It's Been A While

It's been tough making time to update. With my MBA in full swing it's hard to find even just one spare moment. With each semester class condensed into 4 & 5 week sessions, each week is filled with numerous chapters of reading, papers and quizes. I've been staying up till 1:30am almost every night and getting up early to study on the weekends even though I'm going to bed so late. I've been walking around with a headache caused by sleep deprivation. Anyway, so much as happened in the last month. Here are some fun pictures. I'm trying not to let school get in the way of my time with the girls.

12/12/08 - Taylor had her first concert. She loves playing the flute. She can spend hours playing Hot Cross Bun. She did an awesome job. Visit Taylor's blog to hear more about it and to see pictures (see link to the right or type in taylorsuabyi.blogspot.com). Ayden's been very silly lately. This is what she resorted to when she became bored with Taylor's concert. The video is 2 mintues long. The first minute is just the band. Right around the 1 mintue mark is when Ayden appears. You can move the video clip to the 1 minute mark to skip the band.


12/11/08 - I gave my first public speach to a group of 40 women on the topic of Hmong women in the corporate sector. Though the women were there to hear me speak, their feedback, enthusiasm and kind words moved me. I felt so blessed to be among such amazing Hmong women. I had a number of people come up to me after my presentation to comment on how I inspired them. Amazing how when you speak the truth and from your heart how that changes other people. In addition I've been asked by two different research projects to be interviewed. I feel like I'm just not worthy of such wonderful attention and respect.

12/6/08 - We put up our Christmas decorations. It was a wonderful time. Now that the girls are bigger, I love their excitement. We played Christmas music and the girls baked brownies all by themselves. This was hard for me to do as I'm quite the control freak. What a way to spend a crisp winter Saturday. Here is a picture of the girls helping out and a clip of Ayden being silly. They are trying to get snowflakes up on the dinning room windows.

12/5/08 - JJ Hill Hmong New Year. I was the Committee Chair of the JJ Hill Hmong New Year event and Kong was the MC. The event was very successful. I tried a new approach this year. Instead of just inlisting the help of teachers, I tried to incorporate the Hmong families at JJ Hill in the planning phase. Needless to say, the more people you involve, the more stressful the event becomes. Either that or the more people you involve, the more control you lose hence teh stress. All in all the event was great fun. We are truly bless to be a part of such a wonderful and supportive school community. We even made $1,000 which will go towards funding next year's event. Here is a picture of Kong and the girls. It was a family effort this year. Kong was part of the planning throughout the entire process. I could not possibly do it without his support. Taylor and her classmates learned how to Hmong jump rope and helped demonstrate that activity. Ayden dressed up but was too shy to participate in the fashion show : ( 12/4/08 - Pictures from Thursday night activites. Taylor at dance and Ayden at gymnastics. Judging from Taylor's dance clip, I'm not sure how these girls will be able to put a routine together for the final show in the spring. I had a good laugh watching. I guess it's not how good you are at what you are attempting but how much you enjoy it. Is that are real saying? I think I might have made it up to justify the money I put into it : )

11/22/08: We went hunting at the Schmidt farm in Bonduel, WI. We had a great time. The girls went pigeon hunting with Kong in the barn, they got to drive the green machine (pictured below) and drive for deer in the woods. They even got to shoot the pellet gun at soda cans. Uncle Phil was wonderful with the girls and even took them with him to register deer. Afterwards he took them to the Ponderosa (Grandma Schmidt's main farm) to pet the cows. The best part...buying candy at the gas station. Go figure! The girls had a great time and want to do it again next year. And the answer is yes...everyone has to wear blaze orange. That is, everyone who does not want to be mistaken for deer!10/30/08: It was really warm this past Halloween. Here is a picture of the girls after we carved pumpkins and a picture of them in their Halloween costumes. Ayden was Wonder Woman and Taylor was a goth fairy.