Summer begins!

Summer 2014 is finally here.  Due to a few make-up snow days, the girls didn't finish school before Memorial Day as planned but they were out before June so not too bad in the end.

We were definitely excited to get started with some summertime fun.

Movies!!  We love going to movies, it's just that we never seem to have enough time to go!  Hopefully that will be remedied this summer.

Swimming!  Pool time with friends.  Silly girls.

Popsicles!  I bought popsicle molds over a year ago and just finally got around to trying them out.  Paige is in love.  Our first flavor was coconut peach, not too bad.  I'm going to have to find a bunch of new recipes to try.

Park and playtime!

We don't really have any kind of vacation planned for this summer.  Dave will be starting a new job so he won't have any vacation time accrued yet.  Also Ashley will be doing community theater and taking driver's ed. so it doesn't look like we will be able to leave town for any extended amount of time.  We are not too worried though, I think we will have enough fun to do around here.

Ashley - end of the school year

Here are some of Ashley's end of school year events:

1.  Choir concert and award.  Unfortunately, I was in California during Ashley's final choir concert so I didn't get to see her.  This also means no pictures.  She did however, get an award for "most improved in vocal music."  She wasn't too sure if she wanted to continue in Choir after this year, but she enjoyed doing the musical so much, that she's going to stick with choir after all.   During this time, she also auditioned for a summer production of Shrek the Musical.  She had to prepare a monologue, an a cappella signing piece, and a dance number.  She worked hard and was cast as Mama Bear and as a Du Loc dancer.  This will definitely keep her busy all summer.

2.  Soccer banquet.  Well since she was technically still on the team, Dave and Ashley went to the year end soccer banquet.  Not sure she will do soccer again next year, but she has a year to think about it.   The soccer program at the school is not very strong and neither team, jv or varsity, had a winning season.  Hopefully they will get better with time, but there probably won't be any playoffs in the near future.

3.  Seminary Graduation.  First year of early-morning Seminary done!  Ashley really rocked it.  Most people just try to survive but for Ashley she really thrived.  She handled the early mornings with no problem.  I never had to wake her or pry her out of bed.  That girl is self-motivated and pretty much a morning person.  I usually was the one peeling myself out of bed.  I always wanted to make sure that one of her parents was up to say a prayer with her and see her out the door each day.

In our Stake, there is a "Stake President's Award" given to the youth who have 95% attendance, have memorized Scripture Mastery and this year read the Book of Mormon.  Not everyone gets this award.  Even if you pass Seminary, taking the extra steps to get the Stake President's award isn't easy.  At first, I was ambivalent about the award.  It's optional and this extra work can be a lot of pressure on kids who have a lot of school demands already.  Then Ashley talked to an admissions counselor at BYU who made it very clear to us the importance of Seminary (they will even call and talk to your Seminary teacher) and I realized that earning the Stake President's Award is going to be important.  Of 17 kids in her class, 4 earned the award and Ashley was one of them.

Paige - end of the school year

Aww, the end of the school year, never is something more anticipated and dreaded.  I look forward to summer but getting there can be tough.  You have to get over the mighty hurdle of award assemblies, concerts, parties, etc., etc.  It is exhausting and brutal on your schedule.

So here is a quick rundown of Paige's end of school year activities:

1.  Chorale Festival.  Paige joined the Honor Choir at her school this year.   They practiced once a week at 7:30 am for most of the year.  The culminating event was a district chorale festival.

2. Field Day.  I volunteered again this year and it was the best Field Day yet.  First, the weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold.  (The last two years we had rain.)  Second, I have now done it enough  times to know which events to supervise and which events to stay away from, i.e. take pass on the tennis ball throw unless you want to spend the whole day picking up hundreds of tennis balls.

3.  Baby Shower party.  Paige's teacher is having her first baby so the class threw a surprise baby shower.  Each of the kids wrote a note telling why Mrs. Wozniak would be a great mom.  Paige tied a fleece blanket to give to her.

4.  Yearbook Signing

5.  Awards.

This is an award Riley gave Paige.  Riley gave a speech in class and gave
"a special shout-out to Paige"

Paige's piano recital.  She played, "Defying Gravity" from Wicked.
I was in California, so I missed it, but I heard she was wicked good!

6.  Teacher Appreciation.  I made these for the teachers at Paige's school:

Cinnamon and Orange rolls, rising, rising, rising

LA Tour Guide

So the second part of my trip to Debby's was to serve as an unofficial tour guide and driver.  This part was unplanned but it ended up being pretty important.  It just so happened to work out that a number of my family members were passing through Los Angeles the week after Debby had her baby.  Naturally, they all wanted to "stop by and see the baby."  The hard part of this is that Debby just had a baby and was not really in any condition to entertain and help visitors.  Honestly, just handling the visitors was probably one of the most important things I did for Deb and Same while I was there.

Basically, in a two day period my sister Becky and her family stopped by on their way to catch a flight at LAX to Mexico.  My dad flew in to stay with Debby and help after I left and my dad's sister, my Aunt Pao and her husband had a 12 hour layover in LA on their way home to Thailand.

I won't give all the nitty gritty details, but I drove to the airport 3 times in 24 hours.  On top of that my sister Becky left her new BMW with us while they were in Mexico, so I pretty much was driving a unfamiliar car, in a traffic-jammed unfamiliar city.  My dad was too nervous to do any driving so I had to help him and figure out how to get people everywhere they wanted to go.  It was a little stressful at times, but there was also a good side to it all.  First, I got to spend time with family I hadn't seen in a while and second, because people had time to kill and Deb and Sam needed rest, I took everyone for some sightseeing.

First up, Debby lives within walking distance to Hollywood Boulevard, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Graumann's Chinese Theater.  The evening when Becky and her boys came, I took them over to look around.

My favorite boys!

We also ordered pizza for dinner from the exact same place that Ellen did during the Academy Awards.  It was pretty tasty.

After Becky and her family left, Mao and Pao, my aunt and uncle from Thailand came the very next day.  During my multiple trips to the airport, I had ample opportunity to drive by Randy's Donuts.  Of course, I had to stop at least once.  Yummy!  

From Randy's, I drove my aunt and uncle to meet a friend for lunch in Thai Town.  Just imagine me trying to find a tiny Thai restaurant in Thai town, while driving my sister's brand new car through LA traffic with car full of Thai senior citizens.  It's a miracle we didn't get lost or wreck the car!  Remember I don't live in LA and haven't visited since college…crazy!!  Anyway, we finally met up with Pao's friend and we, along with my dad, had a very delicious lunch of Thai food.

After lunch we went to Pao's friend's place of business: a Thai massage parlor.  Nice!  My dad and I both got a massage, which relieved all my stress from a day of tense driving!  The parlor was on Hollywood Boulevard in the courtyard of a home once owned by Charlie Chaplin, that was pretty cool.

Next, we stopped by Debby's place to see the baby, relax for about an hour and then meet some of my dad's friends for dinner.

Aunt Pao with the Kolie

This part is for the foodies.  We went to Korea Town and ate at BCD's Tofu House.  This place was so awesome, both my dad and I were giddy with joy.  Basically you order a bowl of tofu soup and they bring you all these side dishes to eat with your soup.  BCD makes their own tofu and it is so delicious.  They bring your soup to you in individual cast iron hot pots.  The soup is so hot it arrives at the table boiling, which is convenient because you can crack a raw egg right into your soup and cook it right in front of you.  Along with the soup you get a whole fried fish, rice, veggies, kimchi, pickles, peppers and sauces.  We also ordered some beef bulgogi to go along with it.  It was so good and such a fun place to eat.  I'd definitely like to go back sometime.

One more fun food find was Papa's Beard, which is basically a cream puff shop.  I love that idea!  You go in pick out what kind of filling you want in your cream puff and viola they make it for you.

I saw this shop by Debby's place, but also found one close to the hospital in Pasadena so for Mother's Day, I stopped by and bought some.  I should say that this was the first Mother's Day I have ever spent away from kids.  It felt weird, but at least I was comforted by some flowers from Sam's dad and the cream puffs.  I also think it was good to let Dave off the hook of trying to make the day special, etc.

Whew, what a fun trip.  I'm so glad that I could go and can't wait to go back with my family.  It should be a breeze since I'm already an unofficial tour guide!!

California Sunshine and a Baby

I got to sneak away for 10 days to go to California and help my little sister Debby with her new baby.  10 days!!! That's a long time and probably a little crazy, but somehow we made it work.  I made a very detailed schedule and all the arrangements so that my family would be okay while I was gone.  Basically, Dave had to get Paige ready for school every morning then take her to a neighbor's house (Riley's) on his way to work.  Paige would hang out there until it was time to take the bus to school.  Fortunately, Ashley was all finished with after-school activities, so she would ride the bus home and babysit Paige after school until Dave got home later in the evening.  I also left a house full of food and notes about everyone's schedule.  Both girls have lots of extra-curricular activities and fortunately, I was able to ask a variety of their friends to give them rides to the places they need to be.  I tell you, the girls didn't need a babysitter as much as they needed a driver!!

Overall everyone did great.  It wasn't always easy but I think it gave everyone appreciation for how much "magically" gets done everyday in our home.  I'm very, very grateful for all of Ashley and Dave's hard work.  I could never have been gone without both of them stepping up and making some sacrifices.  Some of my favorite memories will be my phone conversations with Ashley after school while she was waiting for Paige to get home.  She was really cute about being responsible and I think she missed having me around to talk to.  There was really only one day where she got a little stressed out.  She was invited to an awards evening at school, at the last minute and because I didn't know about it before I left, I didn't make any plans for how she was going to get there, who would take care of Paige during that time, etc.  It all ended working out but I did order a pizza and have it delivered because she was a little too stressed that evening to make dinner!

Looking back, by day 10 I was definitely ready to come home and Dave, Ashley and Paige were more than ready to have me back.  I kind of felt like everyone was nearing the end of their rope.  It's good to know your needed. 

As for my time in California, it was very special and I'm so glad that I could be there for Debby and Sam.  I flew in to LA on Thursday and Debby had a c-section the next day.  It's been over 10 years since my last baby, so it was very sweet to witness these two new parents go through all the firsts.

Kolie Neha Kumar was born on May 9th, 2014.  She was the tiniest little thing at 6 lbs. 4 oz. but was completely full-term so even though she was small, she was strong and smart from the get-go.  Debby and Sam live in Hollywood but chose to deliver Kolie at a hospital in Pasadena (Sam's dad, sister and brother-in-law are all doctors at the hospital) which was only about 20 minutes away.  Because of the c-section Debby, Sam and Kolie stayed 4 days in the hospital, so I would drive to and from Hollywood and Pasadena each day.  I got pretty good at finding my around and managing the LA freeway system.

During these first few days, while I was at  Debby's condo, I did some grocery shopping and made freezer meals that they could use later after I had gone home.  I also came to the hospital each day to relieve Sam for a while so he could run some errands, get out of the hospital, etc.  Debby needed some extra help during this time because she really couldn't get up and down easily, so I was happy to hold the baby, change diapers, etc.  Kolie was so little that I could easily hold her in one arm and take pictures of her and drink Diet Coke with the other!

After they came home, the first couple days with the c-section were pretty painful for Debby.  The prescription pain meds would make her faint so she pretty much just took ibuprofen and tylenol.  I was glad to be there to help with the baby, especially when Sam was busy helping Debby.  Fortunately, Debby is very fit and healthy so that she really started feeling better very quickly and by the end of the first week was very in good shape.  Debby and Sam are going to be such great parents.  Kolie is very lucky to have them as parents.  What a wonderful loving family.

Here are some pictures:  

4:30 am and on the way to the hospital 5/9/14

first family picture!

Kolie with Auntie Jenny

Kolie's first photo shoot