Pet Pillow & Self Portrait Tuesday

I got tired of staring at my computer screen last night so I laid down on the office floor. As soon as I did that my dog Chief came and laid down next to me and put her head on my shoulder. She never does that! Usually she has this conspiracy theory that I am going to put flea medication on her or try to give her bath whenever I get on her level. So it was pretty funny that she just came and laid next to me.

No sooner than Chief laid down, Deuce my cat miandered over and decided to lay on my stomach. What am I a pet pillow or something?

I watched Dr. 90210 last night which is a show about these doctors in Beverly Hills that do plastic surgery. I have seen the show a few times and it just hits a nerve everytime I see it. I can't believe how many people are so unhappy with their looks that they would resort to surgery to fix it. Every once in a while I wish I could fix certain things that I don't like about my body. I think everyone probably has those dreaded spots on our body that we would just magically like to dissapear. But I keep thinking how cosmetic surgery is screwing around with God's creation. Everyone wants to look like a Barbie doll and it's so sad.

Now don't get me wrong. I believe in cosmetic surgery for those who have been disfigured either by an accident or because of genetics. I am just not too thrilled about people who already look fine wanting to play god with their bodies.

Self Portrait Tuesday

Self Portrait Tuesday is a really cool blog about self expression and self exploration. They have a theme each month and you take or find pictures of yourself that revolve around that theme. January's theme is Personal History. I decided to post this picture because it is a picture of me acting in a training film about me and my history as a firefighter. In this picture I am featured with my body double. She is the one on the left. We look a lot a like don't we? HAHA! It was so wierd watching someone play me but it was so cool to watch my story and my personal history being filmed.

About Me Layouts

Heidi and I spent Sunday afternoon putting our About Me albums from QVC together. It was a little kit that came with all of the paper and embellishments. QVC is actually going to do a series of these albums and this is the first one. The next one is called About You and I will probably do that one on John.

At Heidi's we put the nuts and bolts of the album together. I am going to add some more of my own embellishments to it and of course do the journaling. I got the first three pages completely done and wanted to share them with you. I love how they turned out!




Pages 4 & 5 are here along with the rest of the album.

John got the coolest thing in the mail on his birthday. Back in October when we flew to Canada for a conference, there was a medical emergency on board of the airplane. John got up to help the guy and when we landed at the airport the guy was taken off the airplane. Well, 3 months later Southwest sent him a free roundtrip ticket to anywhere SW flies for his help! Isn't that totally awesome!? I almost got up to help too but the aisle is so small and there were already enough people crowded around. I figured John could handle it. Darn heck, if only I had got up to help maybe we could have gotten 2 tickets. Oh well! We feel tremendously blessed! Yeah God!

Happy Chinese New Year!

My Grandmother Nai Nai with my cousins.


My Dad with my cousins at the family get together.

Happy Birthday John!

It's John's birthday today. I won't give up his age. (big sigh of relief babe)

For his birthday we went to the biggest male droolfest of them all...the Houston Auto Show. It's the new car show where they show the latest models, the concept cars, and the cars you can only dream about (and sometimes these cars are even too expensive for our dreams!) We had a great time looking at Dad-mobiles. We are in a need of a new car since the one John drives, my hand-me down, is getting to be on it's last little wheels. The car show was a great place to start dreaming. The funny thing I noticed was, this is one of the few times men will get in the same car with other strange men. Some of these cars are so small and yet, they manage to squish themselves in the front seat and carry on conversations about how the backseat is non-existant or the motor is pretty sweet. This is definitely worth further psychological study!


Now if only the baby will fit in the backseat of that cute, little red bug! Which, by the way, is the least manliest car at that whole show!

A Place At Our Table, A Spot On My Chair

Oh, what to say about my dear cat Deuce. Deuce, he is a mixture of frustration and joy for me. He was our first four-legged child when we got married 10 years ago (holy cow has it really been that long?). I found him in a pet store sitting in the middle of the litter box swaying side to side. Apparently his mother had disbanned him from the rest of the litter. He had this helpless little look on his face and I could not bear to leave without him. So he came home in a box with punched out holes. He cried the whole way home. Since then he has been our constant shadow and lap companion even when we don't want him to be. I just love him so much. He always has a place at our table.



Now when I sit on the computer to do my work or to just surf around, Deuce likes to hop into my lap and just chill out. Personally it drives me crazy because he makes it hard to type and he just gets in the way. So last night, I was trying to get some work done and he decides he wants to get on my lap. I kept shoving him off so finally he wedged himself between my back and the chair. I don't know how that was comfortable for him because it sure wasn't for me. I found it hysterical though and tried to take some pictures. Let me tell you, that was not a graceful photo session!




By the way, if you want to see some seriously cute pictures of animals, you need to go check out www.cuteoverload.com. It's such a great website!

Scrapbook Page

2005 Year in Review



I am finally working on a new album. It's going to be a review of all of things we did in 2005. We had so much going and we did so much that I thought a book with just a few layouts of each event would be better than trying to do a seperate book for each one. I will do a seperate book for Katrina though.

I am a pretty slow scrapper mostly because I procrastinate. I promised that I would try to a lot more scrapping this year before the baby comes. I am going to try and keep up with promise or intention should I say? I am also a simple scrapper so maybe that will help me get more done. Heck, I still have one more 9/11 album I have to finish. I have had a hard time with that one though because it's specifically of my friends from Ladder 3 that died.

So, here is my first page. I promise to post more!

A Powerful Song

I was going to write this long blog entry tonight but I decided to just share this song with you. Kenny Chesney wrote this very deep and powerful song called Who You'd Be Today. It is about a friend of his who died when he was a teenager. I always think about this song when I go work on a firefighter line of duty death. Most of those firefighters are so young when they are killed in the line of duty.

Anyway, I rediscovered Yahoo Music Videos and I looked up that song. Oh my gosh, it's so moving and really brings out the words of the song. I encourage you to go and watch it. Just go here http://search.music.yahoo.com/search/?p=kenny+chesney&m=video and then click on the song Who You'd Be Today. Little did I know it would feature a firefighter.

Don't take life for granted. It can be taken away in the blink of an eye.

I Like Being Married

I was browsing through the library a couple of weeks ago when I happened upon this sweet little book called I Like Being Married, Treasured Traditions, Rituals and Stories by Michael Leach and Therese J. Borchard. I picked it up on a whim and added to my stash of books.

A couple of days ago I finally picked it up. It's such a great inspiration and celebration of marriage. There were stories and quotes from regular couple and celebrity couples. Most everyone mentioned had long marriages. Now a day with marriages seeming to last only a few years and seems to be mocked by the 'mainstream', it's great to find something that talks about it as a great thing.

So I was thinking about all of the reasons I like being married to John. Here they are in random order:

1. I like who I am with him better than without him.
2. He sticks up for me.
3. He goes to bat for me.
4. We love to explore new and old places.
5. He knows how to comfort me.
6. He is a good handyman.
7. He supports me and all of my ideas and will even lend a hand.
8. He lets me have my own space.
9. He is a great friend to my friends.
10. He is affectionate.
11. He is proud of me.
12. He takes good care of me.
13. We have weathered some pretty bad storms and our 'boat' has never capsized.
14. He goes the extra mile.
15. He knows how to say I'm sorry, even to my Mom after a crazy card game. :o)
16. Our own rituals and traditions, including nightly tea.
17. He is good about trying new things or meeting new people.
18. He is a good leader.
19. He tries to make the best decisions possible.
20. He's going to make a great father.

I love you!

Pictures That Crack Me Up

I have had a couple of rough days this last week and I was going through pictures trying to find ones that totally cracked me up. Well I found some good ones that I thought I would share with you.


My sister and I get a little crazy when we get together. I don't know what it is, but wierd things just start happening. Just ask our spouses. They will verify the wierdness. Anyway, I was visiting Liz at her new townhouse and I was totally laughing at how her cat just loved to hang out in this box that they had finished unpacking. So because of the wierdness in the air, I decided to impersonate the cat and I hopped right in. Well Liz totally cracked up, so she decided to join in. How many Chang sisters can you fit in a cardboard box? Well, that wasn't good enough, so we picked up her cat(who was hiding out in a cereal box) and brought him in with us. Then BOOM!! the box broke. The look on the cat's face is just priceless. Plus the memory just makes me laugh for such a long time. I swear, we weren't even drinking!!!




Of course the second picture has to do with my sister too. We like to take pictures of ourselves kissing random things. It's this total inside joke that started back when she was in high school and came and spent the summer with us. So here is one of my kissy picutres with a gross dead looking thing.



Okay so John got a little nutty when we were playing cards one night. He was stressing out because he wasn't winning so he decided to distract us by sticking cards to his forehead. Pretty soon, I had to join in.




So that you can see where Liz and I get where our wierdness comes from...this is my Mom dressing up as an airport firefighter. The helmet just overwhelms her head and the picture just cracks me up! Such a fun picture. Sorry Mom...it could have been the other picture! :oD





And then here is our family photo shoot with a dead, stuffed cow. Now how could you pass up that photo moment? That's me and my super cool mom on top of the stuffed cow and John leading us to pasture.


Do I really need to put a caption to John just being his normal bizzarro self? LOL

To my family: thanks for the memories and all of the laughs!

Little Girls & Hair

Tonight we had the new member's dinner for the Families with Children from China-Houston group. We met at this Chinese buffet on the other side of Houston. There were about 16 people, including our social worker and her daughters that attended.
Most of the little ones that were there were about 3 & 4 years old. They were too cute and had waaaay too much energy. I wish I could have some of that energy!

After we ate and chatted a bit, we got down to business of makeovers and hairstyling. The girls just loved my long hair. I had my hair up in combs and those had to immediately come out so they could use them as brushes. I was completely surrounded by girls trying to comb my hair into 1,000 differant directions. One of them I swore was reincarnated from the 80's because she just wanted rat my hair. It was pretty fun and I am sure entertaining for them and their parents. Plus it was a great time to show my social worker that I can deal with 'hair-raising' experiences!

The funny part of the whole thing was the little girl sitting directly on my lap pulled down my lower eyelids and looked deep into my eyes for about 30 seconds and said, 'You have blue eyes and your face is red!' I totally cracked up.

Two of the girls attend Chinese language classes on Saturdays. So we also had fun testing our abilities to count to ten in Mandarin. Yeah for those few lessons I got from my grandfather.

John of course had a great time talking with the men and snapping photos of my extreme hair makeover. Make sure you check out the video link to the right. John captured part of it on the camera video. Maybe I should send it in for a real makeover?

Thorns

I am got some bad news about something today (not about our adoption but it's something I don't want to share in an open format like a blog)and it nearly caused my heart to break. So I called or emailed my closest friends and family to have them pray for me. After a few rounds of tears and few laps around the mall to clear my head and to eat a cinnabon (there is nothing quite like sugar therapy), we went back to the house to clear out the front yard.

I needed some stress relief so I thought we would trim the trees and tackle this thorny bush that I can't stand. As I was hacking away at the thorny bush I couldn't help but think about this situation in my life and how it feels like a thorn in my side. And then that thought brought me to the Bible where Paul talks about the thorn in his side and that he is constantly praying that God would get rid of those thorns. And then I thought about the crown of thorns that Jesus had to endure. Everyone of us humans, even Jesus when he was here on earth, have to endure the thorns of life. I kept thinking about how I wish I could just ignore these thorns and make them go away, but I know they won't. So like Paul, I have to go before my Lord and pray that he will help me deal with this thorn. While a thorn is a terribly painful thing, it is what is bringing me closer to the Lord.

Anyway, please keep me in your prayers.

John Is Going to be a Captain!

I am such a bad wife! :oP I totally forgot to post about John's test. He took it last week and scored very high! It looks like he will be part of the first batch of firefighters that will become Captain. He studied so hard and for so many months. I am so proud of him! Of course I am a little worried because that means he has to come out from behind the walls of the airport and onto the streets. It's all good though! The Lord will lead us to where He wants John to be.

The Cold, Hard Truth About Firefighters

Tonight our volunteer fire department responded to a pretty large house fire. My first inclination is to say that we made a really awesome fire but then I have to stop myself. What's really great for us as firefighters is pretty darn devestating to the person we are responding to help. I mean, tonight a family lost their house and all of their possessions. What a terrible tragedy for them.

Another thing that seems so natural for us but in reality is probably really wrong, is that we like to take pictures of these scenes. We like to capture the work that we do. So, when the fire was out and we were all standing around the front yard still fully bunkered out and someone breaks out with a camera, our first response is to pose together as group. As I was standing there posing with my fellow firefighters, I couldn't help but wonder, should I smile? Should I act serious? What do I do? Someone's house is totally desimated behind us and here we are smiling like we just won the lottery. It was a real paradoxical moment for me.

I remember thinking when I was down in New Orleans how great it felt to be down there in the nitty gritty of it all. I remember taking tons of pictures with my fellow chaplains and smiling in most of the pictures. I also remember asking myself those same questions. Here we were walking around death and destruction and we were happy to be there and we took tons of photos like we were tourists. It's crazy I know.

Tonight as we were coming back from the fire, I kept thinking about this. To the outside world, we must look like cold and uncaring individuals, but these feelings and these photos go much deeper than the public could ever know. Yeah, we do love a good fire. There is nothing like seeing the beast of fire rip through and then whip and rage 10 feet above a rooftop. It gets the adrenaline flowing. But all in all, it really comes down to seeing how much we can save. How can we knock the beast out of power. How can we salvage as much of those people's lives as we can? We really do care. That beast of fire is the bad guy and we are so incredibly honored to come riding in on our red and white trucks to save civilians from it. And the pictures we take? We just want to remember that we all made it out alive. No one was hurt and that we did our best. We want to celebrate the frienships and the bond that we have with each other.

When it comes down to it, we care deeply about the people we serve. We really love the work we do even though it's incredibly painful for those we are trying to help. Our love for the work is about serving our fellow man. And if it came down to it, we would lay our lives down for another. So really, we aren't cold. We may seem a little calloused at times, but that is our coping mechanism for seeing too much bad stuff. But deep down underneath all of the bunker gear and under the tough image, there lies a heart of gold.

Acts of God

This past Thursday I went to go help a friend sort through some products that were destroyed during Katrina. My friend owns an company out of Maryland(Emergency Training Associates) that sells books and merchandise to the fire & EMS community. During trade shows and conventions he sets up a booth to sell those same items.

In late September he was down in New Orleans for an EMS convention. The show was wrapping up when Katrina made a beeline for the city. He was told that his merchandise, that was being shipped via a freight company, was out of LA and on it's way back to Maryland. Well, come to find out that wasn't true. In fact his merchandise was in the back of an 18 wheeler that was stranded in New Orleans.

Once the storm was over he heard conflicting reports that his merchandise had been damaged from the flood water. At one point he heard there wasn't much damage and then he heard that there was quite a bit of damage. The items were shipped to the shipping company's warehouse in Houston. My friend decided to come down and check out the items and figure out what was salvageable and what needed to be tossed. So this past Thursday we spent some time going through everything. A majority of his items were books and t-shirts. And his loss was about 85-90%. It was so sad and I felt so bad for him. His company is pretty much family owned and operated so he has taken a huge hit.

Here is the kicker. When I asked him about insurance coverage, he said that the insurance company basically told him that Katrina was an 'Act of God' and that they didn't cover acts of God. How completely asinine is that? What really gets me is the fact that this country seems to be turning more and more away from God. It seems like so many people claim there is no God or that God needs to stay out of business, but they are willing to blame Him for something like this? Sure when it's a good thing, there is no God! But hey if life sucks it's God's fault. Makes me so darn angry! I hope my friend is able to make up for the losses he is facing over this next year.

On a baby note, John and I have started shopping for nursery items. Well, we are really price comparing right now. We want to make sure that we are getting the best deal we can on those expensive furniture items. I made a price comparison worksheet and you can find that in the resource section of our webite.

Ferocious Animals

You DO NOT want to mess with these killer animals! They are ferocious and wild and will tear you up if they get a chance. They are only allowed to stay in one animal sanctuary in the world, The Norris Ranch, because they are just so out of control.

Our brave photographer was able to capture these photos without incident. I am just amazed she came back unscathed!



First is this mysterious black animal. She is so elusive that they call her Shadow.




Next is this black animal which is a distant relative of Shadow. This animal seems to have dominance over all of the other animals at the sanctuary and so they call this one Chief.




Don't let this pose fool you! It may be white and fluffy and inviting to touch, but if you get too close...wham!! That is why they call her Ashes, because if she gets a hold of you, you will wish that you were made out of ashes.



I saved the scariest animal for last. This yellow and white animal has to sleep like this because his belly is too full from his last hunt. He looks big and fat and lazy but that's his secret cover. He is quicker than lighting. That is why his name is Deuce, because before you can even count to two, he is gone (or you are)!

What to Expect When You're Not Expecting

I got the new Adoptive Families magazine yesterday and I was reading through the Letters to the Editor. One of the letters talked about an article that was posted on the magazines website: www.adoptivefamilies.com. The article was called What to Expect When You're Not Expecting, a twist off of the famous book What to Expect When You're Expecting.

I found the article this morning and just loved it. I thought that I would share the article with you in case any of you either don't get the magazine or might have missed it. It's a great article and explains a lot of feelings that many adoptive parents feel.

I am so excited because there are several events coming up that involves our agency or the group we belong to called Families with Children From China. In two weeks we are going to a new members dinner. On the 29th we are going to a Chinese New Year dinner and then on Feb 4, we are going to another CNY party with our agency. I can't wait!

The Surprise Inside My Oven

Today I bought this awesome healthy cook book from Barnes & Noble. I wanted to try some new recipies that wouldn't overwhelm me since I don't like to cook. I picked out this flank steak sandwich with Dijon mustard. Yum! I have to broil it, so I turned the oven on to let it warm up and I started smelling this burning odor. I figured it was some reminant left over in my stove. When I went to put the meat in, much to my surprise, I had a whole cookie pan full of cheese sticks from New Year's Eve that I totally forgot about! How hysterical is that? Now you have to remember that I had six people living in this house for three days after the party and I can't believe none of us used the stove until now. I guess that shows you how much I 'love' to cook!


They aren't even moldy! EWE!!!!!!!

Silence Has Fallen At The Norris House

Last night my parents left for home and this morning my aunt and uncle left. I am pretty bummed because I had such a great time with them. A lot of the time they were here we also had friends over, so there was always movement and conversation going on in the house. From early morning until late at night there was always something going on. Now that everyone has left the house is silent. Mostly, I miss the noise. In other ways I am glad it is quiet because then I don't feel like I missing out on anything if I am in my office working on the blog or on the ministry.

The last couple of days we stayed pretty busy going for Dim Sum with Uncle Willy and his family, hosting a big dinner with crab and steak, and playing lots of cards and Dominoes. Last night after I dropped my parents off at the airport, I went out to dinner with my aunt and uncle. It was kind of like the last hoorah.

I guess now that they are gone I am going to have to get back to work and start getting serious about some things. I have been slacking in some areas of my life and in my work and I need to get myself back on track. I feel like I have been off since Hurricane Katrina. So, I need to get focused. John and I have a lot to do before the baby gets here. We really need to get ourselves emotionally, spiritually, and physically fit so that we can have the stamina to keep up with a new little person.

One of the ways that I am working on my spiritual stamina is by doing a daily devotional. My sister, my mother, and I are committing to reading this book throughout the year. It's called the Devotions for Women on the Go. They are short and simple devotions but they are very good. I highly recommend this book.



I will share some of my other goals and intentions in the coming days.

Here are some pictures of the last few days with my family:


New Year's Day Breakfast. My Uncle Rusty cooks the best breakfast!


My Mom and I. We took this picture before we left for Dim Sum.


My Dad and Uncle Rusy eating Dim Sum and being silly.


John and I.


My Uncle Willy, Me, and My Dad.


Mom sitting on the floor of our office.



Having fun just hanging out!




Our last card game before everone left.

New Year's Eve- The Night My Chinese Dad Turned Japanese

Okay so I know you are dying to know the details behind the title of this post but my friend, you will have to wait until the end of the story! First things first!

New Years Eve was such a blast! The whole day was fun. We did some shopping to get the items we needed for our party. So we went to Sams and they had so many samples out. We grazed and grazed on the food. Yum!

My parents are wanting to add strength training to their exercise routine. They do a lot of walking and hiking but they don't do any strength training. I went through a personal training certification class and so I know all kinds of cool exercises you can do with resistance bands and the big rubber ball. So after perusing through the local sports store, we came home and played with the new toys. We had a lot of fun with the rubber balls. It's pretty entertaining to watch people who have never been on one try to balance, especially when it's your own parents. They did promise that when they get back to California that they would do all of the exercises that I taught them. New Year's resolution #1?? Maybe......





Our party was at 6:30 and it started out with just my parents and my aunt and uncle who came in from Tenn and two close friends from church. But then I kept inviting people to come over. I didn't think that all of them would be able to make it because most of our friends have kiddos or are usually invited to other parties. Well, I was so surprised that they were all able to make it! I absolutely love having a house full of the people I love. I really did have my blood family and my friend family. I felt extremely blessed.

We mostly did hamburgers and finger foods. Mom made some salmon, so I grubbed on that. I did cave in to the cheesesticks even though I promised myself I wouldn't eat one. They were so good. Now my dad and uncle like to freak people out with different types of food. They like to watch their poor unsuspecting victims react to the craziness of their food choices. I always went along with them and ended up liking a lot of the crazy food. Well my uncle had brought some crickets over from his Navy tour in Japan. John and I have already been through the torture saga (and didn't like them) and so we were ready to join in on the fun of watching people freak out over the crickets. So my uncle and John put one of the crickets on a cracker and gave it to our friend Scott (who is a picky eater). He boldly ate that thing and didn't give us the satisfaction of a good scream or grossed out facial expression or anything! I was disappointed but we still got a good laugh.



We spent the night playing card games and doing a lot of talking. Most of our friends ended up going home before midnight but we still had a good group to hang out with when 2006 came rolling in. I am so happy that we had such a good party.






Now about the Chinese dad turning Japanese. My parents don't really drink. But of course we had a ton of champagne and some other liquors. My aunt made a champagne mix drink for my dad, who bravely decided to drink it. Well with his first sip he made this hysterically, crazy face because the drink was so strong. My aunt said he looked like he was Japanese. It was so funny!!!! So we have dubbed Jan 31, 2005 the night my Chinese dad turned Japanese. Here is the great picture to prove it.



After all of our guests left, John went into work early so he wouldn't have to go sleep and get up 3 hours later. My parents and I sat up and watched funny videos and looked at funny pictures on this website called Upbeat and Downtown. We laughed so hard for about an hour! You totally need to check out his Random Shtuff link.

Well I will update you with more of our family vacation and some of my goals for 2006 in a later post. I am going to bed early tonight because I am so tired.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all. I know for many 2005 was a very difficult year. I pray that for those individuals that 2006 will be blessed for them. We are looking forward to this year and all of the possibilities that it holds. We are hoping and praying that by this time next year we will have our daughter with us!

Here's to 2006! May the Lord bless you tremendously!