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Sunday, 04 January 2009

Happy Birthday to me!

So I woke up yesterday morning at 6 am and had a hard time going back to sleep. I looked at my phone a saw a couple of text messages with birthday wishes and I remembered - "Hey, its my birthday!" Bill woke up with all my moving around and said happy birthday, gave me a kiss, and went to make Koa a bottle. While he was doing that, I lay back down and must have fell back asleep because I opened my eyes and no one else was in the room and my phone said it was 10:30 am!

I got up and took a shower, got dressed and went downstairs to see what everyone else was up to. I knew Lory & her kids were up because their room was empty upstairs, but there seemed to be more voices than just their family and my family. As I got downstairs, I realized there was almost all of my siblings and their families and also some of our extended family was there too. I was confused because I didn't know about any family meeting we were going to have. Everyone was wishing me a happy birthday as I went by and I kissed and hugged them all. I finally got to Daro and I asked him what was going on and why everyone was here. He put his hand by his mouth and whispered "Dont tell, but its Lorinda's birthday! ... oh wait!" Then he smiled and laughed!

It turns out, Bill and my siblings had cooked up a plan to throw a surprise birthday party for me! It worked! I was totally surprised! My sister organized a pyramid made of some of my nieces and nephews and kids of my cousins too. She showed me the picture and I realized how not put together I looked! I had, after all, just gotten out of the shower! I went back upstairs and made myself a little more presentable and came back down to enjoy the company of all my family.

My dad gave a short speech before we started eating lunch. He said "Who here knows what Lorinda always asks me to bring to Utah whenever I go up to visit?" My niece Lindsey says "Wasabi Poke!" For you mainlanders, that is raw tuna fish cut into cubes with soy sauce and wasabi - a japanese horse radish. My dad says, yes, what else? One of my sisters said "Lau lau!" Again, for you mainlanders - it is a traditional Hawaiian dish of pork and fish wrapped in what are called luau leaves. My dad said, yes! Then thats when they brought out the poke, and the laulau and kim chi and seaweed wraps (also called kim) and rice! My dad made sure all the foods I missed from Hawaii were there for my birthday lunch. How sweet is that?

We actually started lunch with the birthday cake tho because some of my family had to leave to go to a baby luau. So they brought out a homemade icecream cake made by Jenn! Kai & Anjuli hovered nearby and I just knew they were dying to blow out my candles-which I didn't mind! So right after they were done singing, I waited for them to blow- however, out of nowhere, Ethan swooped in and blew them out! We were all laughing -except for Kai that is! Anyway, we put the cake back in the freezer and dug into the lunch. SOOOOOOO ONO! For all you mainlanders, that means delicious in Hawaiian! Then we had the cake- It was vanilla and chocolate icecream spread over a peanut butter and graham cracker crust with an oreo and whipped cream topped frosting! It was AMAZING!!!!! Thanks Jenn!

After everyone left, Bill and I took a little time to catch up on email and rest. When Bill finally woke up, we went swimming with all my siblings and some cousins and our families. We went to rec center 7 and Kapono let us all in. It was a little cold (and I had forgotten my bathing suit bottoms) so I didn't go in. But Kai & Koa did! They had a blast- Koa loved splashing on the stairs and jumping up and down. After we were all done, we went to Daro's house for hot chocolate and saimen. Bill and I didn't have any tho because we were going to go out for dinner.

We left Daro's house and went to Walmart to pick up some items we had forgotten to bring (like bathing suit bottoms!). Bill went to find me an iPhone for my birthday which he said he had been planning on getting me for a long time (probably since I started dropping hints after I saw Bens!). But we didn't really like the way the sales associate at Walmart was treating us, so we didn't buy it there.

After we finished shopping, we went home to drop the boys off with Lory. Daro & Zui were hosting a Starcraft game night at our house so it was packed! I've never seen so many geeks in one room before! All the laptops networked to each other... all the wires all over the place, too funny!

Bill and I freshened up a bit and then snuck out. My dad had given me a gift certificate to Palace Buffet - a Korean buffet (duh!) so we headed there. We got there at 8:45 and found out they closed at 9! So we went to Chilis instead! After we ate, we walked across the parking lot to the movie theatres. Yes Man was playing soon after and I knew that that was one movie both of us wanted to see, so thats what we did! It was pretty funny! When we got out, it was just after my birthday ended... What a fun birthday!

P.S. When we got home, most of the guys were still there playing Starcraft! Geeks...

P.S.S. Here is an unrelated picture of all the 13 grandkids. And Bill. And Jenn. And Lehua...

Friday, 26 December 2008

Merry Christmas Mom!

Linda Chiang Ling-Chuan Kim
January 28, 1948 - December 26, 2008

This morning around 9 am Hawaii time, my dear mother passed on from this world. She was an amazing woman who touched many lives, most of all the lives of her children and grandchildren.

It happened really quickly. On tuesday, the 23rd, my mom was complaining of a really intense and painful headache. My father had her take her blood pressure and after getting the reading, she was rushed to the ER. Shortly after that, she lost consciousness and was put on life support. I knew when she had gone to the hospital, but didn't think it was anything serious until I got a call at 3 am UT time. Thats when I knew - before Bill even answered the phone- that things were seriously wrong.

My mother had suffered from a massive brain anneurism. They didn't think she was going to last through the day. I stayed at the hospital that night with my father and my siblings returned the next day. The nurses kept telling us it could be any moment, so we stayed.
But my mother - as my brother Daro put it- wasn't only strong willed, she had a strong heart too! All those marathons and exercise classes and running at 4 in the morning helped her hang on long enough for us to make peace with it. Also my father was worried if she died on Christmas day that it would be a bad memory for his grandkids. That was just like my mother and father to be thinking of others at a time like that.

My mother was strong and steady and surprised even the nurses. This morning, she started to decline and then passed away peacefully.

As for me and the rest of my family,

I was lucky and got the first flight out on the 24th despite being the busiest travel day of the year. I was also lucky since it was a direct flight and also because it was a clear day - just before that massive snow storm hit UT. I was in Hawaii by 3:15 pm Hawaii time that day. Zui picked me up from the airport and took me directly to the hospital where I met up with the rest of my siblings.

Like I said before, me and my dad spent Christmas Eve with my mom. It was nice to be able to be there for my dad for once. Altho as one of our family friends put it - my dad is the rock of gibraltor! Christmas day, the rest of my siblings and their spouses joined us. We hung out together taking shifts to be with my mom in her room (only 2 people were allowed to be in there at one time). We had a good time bonding and reminiscing about my mom. It had been a while since we had all been together you know with my sister living on Maui and me living in UT and all. We even laughed so much my stomach muscles are still aching from laughing so hard.

Later that evening, she took a turn for the worst, so we called all my dads siblings. The cousins and uncles and aunties came and we all piled into the room (with the doctors permission of course) and sang several hymns and carols in 4 part harmony (if you knew my family, you'd understand) and ended with Aloha Oe. Then we all said our goodbyes. Luckily I had brought my laptop with me and I had pictures from making my mom a digital scrapbook for her 60th birthday. And also luckily, Darrell had just downloaded the pictures from her camera and had his flashdrive with them on him. So we had pictures from her youth all the way up until last week. We combined them and had a slide show running the entire time.
After we were done, her vitals started to go up again! We were so surprised at how strong she was. We knew though that because her vitals had been dropping even on life support that it was just a matter of time. So we stayed and waited. We had an adult slumber party in the waiting area of the critical care unit. Since my mom was transfered to the ccu, we had taken over this area. It was like a cubby - small but cozy! Daro, Amy, Lory, & Alma slept on the ground with blankets the nurses had provided us. Brent and Lehua shared two chairs and I put two chairs together and used it as a bed. Zui and Dad slept next to moms bed. Here is a picture Lehua took.

As you know, she lasted through the night. The next morning after the shift change at 8 am, the nurses told us her heart was having pauses between her heartbeats so she wasn't going to make it much longer. We kept taking shifts keeping a close watch on her heartbeat. When it was my turn, her heartbeat dropped to 19 beats per minute. So I went out and told the nurse and dad went in with her. He waved us all in immediately so we all went in and stood by her as she slipped peacefully beyond the veil. We sang Families Can be Together Forever, I Need Thee Every Hour, Love at Home, Kanaka Wai Wai (Let Me Walk In Paradise with You, Lord), E Hawaii Aloha, Arirang, Liang zhi Lao Hu, Wo Shi Shen Di Hai Zi, and the theme songs from Ni Hao Kai Lan and Sagwa. We laughed about how funny it was that after all the chinese classes that mom taught us, we were singing Chinese songs that we learned from TV! We said our goodbyes again and left sad yet at peace.
We are waiting for family to come from the mainland and from Taiwan, so the funeral will be on January 10th.

I am just glad that my mom was able to have one last trip to Utah at the beginning of December. We had a good trip with her and the kids LOVED playing and hanging out with her. The first picture at the top was taken just before the Beneficial Life Financial Group Christmas party they attended while they were there. She was and always will be a beautiful person inside and out.
We will miss you mom! Aloha 'Oe until we meet again...

** My father has asked that if my mother has personally affected your life in some way that you share it with us. Please email your experiences to lindaclckim@gmail.com . Thank you!

Tuesday, 23 December 2008

Tagged!

*8 Shows I Watch Regularly
1. The Office
2. The Mentalist
3. Numbers
4. Rachael Ray
5. 30 Rock
6. Gary Unmarried
7. Big Bang
8. How I Met Your Mother

*8 Things That Happened Yesterday
1. Kai crawled up to me in the morning and said "Mommy, You're the bestest friend!"
2. Koa slept through the night!
3. I shoveled the snow
4. I was able to listen to my ipod (instead of letting my kids hijack it to watch their shows or play games!)
5. I helped with accounting at Fat Bob's Garage
6. I helped install fender flares on a Tundra at Fat Bob's Garage
7. We received goodies from neighbors (thanks!)
8. We had Aaron over for steaks, rice, and mushrooms and onions after work!

*8 Favorite Places to Eat (ooh I *LOVE* this category!)
1. Tempanyaki
2. Chili's
3. Outback Steakhouse
4. L&L Drive In
5. Best Teriyaki
6. University Broiler & Grill (only the one in Ogden)
7. Flemmings
8. Sizzlers (I know, surprising right?!)

*8 Things I am Looking Forward to
1. Christmas!
2. New Years Eve party!
3. My birthday!
4. Koa's birthday!
5. Bill's birthday!
6. Kai's birthday!
7. Transamerican Expo in Cali!
8. Reuniting with old friends (no nothing is scheduled, but I want this to happen!)

*8 Things on my Wish List
1. For Bill, Kai & Koa to be happy and healthy!
2. Day Spa anything!
3. Trips anywhere!
4. For more business at Fat Bob's Garage!
5. iPhone
6. To go back home to Hawaii next year for vacation!
7. A nice camera
8. A nice fireplace

*8 People I Tag
1. Lory Aiwohi
2. Jenn Kim
3. Krista Griffiths
4. Allison Griffiths
5. Kim Nelson
6. Kaui Brown
7. Sara Berg
8. Sarah Parkin

Thursday, 11 December 2008

Christmas lights

If any of you are my facebook friends, you were updated frequently as to the status of my Christmas lights' progress and my plight in getting them done! One of my friends from my youth Lisa asked for pics so here they are:

So it started with the lower tier which wasn't too bad since I could have the ladder on the ground. The upper tier was harder. For one thing, I had to have the ladder out on the ledge of the lower tier- like this!

Not exactly the most stable thing in the world! It took me a good hour to get the ladder out the window and open like that! I then climbed up the ladder with the lights, a staple gun and staples and my emergency cell phone in a back pack. You know, in case I fell off the roof or the ladder fell and left me stuck there... You get it.

So this is the finished product - at least for the lights. These are the lights with the camera flash on.

These are the lights with my camera flash off.

And this is the close up of one of my "holly berries"!
All in all, it went well, but due to my almost debilitating fear of heights, it was harder than you would think! Getting down was soooo scary. I thought going up was hard! I got stuck up there for about an hour trying to get the guts to get back on the ladder. When I finally did, the ladder shifted and scared me so back on the roof I went! After another courage building prep period (which was longer than I am willing to disclose), I held my breath, looked up at the top of the ladder, and took the plunge off of the roof. Then I went VERY slowly down step by step. About what seemed like 5 minutes later when I got all the way down, I finally let out my breath and let my heart rate slow back down!
The things we do for the unsaid peer pressure from the neighbors, right?
What?!

This past week while I was teaching piano, Kai came to join me as he often does. This week we were practicing for our Christmas recital and I had my students stand up, introduce themselves and what songs they were playing. During Jason Peacocks lesson, he did just that. But as he was doing it, Kai stood up too and said:

"My name is Kai Griffiths and I like to pee and fight animals!"

What in the world?!?!?!?

:)