Category: fun

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fun kids

Yoyo told this story a while ago

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sawyer and serenity going for special walk. serenity pick leaves. sawyer picked up egg and put in nest. sawyer pet chick to sleep. serenity bake some cookies.

serenity is happy. sawyer is happy. sawyer goes for medium one, serenity feeds the chick. Sawyer and serenity go to the park. goes to school in the morning.

plays ring around the rosie. there is one teacher her name is miss rachel. now it’s christmas, now serenity and sawyer at home opening the presents. serenity

got teddy bear, sawyer got tennis shoes. now serenity go meet princess (aurora sleeping beauty), sawyer go meets ninja turtle. sawyer serenity save their

presents. the end.

to be continued…

it’s 3 little bears. once upon a time, there lived 3 little bears, there is a daddy bear, mommy bear, and baby bear. bear are out side for a walk. the end.
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Categories
advice and tips finance fun

Got CT Scan yesterday

I have been coughing for over a year. It’s very hard to get insurance pre-authorization to get CT scan in the US, according to my primary care doctor. She said if I am willing to self-pay, it’s not too expensive. So yesterday I took the plunge, I went to Metro Imaging directly, paid the fee from my credit card, and got my scan. I used to see this CT scanner on movie/TV, and see my daughter Yoyo did it once. Now it’s my turn. A bit of mixed feeling though as I did not want to hear the bad news. The scanner looks something like this. It’s also interesting I used to work for Siemens 🙂

Siemens CT Scanner

The good news is the results is negative (I got results right away, I think this is the way medical testing should be). The bad news is I still need to figure out why the cough persists? There are two theories: allergy or acid reflux (from stomach to throat).

Related articles

    Categories
    advice and tips fun

    How to set bluetooth on Toyota Sienna minivan

    2012 LE, basic radio.

    Set the language from Spanish to English
    (it says Corolla, but it works for Sienna as well, as they have very similar audio equipments).

    Setup bluetooth

    My tip: so I followed the instruction 1 and set up bluetooth audio for my iPhone 5s with the minivan, and later on I tried to add the bluetooth phone, and I was not successful during the step where the phone tries to connect to the bluetooth audio (car multi-media). The fix is to forget the car multi-media in the iPhone, and set up again for both phone and audio (“device type” in the car audio prompt).

    (update 03-12-15) I had to pair my iPhone 5s bluetooth again with sienna, after iOS 8.1.3 update. Forgot this “forgot the car multi-media” tip initially 🙂 Note again select “phone setup” and “interior bluetooth audio”, this way it will work both for phone and audio.

    Categories
    fun

    Montessori at home

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    The new math puzzle bought from Amazon. Since serenity no longer goes to Montessori school, we got this for her. The item costs $44.99 at Amazon, and costs about $10 at Taobao in China 🙂

    Categories
    fun

    Big baby, little baby

    My elder daughter Serenity finally used to sleep in her room recently. The trick is I decided not to co-sleep with her. Also, she still needs her mommy watch her falling asleep, which usually takes an hour or so, since she gets up sometimes: ask me questions, etc. (delay tactic).

    Little baby Sophia is getting big, she weighs about 14 lbs in 2 month check up, which doubled from her birth weight. She likes to sleep on my shoulder. Today my coworker told me one reason is she like to feel heart beat. Also sometimes she sucks my neck or upper arm. It’s normal in baby growth, I just found out from web, although I am second time dad. Never stop learning.

    Categories
    advice and tips fun

    Found out why I missed 25000 miles Alaska Airlines from credit card

    I signed up the BoA credit card 50,000 miles promotion last Dec. But I forgot to spend $1000 in the first 3 months, I spent $995 in the first two months and then stopped. The reason was I thought I had reached this limit. But I forgot one thing: to check my spending at both BoA and at Alaska Airlines websites. I did not go to the latter because I thought I did not have the mileage plan number.

    Today I found out on my credit card I do have the number. But the 3 months has long passed. They now offer 25,000 miles for bonus opening their credit card.

    Categories
    advice and tips fun

    Trying to beat the coffee habbit

    Lots of headache first few days. It’s getting better as time goes. The reason I am trying to do that is it (the coffee) appears to make me go to restroom much more often. I want to eliminate this one factor to see if things get better.

    A second reason, is I don’t want to dependent on one thing (coffee is addictive). I recall last summer when I was in China, and I could not find coffee in my hometown and my wife’s hometown, and I got headache. Eventually I was able to find the “American style” iced coffee and a bakery and certainly at McDonald. I think I need to reduce my coffee intake, and if I can stay alert without it, that will be the best.

    Categories
    fun kids

    New problem with new baby

    We had a new baby girl about 2 months ago. One problem we anticipated did not show up as I feared: the feeling of being neglected for my older daughter, as new baby usually gets more attention. That’s good. When I think about it, I heard so many warnings from my friends and tried to spend some quality time with serenity.

    But another unexpected problem arose. The financial one. Between the medical bills related to new baby, the home helper to help out my wife, and rising child care cost from Serenity’s school, and at the same time my stagnant take home pay, I suddenly found out I am not on a sound financial footing. I am doing some maneuvers, such as consolidating checking accts., refinance mortgage, etc.

    I hope to get through this school year, because in next fall my elder daughter will start kindergarten at local public school. No more child are cost for her, if any 🙂

    Categories
    advice and tips fun

    Good news, bad news

    The good news is if one searches “kids St. Louis” in iTunes App Store, my app To Market will show up between six flags and magic house. The bad news is, after spending hours trying to add the feature of “add to calendar”, the app crashes if one tap that button 🙁 🙂

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    Categories
    fun

    We went to Edwardsville Route 66 Festival

    It was pretty cool. A bit small scale than I thought, but nonetheless liked the family friendly activities, food, and people. Their website is here, and their Facebook page is here. Can’t wait come back next year 🙂

    The tour guide (the trolley bus) is really knowledgable about the history of Edwardsville.

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