and they came

My mom and sis got in town last night, and they are going to stay with us for a little while. My mom is going to be in Salt Lake for 3 weeks and my sister is going to attend SLCC and will probably be here for a couple years. I'm not sure if she likes me that much and would want to stay with me all that much, even though my parents think so. I think she's eager to be more independent, and I'm not sure if staying with me would do any help. We'll see.

There are some apartment complex that are fairly close to the college, and are close to our house (in case she needs anything from me), and we're going to take them to check those out some time.

The dogs seem to like my mom and sis. It was amazing for me to see the skittish Yama coming close and sniff my mom. He usually doesn't like strangers, but last night he was actually pretty frienly, and that was a good thing.

I wonder if the cats noticed my mom and sis yet. I guess I'll know when I get home tonight.

fight?

I came home yesterday and the dogs wagged their tails and happily greeted me at the door. I took each of them out for a short walk and let them go potty and stuff.

Then I had them all sit down and gave them some treats, and that's when I noticed that the corner of Naicha's eye looked a bit weird. I checked it and saw it was a little wound. I checked the other side of her face and saw a tiny red spot.

They must have fought, I thought, so I checked Yama. He seemed all right and happy, but the hair on one of his ears was all stiff... which means someone had chewed on his ear. I then saw a light blood stain on his head, which I think was actually Naicha's blood.

They were playing and sniffing each other just fine, and I wonder if they just played hard. When Yama was small he would be frightened and not willing to go to certain areas of the house if there was ever a fight between him and Naicha, but he was not doing that this time. He still went with the pack (us) everywhere in the house, so I guess he's OK.

The dogs almost never fight anymore because they know we're in charge! I really wonder what happened sometimes when we're not home. I'm considering putting in a surveillence camera so we can see what the dogs are up to.

let us read

While attending grad school getting my M.Ed, the Diary of Anne Frank was brought up quite a few times. Sad to say, but I had never read this book back in Taiwan where millions of young girls had read it, usually when they are around Anne's age when she kept the diary.

I went to the library yesterday and actually found a Mandarin copy of the diary and I read the whole book in an afternoon. I was sad, not only because of the story about Anne, her family, Jewish people, and Holocaust, but also because of the fact that I didn't read the book until now. While the American middle school students are reading Anne Frank and some other important books about/for history, the Taiwanese students are struggling to memorize words in their history books and hoping they will be able to fill in the blanks correctly in their next history exam.

I guess the Asian students do read more about the wars between the Asian countries while the American and European students read more about the Western wars... but I believe that in order to allow the students to be educated to be a "global person," being taught more about the whole globe is important, and knowing the important events that happened in the world will also allow them to broden their views and visions. When we learned about Jewish people being persecuted by the Nazis, the history book that we used in school simply stated that Jews were persecuted by the Nazis at the time. Nothing else. No additional reading being assigned or encouarged for students to read.

I've realized that there are a lot of great books I have to read to catch up with the people around me. John reads fast and reads a lot, and so do I (in Mandarin; I can't read English books all that fast), but I'm going to read not only Mandarin and Japanese books but English books, and allow myself opportunities to see the people and world around me a more sophisticated view.

naicha's favorite spot

Naicha's new favorite spot is right behind the curtains in the kitchen, right above the vent.

it's gonna change

My younger sister is coming to Salt Lake in a week for school, and she'll be staying with us for a little while. While she and my parents keep telling me that she won't cause any changes in my life, I'm sure it will.

I know you'd be confused as to why she's staying with us. Beats me.

I just hope the dogs don't get too excited when she and my mom arrive here in a week... yup my mom is coming, too, but she's going back to Taiwan after 3 weeks. Yup 3 weeks.

and they are friends too

I think Nuki is Jasper's favorite dog in the whole world, because most of the time they hang out together in the front room, the kitchen, the computer room, or my crafty room.

And then I found that Jasper likes Naicha, too. He starts to lie down by her quite a bit!

tiny acorn

We have quite a few Oak trees in the yard, and there's always a bunch of acorns lying around, big and small. Usually they are big and beautiful, but sometimes you'd see these small ones that are green or not completely formed.

When I took Nuki to the backyard I saw this very tiny acorn that looks like a "full-grown" acorn (in color and shape). I think it's the smallest acorn-looking acorn I've seen. Too cute!


tiny acorn compared to a quarter

in search of the perfect embroidery machine

I've been looking at some embroidery machines lately. I don't really care much for the Disney edition ones or the ones that allow you to buy and use design cards. I want one that's compatible with my laptop where I can create some designs of my own to use with the machine.

After doing some research, I've noticed that the Singer Futura CE-200 is quite popular among crafters; however Singer machines do have a bad reputation of breaking and not being compatible with Windows properly. I then found my dream machine, one that's not pro grade or outragously costly, but very attractive and will allow me to make my own designs. It's Brother's Innov-is 4000D!

Now if I can only convince John to get me one of these!

katrina's animal rescue

I watched Katrina's Animal Rescue on PBS this past weekend and my heart was just broken. The thought of a dog or a cat being left behind when his/her family was evacuated made me sad. While a dog is a pack animal, what was he thinking when his family/pack left him?

The program also showed how rescuers try to save the penguins and dolphins that were endangered by the powerful hurricane. There were also stories where the animal owners try to go back just to get their animals back, and not for anything else. Consider for many of us our pets are our family.

No pet should be left behind.

best friends

We got Jasper about 4 years ago when he was about 4 mo. old from the Humane Society. When he arrived at our house he was a bit kennel sick, and Nuki, who had been living with us for a few months then, would try to lick Jasper and clean him up a bit... but what we got would always be a soggy kitty! Jasper of course would have to clean himself up afterwards, but since then Nuki and Jasper had been best friends!

And the friendship is still going strong!