Autobiography

Taken from Olyvia's blog. Love ya!!





1.Where did you take your picture?
Our wedding day 10/29/05 Pacific Grove, CA.

2.What exactly are you wearing right now?
Red long sleeves, cargo pants and boots

3.What is your current problem?
Awaiting results of my last Gyno visit.

4.What makes you most happy?
My kids, my wonderful husband, my job, and reality TV.

5.What's the name of the song that you're listening to?
No music in this office today. Someone is grumpy.

6.Any celeb you would marry?
I'm married, but if I wasn't, it would be Dave Matthews.

7.Name someone with the same birthday as you?
Kirk Cameron.

8.Ever sang in front of a large audience?
Nope. And you don't want me to. Really.

10.Do you still watch kiddy movies or kiddie TV shows?
Yep... when you got kids you know all about Elmo and Dora and Thomas the tank engine.

11. Do you speak any other languages?
Thai. Not really, but I do understand it.

12.Has anyone you've been really close to passed away?
My daddy.

13.Do you ever watch MTV?
Yes, Real World, My SuperSweet 16, Etc.

14.What's something that really annoys you?
Oh if I can name them on a public blog.... lol.

Chapter 1: Basics
1. Name: Kanika
2. Nickname: Makika (Created by Lisamomeesa) and whatever Chris calls me.
3. Current location: Santa Clara at my office.
4. Eye color: Brown

Chapter 2: Family
1. Do you live with your parents: No, but my kids live with me though :-)
2. Do you get along with your parent(s): My mom, yes. My dad is watching over me.
3. Are you parents married/seperated/divorced: Mom is widowed.
4. Do you have any Siblings: Not from my mom and dad. I have 4 half siblings from my dad's first marraige.

Chapter 3: Favorites
1. Ice Cream: Chocolate
2. Season: spring
3. Shampoo/conditioner: Redken All Soft line alternating with Head n Shoulders.

Chapter 4: Do You..
1. Dance in the shower: nope - I usually run through my day's to-do's in the shower.
2. Write on your hand: no - I keep a notebook in my purse so I don't write on my hand.
3. Call people back: If I have to.
4. Believe in love: Absolutely.
5. Sleep on a certain side of the bed: Yes, because my husband makes me. :-)
6. Have Any obessions: Scrapbooking

Chapter 5: Have You...
1. Broken a bone: Yes, a toe.
2. Sprained stuff: Yes, ankles, wrists, neck.
3. Had physical therapy: Yes, when I broke my toe.
4. Gotten stitches: Yes, after an epesiodomy - shout out to all the moms out there - woot!
5. Taken painkillers: Who hasn't?
6. Gone SCUBA diving or snorkeling: No
8. Thrown up at the dentist: No
9. Sworn in front of your parents: Yes... my dad was a sailor.
10. Had detention: Nope
11. Been sent to the principal's office: Nope
12. Been called a hoe: Again, who hasn't?

Chaper 6: Who/What was the last
1. Movie(s) you saw: Um... no idea. It was while I was pregnant, I know that.
2 Person to text you: Carolyn with a cute picture of Bailey.
3. Person to call you?: Chris
4. Person who hugged you: Reese - before he left for school this morning.
5. Person you tackled: Must have been Chris, he would be the only one to tackle me
6. Thing you touched: My soup
7. Thing you ate: Wok Stock & Barrel Soup from Yan Can
8. Thing you drank: Cherry Coke
9. Thing you said: There's only one pair of chopsticks for all this food??
10. Friends you consider really close to you: Ton of people
11. Friends you miss the most that have moved: Veronica Nickel
12. Do you have OCD?: Yes - and now my son has it too
13. Who was the last person you spent more than 1 hour chatting with?: Chris - Well I was chatting and he was listening.
14. What was the first school you went to?: A preschool in Bangkok, Thailand.
15. Do you miss your hometown?: No
16. Whos your favorite sibling?: Me
17. Are you in love at the moment?: Yes.... I love my hubby. :-)

The day that Justice was done....

It all began on Tuesday January 16th. First day back to school for Reese after a 3 day weekend.

I started feeling sick so I left work around 2pm to go home to rest. As I was shutting my eyes... the phone rings. I thought about not picking it up because I saw the number was from the office. Should I? .... yeah I really should.

"Hey Kanika, Reese's after school program just called, he has a major nosebleed, some playground accident or something"

Ok... I'm around the corner from his school since I was home. I threw on some non-pajama clothes real quick and bolted right over. In the mean time, my headache is still pounding out of my forehead and my eyes are completely bugged out. C'mon, Advil Cold & Sinus... start working... anytime now.

I get to the school and headed right over to the YMCA room. 2 new staff members greeted me with "Are you Reese's mom?". Where are the regular staff members? Oh, they are out with the flu today. Normally, Veronica and Andres know us and they know who should play with whom... but ok whatever. Where's my son?

They escorted me out to the playground... in the meantime Susan, the acting YMCA manager is telling me "Oh, Reese was so brave, he did really good under the circumstances".

WHAT??? what happened???

I see a pool of blood on the playground floor and a trail of blood leading from the playground to the boys restroom. He's in there, I can hear him crying. Another male YMCA staff member calls for him from the door. Reese comes out with another staff member who was trying to console him and cleaning him.

I can't even begin to tell you the rage that came over me when I saw my son step out of that restroom with a wad of blood soaked papertowel over his face. He is crying so hard his eyes are swollen. He tells me that his head hurts and he doesn't want a black eye. At this point I'm still not clear as to what happened.

A minute later, a YMCA staff member (who's a regular) comes to me to tell me that this kid Anthony pushed Reese and he fell and hit his head on the concrete part of the playground. Reese, on the other hand, tells a different story. HE tells me that Anthony picked him up by his jacket, swung him around and when he let go, he landed on the concrete head first. His nose started to bleed instantly and his head was scraped up pretty good.

Side note: We sit down and have dinner as a family everynight. And whenever Reese gets hurt, this Anthony kid's name comes up. Reese seems to always be on the receiving end of his rage. Maybe he's not the only kid, but why does it have to be MY kid?

Ok, WHERE is this Anthony kid?

The YMCA staff who was assisting Reese calls Anthony over to us. Little cocky kid. He said "What?"

.... excuse me?

I crouched down to his level and began to tell him things that I shouldn't have said at the time. There was no filter between my brain and my mouth at that moment in time. Today as I sit here writing this, I can't believe I had said the things that I said to this kid. I think I almost threatened him. Maybe I did. I was on fire. You would be too.

Another YMCA staff member saw what was happening and told me this was inappropriate that I was doing and removed Anthony form the scene. What I'm doing is inappropriate? What he did to my kid was way out of line. YOU need to handle it properly. If not, I will. I told her she needs to call his mother and I will sit in the room and wait for her to come. I want to have a word with her.

Reese, a staff member, and myself then walked into the room where some of the older kids were doing homework. Of course, this was a huge comotion and all the kids wanted to see the kid with the nosebleed and the cracked head. At the time, Reese wasn't interested in the attention he was getting. He was more embarrassed than anything.

Half hour goes by and another little girl comes into the room crying. "Anthony just punched my face and now my teeth hurt" .... holy crap, this kid is out of control!

His mother shows up finally. A staff member talks to her outside and gives her 2 pieces of papers to sign. Apparently they are incident reports. She signs them like she signs one every day. Not just that, but she wasn't about to stop and listen to what they had to say to her. She gathered her 2 kids and was about to leave when I walked up. I presented her my son and she could careless. I went about my little speech about how Reese seems to always be on the receiving end of Anthony's tantrums and that she should do something about it. Her response to me?

"Okay"

And she walked out the door with her two kids and never looked back.

You can imagine my rage right then. I wanted to pick something up and throw it at her. How can a parent let their kids be so uncontrollable that you just stop caring? If you're not going to teach your kids right from wrong, don't have any kids at all.

That night as we got in the house, Reese headed straight to the shower. His clothes went right into the wash. I didn't want to see any evidence of this day ever again. I think this hurt me emotionally more than it hurt Reese. He was hurt physically but now he's scarred for life. I tell him that if someone bullies you, don't just take it. Tell an adult, tell someone of authority about it. No one is going to call you a tattletale of a woosie. If they swing at you, it's ok to swing back. Some of you may not agree with me on this, but I dont' really want another day like this anymore. He needs to be able to defend himself. Reese is such a passive kid, he's gentle and will never hurt anyone... not even a bug.

He told me that night before he went to bed that he doesn't want to go to school anymore. He's scared. I would be too if some crazy kid keep coming after me.

Yesterday... Wednesday January 17 ... towards the end of the day I get a phone call from Anderson School. Not the YMCA people.

The assistant to the Principal tells me that Anthony has been expelled from Anderson School due to his behavior. They have had too many incidents with this kid that this was the last straw. Not only was Anthony expelled, but his sister also. She was a third grader at the school and she has her own issues with behavioral problems in class. But ultimately, the rule is that if one kid gets kicked out, the siblings who attend the same school in the district also get expelled.

I can't begin to express how relieved I am.

Reese is especially happy because now he's not afraid to go to school.

He tells me "Mom, if I see Anthony again, I'm going to kick his butt!"

Ok, now you're bold and brave? I think that's a little justice in my little world. It's just really sad that it takes my kid almost getting a concussion for them to finally do something about it.

Update coming soon

As soon as I can find my camera to post some new pictures...

This weekend we went to Gianna's 1st birthday party. Gianna is my good friend Suzanne's daughter. Some very interesting things happened while we were there, I will have to re-cap when I can post pictures.

And.... it's been absolutely FREEZING the last few days! Can't wait til we get out of this cold snap here. Might as well just snow!

Today was my good friend Lisa's little 3 month old son's first day at daycare. The same daycare that my little Bailey goes to. She and Roy were there this morning when we got there. While Lisa was having separation anxiety, I basically just threw Bailey into Gladys's arms and gave her the run-down of her morning and ran out the door. lol.

And oh yeah..... Bailey started crawling yesterday. I will have pictures later this evening to post.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Staaaaaaaaaaaar......

After about 10 minutes of Bailey screaming and me crying I finally went in to the room and picked her up. She hyperventalated for a minute while I whisper Twinkle little star in her ear. She slowly took some deep breaths, her little body loosened up as she rested her head on my shoulder. I let her weight pull her gently down to my chest where she sighed her last awake sigh of the night and fell asleep.

It was a horrible experience to go through as a parent. Chris wasn't home to endure it but he will tonight. We'll see how he does... I just know that he won't be able to tolerate the screaming as long as I did though. I did cry.... so we'll see.

5 more minutes...

Tonight I am putting Bailey to bed and hoping she will go to sleep on her own.

So far the screaming is carrying on for about 5 minutes.

... and it's tearing my heart out.

She's screaming so hard that her voice is cracking and I can hear her throat going dry.

Poor little baby... I have to do this so you can go to bed on your own. We can't hold you all the time babygirl.... especially all night long like we have been doing.

My name is Bailey and I am cute

And that brother of mine isn't bad looking either...

Happy New Year 2007!

Look Ma'! I can sit up!

T'was the day after Christmas....

We made it over the Christmas weekend and it was a time to remember.

Let me explain....

Chris and I started out this weekend not nearly as chaotic as the past few years eventhough we both waited til the last minute to shop. We planned our shopping trips out pretty well considering we're out one car and towing 2 kids.

We split up our shopping list in thirds and he got the 'difficult' 1/3 since they are mostly his family members anyway. The 2/3 I shopped for in about 2 days... make that evenings. Stores stay open later during the holidays just for consumers like us to spend our hard earned money and commercialize Christmas even more.

Chris and I had a lengthy conversation about that on the way home from Manteca Saturday night. Whatever happened to the spirit of Christmas. Whatever happened to the religious side of it. Now it's about retail. Do most kids even know that it has something to do with Jesus? To be honest, I didn't even know that until the 9th grade. (moved to the US in the 7th grade)

Looking back to the time before my parents and I moved to the US from Thailand, we never celebrated Christmas. We're buddhists. We lived in a land where New Years were more important because it signifies years past and another year of prosperity and newness to come. Most Asian cultures make a big deal of New Years than any other holidays. i.e. Chinese New Year for example.

Anyway.... back to our family...

Reese decided he wanted to stay up for Santa to make sure that he brought him his Heelies he wanted. He didn't make it that far when he fell asleep.

We made sure it was the very last thing he opened. He put them on right away and headed outside. Too bad he doesn't quite know how to 'ride' them yet.

Other than those, he got plenty of toys and things to keep his mind occupied for the next 3 months or so. Thank goodness I asked for him to get a winter coat for school. I'm going to plaster his name all over it and chain it to his waist so he doesn't lose it at school.

Baby girl got a ton of clothes, toys, and an airplane. No, I'm not kidding, she got a ride-along airplane. Too bad she can't sit up or stand up yet. She'd really enjoy the thing. Maybe in a few months she'll realize that it's fun.

She also got a few other random toys and things to keep her occupied for a while. There's a doll that she got that's really sensitive to the touch. Every time she touches it, it speaks or sings. She squeezes it a lot, and it says 'hug me!' over and over. Chris finally said 'what do you think she's doing??' lol.

Bailey also got her 2 front teeth for Christmas. They cut through her gums on Christmas eve. Nevertheless... it was unbarable to be with her the last few days. Thank God for big brother who can make her laugh at the drop of a hat. I honestly don't remember Reese's teething experience to be this bad. It probably was, I just blocked it out of my mind.

Anyway.... I am sitting at work so I guess I should get some work done today.

One tired mom - retired

I can't believe that I shopped til I dropped last night. Literally.

Chris stayed home with the kids so I can do my shopping marathon last night and maybe again tonight. It was insane. I got 80% of my list bought and now I have to wrap.

Reese got his heelies from Santa. Hopefully he likes them. Crossing my fingers.

Today I have to hit one more store to get gift baskets for friends who I don't know what to buy for. Gotta love random baskets of stuff. I love receiving those too.

I got home at around 11pm last night and Bailey was still awake. Thanks babe! At least she slept really good through the night.

What rejected color crayon are you?

You are

http://www.blogthings.com/rejectedcrayonquiz/">What Rejected Crayon Are You?

Bailey is 6 months old today!!

Our little baby girl turned 6 months old today.

I can't believe it.

She's teething now too... which is a horrible experience for a little one to go through. Good thing is only about a weeks worth of ordeal for them. I can see her little teeth poking through. Thank God for Oragel and Tylenol.

Lists...

I just realized that my life is dictated by lists...

List of things to do at home... vacuum (every other day now that the baby is crawling), dishes, laundry (never ending project it seems), clean the bathrooms - didn't I JUST clean the bathrooms? That's what I get for living with boys.

Shopping list (Christmas) - What day is it today? Geez.... I'm cutting it close!

Shopping list (grocery store) - No matter how complete my grocery list is... I'm bound to forget ONE thing or two.

The 8-5 t0 do list at work... this is what keeps me employed...

There's a notebook that I keep at work of my week to week 'stuff' there. Each week gets 2 pages, I write down things I didn't finish from last week that still need done with check boxes on the left of it. I write phone conversations and messages on the lines following the to do list. Any post-it notes from co-workers go in there so they don't clutter up my space. Things get put in piles by priority on my desk so I get to them accordingly. When you look at my work space, it doesn't seem like I'm too terribly busy because it's never a mess of stuff everywhere and I'm never stressed out. Only if people knew what the heck I have going on in my little book. I guess you can call it a diary but I don't write in it after the fact.

I don't have an in-box because I don't think it serves me a purpose in life. Anything that comes 'in' needs attention obviously so I get to it. If I can't do it right that minute, it will be done in a little while.

I don't do the same job I did for 5 and a half years before I left on maternity leave. Well, I'm only supposed to do it once a week. And that's payroll day. But it's worked out that I'm doing what ever I can to help out the front side of the office and still doing my new job efficiently.

I love it, I really do.

That only means that I am the only person in the office who can do project admin., payroll, a/p, and general admin stuff up front. Not to mention I'm getting to do estimating too, which isn't all that difficult. I just have to keep doing it so I can get to know vendors and their prices and learn how to negotiate. I have a feeling that my counterpart likes to feel more important than she really is and not giving me all the information I need to do my job. That's ok, I'm smart enough to know what she's hiding. You can't keep things under wraps for long with me sitting next to you... even if your monitor is faced away from me.

And then there's the list of personal goals.

List of places Chris and I will eventually visit in our lifetime together.

List of things we want our kids to acheive at certain ages.

List of things to do before I crawl into bed tonight.......

It's year two thousand what?

Ok so I have no idea where this year flew off to.

Last year I wrote a year end wrap up of events and sent it out to friends and family before Jan. 1. and it seems like I JUST DID THAT! Now it's time to write another one? I don't even remember what happened yesterday!

I didn't keep a very good calendar of events this year so I will just omit the letter. We did send out a family photo card. That's pretty good, right?

It's December 13 and I have one gift so far. Not good. I guess it's shopping marathon coming up this week and next. It's ok, it's not like I've never done that before.

We do have to get a tree sometime this week though, given that I'm throwing a little party this weekend. Oh yeah, how about some cleaning too! That might be good huh? I really want to decorate so it'll be good.

Little B is almost 6 months old. She has her check up appointment this Friday... shots and all. She's eating a lot and sleeping longer every night. I can't wait to see how much she weighs and how tall she is now.

Why...

Why do baby clothes come with pockets?

Why do people become assholes on the road when it starts to rain?

Why isn't my bestfriend married yet?

Why do cars breakdown at the most inopportune time?

2007 Renegades

Here's to an excellent upcoming year Renegades.

I spent Friday night pondering possibilities of marhing without my husband this year. My mind was already made up to be in the guard and my body is ready to lose the excess poundage. Chris on the other hand was still sitting on the fence tetering on whether or not he wants to put his knees through an 8th year of beating on a concrete field week after week. His pact of SopBoys fell apart last year when one found love (eventhough it didn't fall apart when Chris and I got together). Now #2 is looking to get off the fence and join the homefront because he can't stop being bitter about the past. But I do understand his point and I can relate to it.

The new staff has lots to offer us as a colorguard this year. First, the promise of always being there for us. Second, the promise of putting the best guard the Renegades has ever fielded out there.

I am proud to be a part of this year's corps.

After all that.... I am so sore!!

It's been a while

Wow.... Thanksgiving is gone and Christmas is fast approaching. It's been unreal how fast time flies.

Let me see if I can recap....

The whole month of November was pretty much a whirlwind. My mother-in-law and her house full moved into a new apartment in Santa Clara. Her house she was renting was being sold by the broker who was renting it to her. They were in a mad rush to move out by Oct 31st. We drove by there yesterday and there was still empty and the for-sale sign is still on the front yard. The yard has grown in and has random bald spots where her potted plants used to be. Now she doesn't have a garden to grow her veggies at her new place. Such as life I guess.

Since mom moved to a smaller apartment and grandma moved to Manteca... Thanksgiving was at our house this year. I think it will continue to be at our house. Maybe Christmas will be here too, who knows. I love to entertain, especially with family. They don't care that there are crumbs on the floor and judge how clean my spare bathroom needs to be.

My parents weren't the entertaining type. They are pack rats and our house didn't have space for us to walk let alone try to have people over. They didn't have friends anyway. My dad was too sick to be social and my mom was busy taking care of him. Now that she's independent and live on her own, she goes places with her friends.

I had no idea family functions can be so much fun until Chris came into my life. Until a couple of years ago the holidays include all of about 3 people maybe 4. My parents and Reese. And now that I'm married into his family, there are so many people to think about. I love it.

All and all Thanksgiving at our house turned out to be the best we've ever had. Everyone brought something to share and all I had to make was the stuffing and the artichoke dip. Gotta have the infamous artichoke dip.

Next up....

CHRISTMAS!

Reese told me he wants to meet Santa when he comes drop off his Heelies. I told him I could take him to the mall to meet Santa. He asked me if he lives at the mall. I said nah... he just goes there to visit little kids and ask them what they want him to bring them. He said no, he can wait til Christmas eve to meet him.

Baby girl is going to be spoiled. That's all there is to it. As if she isn't spoiled already.

Speaking of baby girl... she's starting to scoot around on her belly. She does the backwards thing really well on her hands and knees. She's been doing that for the last couple of weeks or so. Getting on all 4's and rock back and forth. Pretty soon she will discover that if she moves her hands and knees forward she can go get that toy in front of her.

I guess it's about time I start my Christmas shopping this year huh? I know what I am getting people, I just have to get in the car and go to the mall. ugh. That's the worst part... Maybe I can get someone to drop me off at the mall one day and get it all done all at once. What a great idea!

Oct. 29, 2005








And............. Oct. 29, 2006

Oh how I treasure sleep

Today I woke up with Bailey at 5am with a huge headache brewing. It got worse and worse through the day and I'm convinced it's exhaustion. I haven't really slept since Bailey was born and I knew it would catch up to me sooner or later.

Never have I felt so tired......

Random guilty pleasures....

Reality TV:
Ok.... there was a moment in time when I thought I wasn't going to get addicted to reality TV. But now there are so many shows on that you can't help but to pick something to watch. It's almost like having instant gratification because in a few weeks the show is over. Or some of them, they are one episode at a time type deal. Some of my favorites?
Survivor: One of my favorite ever. I have watched that show since day one of season one episode one. I didn't think Aras's win was fair... I thought Terry should have won. The naked gay guy won fair and square. The porn star had his stratagy figured out from the getgo. This season is a little early to predict anything yet. We shall see. I am hoping for Yule (think that's his name) the young asian guy who found the immunity idol on exile island on the SECOND episode. He's a hopeful for sure.
The Amazing Race: One day Chris and I are going on this show. That's right! Seriously, we are. We feel that we can do it and be at least in the top few people to finish. We are smart enough, intuitive enough, patient enough, and definitely competitive enough. It is the most fair reality show competition on tv. You finish last, you are out of the competition. No voting, no tribal counsel, no back stabbing.... ok there is some backstabbing going on, but all in the eye of the competitor. Although, if your car breaks down and we pass you up, we will pick you up for karma's sake. lol. This season, I am rooting for the father/daughter team. They are adorable ... and how many of us can say that we've done the Amazing Race with our dads?
America's Next Top Model: I don't know why, I just love that show.
Wife Swap and SuperNanny: That's just a GIVEN!! Gotta love Wife Swap because you're just ASKING for drama when you put total opposites in every household every week. Super Nanny I watch because everytime I watch that show I thank my lucky stars of how well behaved and wonderful our Reese is and that we are doing a good job at being parents. Although there have been many things that I have taken from this show and applied it to our lives with Reese.
Airline: How is Southwest Airline still in business?
Flavor of Love: This is just a show that I watch to fulfill my inner ghettoness.
American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance?: These two shows are in the same genre I think. I love watching the first 2-3 episodes when they try out everyone on earth who can sing/dance or not. It's funny to see all these people make a fool of themselves on national TV. And then if you watch it that far along, you might as well watch the whole dang season and get it over with. I usually predict the winner from the first few episodes, but the last 'Dance', I had no idea that Benji would be the winner. But I knew Taylor Hicks was a given from day 1.
Inked and Miami Ink: Just love the retail drama about them. I can totally run both those stores. That and I wouldn't mind working for Ami James and Carey Hart. Really.
Project Runway: If I knew how to sew, I would totally do this show. Except that I don't think I can stand NYC for that long. But they do send you to exotic locales. Again, last season, I knew Cloe would win and this season I am hoping that Micheal Knight will win. Although he has made 2 very disappointing gowns so far. Everyone has had their bad days though. I just hope that Laura doesn't come up with 12 babydoll, plunging neckline dresses. Uli doesn't make all long flowing summer dresses. And I hope that Jeffrey doesn't win period. He's arrogant and tactless. He doesn't really deserve it.
Parental Control: That show is just funny!

And all the competition shows on Food Network. Cakes, Sugar Show Pieces, Cookies, BBQ, etc.

I'm sure I have missed some shows but these are some favorites. We still watch some of America's Funniest Videos. There are episodes that you just curl up laughing at. Tears rolling down your cheeks funny.

Anywho.....

Laugh baby... laugh!

Yesterday we got Bailey to chuckle while playing with her in bed. It's the sweetest sound when you can get a baby to laugh. She laughs, then spits. It's gross, but it's the cutest thing since she's my kid!!

We also took her in to take her 3 month pictures yesterday. Our friends Jen and Chuck are trying launch a photography business so I thought I'd use them for her pictures. And then again for her 6 month photos because I want the shots to be consistent. When we get the cd, I will post on here!