The finale of all finales

When I turned my phone on after last week's DWTS show and quickly checked for important e-mails, I came across one for yet another opportunity to attend a DWTS show, this time the finale!  Not just any finale...the Allstars Finale!  Of course I was going to go, but since I wasn't arriving back from Houston until Tuesday, I had to choose the Tuesday show date, which I was perfectly fine with.  My flight was scheduled to land around 10:30 AM, so figuring out how to get to the show and get Sophie to school took some figuring out.  Thankfully, my friend Weiru was willing to drop me off at the show and then take Sophie to school, and then pick up both girls after school.  

Snow arrived at the studio around 10:30 to stand in line for the show.  She was 9th in line, which wasn't bad at all.  One friend that I had invited couldn't come at the last minute because her mom's car broke down and she couldn't watch her kids anymore.  So, I invited April to replace her, and I knew that she would find a way to get to the finale because she is also a huge fan.  My other friend Cindy was coming from being sworn in as an American citizen and it took longer than expected.  So, April and Cindy ended up arriving just after the guy went by numbering us off, so they couldn't sit with us.  Fortunately, they still got floor seats, though in the corner, but considering that they waited only about an hour in line as opposed to my and Snow's four, that's not too bad.

When Snow and I first entered the ballroom, they placed us in VIP second row seats and we got a great view of the group dance to Gangnam Style pre-taping.  Since the VIPs starting coming in, they moved us into the corridor, where we waited to see which VIP seats were going to be filled.  It so happened that two seats in front of Ricki Lake were free, so Snow and I got to sit in front of her.  Unfortunately, about 30 minutes into the show, they had to move us because a huge prop was being brought onto the stage in front of us.  So, we got moved to the back row of a new section, which still had a full view of the dance floor.  Somehow we got associated with the four guests next to us, who seemed pretty important, and the six of us got moved a couple rows up to better seats.  Then after a couple more dances, we were all moved back to the VIP floor seats... I sat right behind Gabby Douglas and the Fabulous Five, the US Women's Olympic team!  I happened to be rooting for their teammate Shawn Johnson and though all the gymnasts turned and looked at me when I screamed out Shawn's name, I'm sure they appreciated the support.  :P  And to top off the evening, I made it home in time to watch the show air, and caught several glimpses of myself on TV!  I've downloaded a few clips; I am on the far right in the white dress.  This was truly an exhausting (I woke up at 5:30 AM for my flight), but unforgettable evening!

  

I am standing up in the second row in the white dress.  Trung pointed out, I was looking straight into the camera.  Can you blame me?

Just a small glimpse of me

I still can't believe I was behind the Fabulous Five.  Since they were on Shawn's freestyle dance the night before, I knew that they would be at the finale, but to be sitting so close to them and surreal!

Another year

Sophie and I spent the morning hanging out with Mike, Minji, and Alexis before they left for the airport around noon.  After lunch, Sophie and I went to La Centerra to make some returns at Gymboree and to meet Jennifer one last time.  I really can't believe how a year flies by, and I'm glad our friendship has kept on going despite the distance.

Bubble gum ice cream...yummy, I guess

10 years of friendship and going on strong

Memories

This morning we went to church at Tallowood Baptist, my second home as a child.  I arrived for the later service only to find out that childcare is no longer provided for ages for 4 and up and that the children would have to attend service with us.  Lydia and Sophie were forced to do that back on Easter Sunday at a church in LA and that did not go well at all.  Fortunately, my Dad decided to have a mini Sunday School class of his own for the kids.

After church, my cousin Grace and her family met us at Jimmy's house so that her son Nathan could play with his second cousins.  After a few hours, we headed over to my parents' house for dinner, where my Mom once again outdid herself.  I had booked Trung and Lydia on late flight back to California and my Dad was kind enough to take them to the airport around 7:30 so I could stay home with Sophie.  Sophie missed her daddy and shed several tears, but managed to finally go to sleep.
 

This playground wasn't around when I went to Tallowood, but watching the kids play on it was nostalgic.

 Hanging out with baby Alexis

No one likes tummy time

Finding ducks to feed to no avail

Cool down time after dinner

Tomahawks

My friend Sabrina told me recently about "small business Saturday", the Saturday after Thanksgiving when you can get a $25 credit using an enrolled American Express card at certain local businesses.  Since my mom insisted on feeding us all the time, and we weren't around long enough to use the dry cleaners or other similar services, I decided to get my nails done since they really needed some tlc.  A manicure and French pedicure for $15?  Not too shabby!

After lunch at my parents' place, my friend Jennifer picked me up and we watched "Breaking Dawn" with her cousin.  I reread all four Twilight books in preparation for the movie, which I had intended on watching the week before, but that nasty stomach bug postponed everything.  Needless to say, I was excited to see this final movie, but also very sad to watch the end of an era.  At least I still have "The Hunger Games" to look forward to.  "P

My family was planning on having our annual dinner at The Taste of Texas to celebrate Trung's birthday (which happened to be on Thanksgiving day this year) and since there is always a long wait, I thought it would be a good idea to put my name down beforehand and for Jennifer and I to chit chat at the restaurant during the wait.  So when my family arrived at 6, we only had to wait an additional 15 minutes before we got seated, an improvement from 1.5 hours.  The Taste of Texas certainly did not disappoint; see you again next year!

 

Trying out the new Tomahawk Steak

 

Now that the girls are older, they get along so much better with their cousins

Our "happily stuffed" picture

Happy birthday, Trung!

Lee Family Photo Session

 My dad posted a family picture on Facebook one day and I realized that our family photos were pretty outdated, over four year.  With new additions of a sister-in-law and niece, I figured it was time to update our pictures.  Conveniently, the whole family was going to be gathering in Houston to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary, and my friend Robin's brother Sean, who is a photographer, was also going to be in town for Thanksgiving.  So, we met on Black Friday to take our family photos on a gorgeous fall morning at Hershey Park off of Beltway 8.  It was a bit sunny at times and we had moments of interruption when cyclists would go by, but the session went quite smoothly.  Baby Alexis didn't make a fuss even once!

After a quick lunch at La Madeline, where I enjoyed a fruit tart which I've missed very much since moving to California, Cora, Jocelyn, and I went hunting for Black Friday deals.  We went to three different shopping centers and I'd like to think we did well with our purchases.  Then when we were finally tired of shopping, we met the rest of our families at Ocean Palace where my parents invited a handful of families to celebrate their anniversary with them.  Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

 The men in blue

 The "Lee" family

 Family groupings

 My little family

 My favorite pose

 It all started with us

 Proud grandparents

 A fun idea

 The backbones of the families

Cora and I felt like back-up dancers in these dresses. :P

Still in love after 40 years of marriage

Three tables full of family and friend at Ocean Palace

Giving thanks

Annual Thanksgiving potluck with members of my Dad's church...enough said.

Writing and Flying

Though I had tons of packing and various little things to do around the house, I made it a point to attend Lydia's special writer's workshop gathering at school.  I can't volunteer yet because I have Sophie until noon every day, but I like to attend as many events as I can.  I know it means a lot to Lydia to have me (and Sophie) there.  :)

 

 Lydia's first grade class sharing their writer's workshop stories with a local published author, Ann Kerr-Adams

 

 Sophie's classmate Ameena has a brother in Lydia's class

Pumpkin pies made by the kids

My girls

After I dropped Sophie off at school, I was in a mad rush to try and finish everything before our flight to Houston.  Fortunately, Trung came home early and helped pick up Sophie from school, but he mainly came home because there was a strike at the airport, so we had to leave 1.5 hours earlier than planned.  We ended up only leaving 45 minutes earlier, but we arrived at the airport with plenty of time left.  Apparently, the strike ended at 5, but we didn't want to risk missing our flight.

 You don't want to know what book I'm reading.  :P

 Thank goodness for the IPAD

Good ole Dad sat with the girls the entire flight

Semi-finals

 Somehow there was a glitch in the system and I was contacted again to receive tickets for Dancing with the Stars.  Guests are supposed to only go to one performance per season, but I figure that if they send me the e-mail, then why not?  So, I got childcare for the girls and contacted a couple girlfriends, and I was set.  I always get the maximum of four tickets, but couldn't find anyone to take the last one, so it was just the three of us this time.  We got in line around 10:30, had lunch from Erewhon (kinda like Whole Foods), and finally headed towards the studio around 2:30.  Paula Abdul was the guest performer; she's so petite and cute!  Oh, and so sweet...all the viewers received a statement necklace from her new jewelry line.  Too bad my favorite competitor, Apolo Anton Ohno, was eliminated and we got average seats (second floor, second row), but we still had a great time!

 

 We were numbers 8-10 in line; much better than in the sixties last week.

Guro, me, and Chantalynn

Relatively relatives

 Today my sister-in-law's cousin John and his family came out to Santa Monica to visit us.  We haven't seem them in almost three years, so we had a lot of catching up to do.  They arrived at our place around 3:30.  After Sophie got home from school, we walked down to the ocean and then up the Promenade to Santa Monica Place where we met Trung for dinner at True Food Kitchen.  The kids got along really well too; their son Christian is in the same grade as Lydia.  It's always nice having "family" come and visit.  :)

 Enjoying the sunset

 We finally made it to Santa Monica Place

 The girls were all over John.

 All the Christmas decorations are up!

 Waiting for our overly priced organic dinner.

Birthdays and B-ball

After Sophie caught the stomach bug last weekend, Lydia woke up Thursday morning very sick.  Soon the illness was passed on to me Friday morning and I had to cancel all our Saturday plans, watching Breaking Dawn and hosting a Thanksgiving potluck.  :(  Fortunately, everyone was well on Sunday and we were able to attend two birthday parties and a basketball game as scheduled.  Sophie's classmate, Morgan, had a bowling birthday party at 11.  We left a little early to head out to Pasadena for Tai and Acadia's joint birthday party.  Then we left the kids with Snow while Trung and I attended our first Lakers game.  It wasn't just any game, though, they were playing the Houston Rockets with Jeremy Lin.  It was a great game, though it became a blow-out in the last quarter.  Go Lakers!

 Striking a pose rather getting strikes

 Putting her soccer skills to good use

 Waiting for the birthday boy

 All the kids at Tai and Acadia's second birthday party.

 As close as we'll ever get

 Jeremy following through

 Apparently, Jeremy likes his pre-game stretches

 The crowd cheered very loudly for JLin

 Quite the introduction

 Linsanity

 The Kobe Bryant

 Our not-so-cheap seats

Jack Nicholson in the black jacket and sunglasses to the right of the booth

All stars!

After over a year and a half, I finally got tickets to Dancing with the Stars!  And for the All star season at that!  Since I didn't check my e-mail fast enough last time to choose Monday night's performance show, I made sure to get it this time.  Unfortunately, it was Veteran's Day and the kids didn't have school, so I had to find someone to watch them almost all day.  Well, it turned out since Sophie still had the stomach bug, we couldn't let anyone else watch her besides Trung or myself and since he knows how much I love the show, he decided to work from home.  He does love me!  :)  I "asked" for four tickets and knew from the start that Snow was in.  Weiru decided to join as well, so I was left with one more ticket.  Several people couldn't come, so I finally sent out a mass e-mail to see if anyone wanted to come.  Apparently, April is a huge fan too and e-mailed me back immediately.

Snow, Weiru, and I left at noon for The Grove and since the line was already getting quite long, they dropped me off to park and get lunch.  April arrived soon after; we waited for a couple of hours before being moved closer to the studio, where we waited for about another hour.  When we finally made it inside the studio, we were placed on the third floor, just to the right of the judges.  Not horrible seats (though we stood the entire time), but not great either.  We watched a pre-taping of the next night's "Stars of Dance" performance, and then screamed & clapped throughout the entire show.  Apolo Anton Ohno even blew us (me) kisses!

After the show as we were leaving the studio, we saw Ricki Lake.  Then at dinner at The Whisper Lounge, I saw Florence Henderson come out of the ladies' room!  Somehow she slipped out of the restaurant unnoticed or else I would have asked to take a picture with her.  Oh well, I got to see plenty of celebrities tonight.  :)        

The line at 12:45!  We were numbers 68-72.

Lunching on Korean food from the Farmer's Market

Weiru, me, Snow, and April.  Sorry, it's so blurry, but it's my only picture.

Bowling to the 80's

 I received a promotion for $5 all you can bowl and since we haven't been bowling in ages, I got a group together for some afternoon fun.  Sophie caught a stomach bug after Juliet's birthday party yesterday, so Trung stayed home with her, but we had a great group of five families.  We bowled, sang to 80's music, and had a grand ole time.

 

 Old school bowling

Lydia and Isabelle rocking it

Juju turns 6!

 Juliet celebrated her 6th birthday today at her ocean-view home.  Trung and I got to meet new parents of Lydia's classmates, which was nice.  With only three boys and about triple the number of girls, the boys versus girls thing got out of hand at times.  Everyone left happy though and no limbs were lost.  :)

 The "boys drool" phase has officially begun

 Getting crafty

 Sophie up to bat, uh, sword

 Lydia knocks the pinata out of the ballpark aka breaking it

 A proud Lydia and even prouder Dad

 Candy scramble

Good job, Lydia!