it was december 20, 2000.  the plan was to spend the day together, but phil called to say he had some errands to do, was running late, and would i mind a late dinner instead?  i agreed and he eventually came to pick me up.  we had sushi (i forget where) for our late dinner and then drove towards santa monica beach.  it was rather dark.  pitch black, actually. he parked and asked if i wanted to go sit on the beach.  this wasn’t our usual thing to do, especially on a chilly december pitch black night.  i wondered if it was safe.  he started pulling some things out of…

assignment #7:  generations. finally had an opportunity to get a picture of the kids with their grandparents.  they made the four-hour trek to meet us for lunch this past weekend (and to do some shopping at the korean market) before they had to head back home the same day.  so it was a very brief meeting and we were in a very uninspiring parking lot in the middle of k-town.  hence, these pictures are very jaw-droppingly unawesome.  but still, the love between them shines through and was worth capturing all the same.  🙂 happy to be together again, forced smiles notwithstanding. lauren simply wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet. actually,…

i’m very thankful that my kids generally seem to really like each other.  now, that’s not to say they always get along perfectly and that there aren’t daily little squabbles and bad attitudes that have to be contended with.  but for the most part, the kiddos do genuinely love each other.  they love playing together by the hour, miss each other when one or two are in school, make things for each other while at school or while some are napping, and can be counted on to help each other out.  in essence, it seems that they enjoy being their own little pack. assignment #6: who THEY love. to put…

hate is such a strong word.  i generally do not like to use it in everyday speech.  but when it comes to certain things, a general dislike does not quite capture how i feel about it.  one such area is clutter.  i hate clutter.  and currently, there are three (soon to be four) of them and only one of me.  which means i lose the clutter battle on a daily basis.  and as much as i try to be okay with it and accept as part of this season of life, at the end of the day, i still hate the clutter. assignment #5:  love to hate. this is the…

our middle child is the quintessential girlie girl.  i think i’ve mentioned this before?  she’s also perhaps our most creative, imaginative child too.  a typical look for her would be a princess dress and some taped on bits of paper that she calls her jewels.  we hesitate to throw any bit of what we’d call trash away, be it fabric scraps, unused wooden chopsticks, paper cups, old envelopes, because as soon as we do, she’ll come running in and protest that she needed that [insert trash bit here] for her next creation. one recent afternoon, i noticed that she’d been awfully quiet for some time and decided to go find…