BBQ at the Benecia Waterfront

Winner of a Bingo questionnaire.
As a Foster A Dream mentor I attended the BBQ tonight. I got to meet other mentors in the making, and others who were still waiting to be matched up. It was quite a nice surprise when a couple kids approached me to give me a hug. One particularly remembered me, as I taught him how to bowl and to successfully knock down some pins!


Other than eat a lot of food, we also did the water balloon toss. It was almost like a singles gathering- at events like this mentors try to match up with mentees and vice-versa.


I get home by 9pm and arrive to a crying Kai, who initially did well with daddy in my absence. However, after an hour or so Kai got the Mommy withdrawals and started to bawl. I spent the last 10 minutes of my drive home on the phone with Kai, trying to calm him down. We ate popsicles on the driveway, and I read him his favorite Thomas train book as the light disappeared and the mosquitos came out.

Kai refused to go to bed. So there is his picture of him wiped out on my massage chair in my den as I blog away to 1 am.

Salsa kitchen on a BBQ night

Kai feeds the dogs.

August 21, 2007 Monday
It rained all day today, but that didn't stop me from walking with the boys in the red wagon. We wore raincoats and the boys appeared to be in zen in the wet weather. It was actually quite nice, they weren't screaming or getting in trouble together.

Derek, Nana, Cohen, and Dawn sit down to a feast.

Later that afternoon, my family migrated in with their girlfriends, Jen and Dawn. My youngest brother wasn't present as he had to return to southern Illinois to continue work on his masters degree. But that didn't stop Dawn from having a nice BBQ with us.

Kai chows down while nana cuddles Hope.

Derek and Jen came over and grilled chicken and ribs, mashpotatoes, cheese bread, and veggies. Nana brought fruit salad!

Jen feeds Hope before she blows a runny poopie!

Hope is doing even better today. She is grasping our hands, and will shove both her thumbs into her mouth, if not most of her hand. She is more reactive to sounds loud and soft, and is snapping her head to look at moving objects.

Unfortunately, her brother Cohen threw a plastic ball at her face, which caused Hope to cry and nana to spank Cohen. Murphy's law kicks in again. My sister thought the left side of her face looked swollen where she had been struck by the ball, Fortunately I had noticed that this was not a concern as her face had looked like that a few hours before. But even so, it must have been painful to be hit on the face, especially after major surgery! Poor baby!

Dawn is caught hiding out in the "Cars" tent from Kai.

Kai takes after me, he is trying to clean up the scrap ribs the dogs left behind.

Party! Party! Kai makes a streak across the kitchen in front of guests.

VIDEO: Kitchen salsa

The Party is over, Cohen and Kai see the guests off.

And I thought the day was over...

Cicada casings.

July 7, 2007

(as a man greeted to us- "Happy July 7, 2007- 7/7/07 and God Bless!" I realized when was this date ever gonna happen again in our lifetime?)

Thank goodness, I missed the season of the cicadas. They come out every 7-8 years to mate, lay their eggs, and then to die. These are dead ones at my feet- hundreds of them. But when they are out, you'll know it, you can hear their deafening buzz or insect noise, or they just simply fly into your hair and get tangled there! My sister has a video of them swarming a plant in her front yard. And they are UGLY- red and black, very intimidating features. And I hear they taste like crispy chicken.

Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcFK3p2A6Vk

Beer buddies hanging around the bar. Mom and me. Doesn't mom look great?

Just when I thought we would come home from Chicago and rest, my family wanted a BBQ-get- together. And did they go out of their way- ribs and shishkabobs, homemade potato scallop, corn on the cob, and beans. My youngest brother Eric brought some interesting outdoor findings with him, like a rock used for cutting he found on an anthropology excusion in the forests of southern Illinois (date of rock unknown) and a couple of racoon and possum animal skulls. My sister was disgusted and told him to remove it from the kitchen.

My brothers Eric and Fredi, Derek's girlfriend Jen.

We ate finally at 10pm, when the food was ready. I passed out again from heat exhaustion and food coma.

Derek (usually with food in his mouth- ha) and Mom eating a lot (yeah!)

My sister Cheri gets the couch and her hubby Matthew gets to sleep on the floor with the family dog. (haha) Both passed out from the heat and day's event.