Yes, yes! I know. I know. But I don't get the swirl all the time. Art usually distracts me so that I'll forget to buy it.

Now then, here's something Art taught me that I had no idea about. His family owned and operated a small restaurant/soda fountain on the Big Island so he knows a lot more than I do about food establishments.


Art assumed I knew those little tabs at the self service soda fountain will give you water or soda (carbonated water). I had no idea. Now that was a lot of fun to discover. I am truly trying to limit my sugar intake because I am pre-diabetic. I usually have the diet Coke. I discovered that I can now have a dash of Fanta or raspberry iced tea in some soda water. I could also just have some Sprite with more soda water. Fun! I'll have to experiment with this next week.

Remember... don't tell Master Pong. He did tell us that we must eat healthy. I'm trying. I'm trying. Now that I know about that soda tab, I can be a little healthier...sort of... kind of...

Spookey Spokeo

Art got this information from a bunch of his hometown buddies. They have a network that look out for each other which is great. Here's what they wrote him. I've since discovered that both my kids have already removed themselves from this listing. They were way ahead of us. Tif did send us detailed information on how to remove ourselves, but it really wasn't difficult at all.

"This was on KITV this morning. May be a good thing to look into, especially if you have Facebook or something like it.

www.spokeo.com

There's a site called Spokeo.com that's a new online USA phone book with everyone's personal information: everything from pics you've posted on Facebook or any other website anywhere, along with your approximate credit score, home value, income, age, etc. You can remove yourself by first searching for yourself on their site to find the URL on your page. Copy that URL, then hit the Privacy button on the bottom of their page to remove yourself. Check your email after that, click the Click Here button and then wait about 2 minutes and recheck and it should be gone.

I checked and my whole family is listed there, take yourself off the site immediately. You don't want this info falling into the wrong hands. Please forward to friends and family also."

The Privacy button at the bottom right hand side of the page is tiny so put on your glasses to find it. I imagine they don't want everybody removing themselves from their directory. I can't imagine anybody being happy about having so much information accessible to anybody willing to pay a few dollars to get it.

Two Historic Blizzards, Two Favorite Four Year Olds

I'm sorry but I just couldn't resist posting this photo again as a comparison. This is four year old KC after the February 2nd blizzard.



Here is her mother, four year old Tiffany in January, 1979 in almost the same pose. I think it's really cute that Tiffany has put up snowflakes on the windows just as I did when she was little.

This must be how traditions start.

The Tale of Two Cakes

We celebrated KC's birthday when they were in Hawaii last month. We got our cake from Dee Lite Bakery in Times Supermarket. After careful consideration KC chose her own cake with the Winnie the Pooh design. When we brought the cake home, KC could not stop looking at it. We were really impressed with the detail and artistry in the cake decorating.

If you click on the photo, you can really see the detail work on the cake.



After they returned to Illinois KC and her parents attended a birthday party for the toddler of a very good friend. What a surprise to see that they had selected the exact same cake. However, it was also surprising to see the difference in the way the design was interpreted by this cake decorator.

Tif could hardly believe the coincidence in their having the same cake out of the oodles of other designs that were available within a couple of weeks.

The only problem I have with such a beautiful cake is that I'd rather look at it than eat it. Hmmm... that's really not a bad problem.

2011 Snow in the Midwest

Here are some of the photos that my daughter, Tiffany sent me from Illinois. They have apparently broken the 1979 snowfall record.

This was the view that greeted them in the morning from the kitchen window. I have never seen snow piled that high from that window before. Tif says there was a lot of snow drifting from the strong winds.


This was the view from their front door. It must have been tricky opening that door.


After opening the door, they saw how high the snow was.


And here's the deck that KC was trying to look out at from the kitchen window. That black thing is their Weber grill.

It was hard for KC to wait for them to finish shoveling so she could go for a sled ride.


Tif says she thought they were out there for an hour shoveling, but discovered to their surprise that they'd been shoveling for three hours.

Even though this snowfall has broken the 1979 record, I think we had a bigger problem in '79 because we already had about a 12" layer of snow on the ground. They had a clear ground to start with yesterday.


Our neighbor's teenage son took their snow blower out to the street. KC used the track he left to visit a favorite neighbor, Auntie Caroline.

Tif says this is the first time that KC could walk onto the middle of the street without worrying about cars.

I've just realized something wonderful. The city won't pile all the snow in front of their house like they did in 1979 (when we lived there) because the village moved a fire hydrant in front of the house a couple of years ago.

After Tif sent us these photos, Art asked if she'd taken photos of the completed shoveling job.

Being the kind, always sweet and wonderful daughter that she is, Tif dashed out of the house with KC as the sun was setting to get these shots for my post.


Tif says she knows they'll have no trouble whatsoever getting to sleep tonight. They are exhausted, but happy. Tif is feeling pretty good about the exercise she got. I really do think living in the Midwest makes you stronger and hardier. However, I'm still rather liking living here in Hawaii (wearing my shorts and t-shirt while I write this post) and just looking at the awesome photos she's been sending me.

Then again, I miss the euphoria that spring brings. I must remind Tif that she's got that to look forward to... in about three months.

Oh YIKES! I forgot to wish everybody Gung hay fat choy or Shin en kwai luh! (Happy Chinese New Year!)

Remembering the Netherlands

It was spring of 2007. Art decided a bike trip in the Netherlands would be a fun thing to do. This was the year before we would be moving to Hawaii and he wanted to get a lot of traveling over the Atlantic done.


Keukenhof Tulip Gardens was even more spectacular than we expected. It is absolutely breathtaking. I doubt I'll ever see so many different kinds of tulips in one place again.


We took hundreds of photos of the flowers that were blooming that spring.




We saw tulips of an array of colors...


shapes and sizes.


Everywhere we turned there were tulips and spring flowers bursting with color.


And yes, we saw a lot of canals and windmills. This is at Kinderdijk.


We also went to Belgium. This is Antwerp's Rubenshaus (House of Peter Paul Rubens).


Yes, I did survive that bike trip, but I've never been on a bike since. I'll never forget all the gorgeous sights and friendly (tall) people we met.

Netflix Recommendation: I recommended the foreign language film, Departures (Okuribito) a while ago. I just loved that movie. It received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film in 2009. I've just discovered that it's on Instant Streaming on Netflix or you can just rent the movie...Just in case you might be interested.

Chicago Snow of '79

My daughter, Tiffany just called to say they were hunkering down for the blizzard coming their way. O'Hare Airport has already closed down as well as several schools in anticipation.

"I guess it's going to be like 1979, hunh?" I asked.

"1967!" she said.

I remember arriving in Chicago in 1974 and everybody telling me how mild it was that winter. When I told them I thought it was quite a lot, since it was my first experience with snow, they said it was nothing compared to '67.

Well, 1979 was no slouch! I was exhausted from shoveling.
Wikipedia states: The Chicago Blizzard of 1979 was a major blizzard that affected northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, U.S. on January 13-January 14, 1979. 16.5 inches (41.9 cm) of snow fell on January 13 alone, setting a new record for snow in one calendar day. By the end of January 14, 18.8 inches (47.8 cm) of snow had fallen.

However, I have to admit it was rather fun, too since I didn't have to try to get to work. Tiffany was around 4 years old and Jon was 1. Interestingly, KC is now 4 years old, too.

These photos show the mountain of snow piled up in front of our house by the front-end loaders. The city was having a hard time finding places to store the snow.


Unfortunately, Tif doesn't remember any of it except from these photos we took.

I hope they take lots of photos so that KC can remember. I've told Tif to send me some photos so I can post them in the next day or two.

POSTSCRIPT: WOW! I just got an automated emergency call from our town in Illinois. They have our Hawaii phone number on file and warned us to stay home, park on the correct side of the street and not call 911 unless it's a dire emergency. They also want me to shovel around the fire hydrant. Nuts! Look at these photos. Can you imagine trying to shovel out a fire hydrant?

What Memories?

A very good psychologist friend sent this to me today and I just had to share it just because it certainly shows the challenges I'm facing today. Besides, Pam Peterson is an awfully talented singer and entertainer.