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Eugene Half Marathon 2012....

How did I end up running again?  My brother Sam called and said that he was coming to Eugene to run the marathon with his friends.... I said, "Sure, great, bring all of them here!  You can all come and I'll take you guys to Eugene!"  That's how it started....   I suddenly felt the urge to run the half... "If I'm going to drive them, might as well join them and run!"  I got my sister in law to come up too and we crossed the finish line together! That was special.  I love the beginning and the end... I don't like the middle part.  Sam's friend Eden said "Have a GOOD TIME SUE!"  I said, "sure, I'll have a great time! "  My brother Sam pulled me aside and said, "What she meant was not having a good 'yoohoo' good time but to have a good time coming in!"  I didn't care what time I came in...  Someone ran up and asked, "can I ask what pace you're running?" I said, "No, I don't have a clue!  I'm just going!"  Wrong person to ask!  :)  I lost Jean the first mile and found her at mile 10!  I was so happy to see her!   Man, would I do this again?  I'm sore up and down but I really did have a good time.  Jean let me borrow her running skirt and I loooved it! I think I'm going to "invest" in a nice skirt capris and run once more.... But Sam says that I need to train and not just "wing it". 

Sah Ee Goo....

Anyone remember? 4.29.92

I was a graduate student at UCLA. I walked into my class and found the class almost empty. My professor walked in late and said that our class was dismissed. We should all go home.... She informed us that there were multiple fires, riots and chaos in the city of Los Angeles. I did hear the news in the morning but didn't think it was going to affect classes in Westwood. But I was wrong. The whole city of Los Angeles was in the center of a world wide news. It's known as the LA Riots or LA Civil Unrest... whatever you call it... I remember where I was and what I did. When a jury acquitted 3 white LA cops who were videotaped beating a black motorist Rodney King, thousands of people came out into the streets of LA and rioted for over six days following the verdict! It was an intense time... Koreatown businesses were greatly affected when racial tensions mounted within the city. There were looting, shooting, fires, mandatory curfews... Immediately after the civil unrest, I was offered a job at the Asian Pacific Counseling Center in K town. All summer long, I helped those affected by the riot.... I was very involved in the Korea town social movements..... That was a memorable summer for me!

Remembering moments....

I have been blogging for 5 years. The best part of blogging is that I can look back and remember precious moments and milestones.... Celebrating birthdays are these touching moments!

Allison turning 9

Allison turning 10

Allison turning 11

Allison turning 12 and this post with her cute baby face!

Allison turning 13

and Allison is turning 14 this week! Along with her two close friends, we spent the afternoon together being silly and having fun!

BB Cream.....

Have you heard of Korean B.B. cream? My mom got me this BB about 2 years ago. It's "Korean" she said. I never liked her "Korean" cosmetics that she uses or recommends for me so I didn't give it much thought. But I have been using this on/off for awhile and I do love it! This BB, which stands for "blemish balm" or "beauty balm" is a tinted moisturizer, concealer with SPF that is taking off here in the US as well! I talked about how my BB cream is almost out....and my girls mentioned that they saw a tv commercial for Garnier's BB cream for US! So I started looking... and found that this BB cream has been taking off in Asia for years now and here in the US!

I've seen Clinique BB cream at Sephora for around $37 to Garnier's BB Cream at Walgreens for under $15. Korean Markets in town sell Korean brands that sell for around $45. (G Mart in Beaverton has Misha and Dr. Jart for $42) The most expensive one that I found? Nordstrom's 3LAB BB Cream for $95! From bestbbcream.com: Top 4 BB Cream brands: 1. BRTC BRTC Blemish Recover Balm – this is one of the best BB Cream on the market today. www.brtcstore.com 2. Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream – This BB Cream has SPF 42! http://www.missha.net/ 3. Skin79 Super Beblesh Balm Here is another brand that has international presence and is a main player in the bb cream market. Known for its sparkly and girlish toned decor, Skin79 has many bb creams on the market to choose from. http://www.skin79.com/ 4. Dr. Jart. Dr. Jart has the second highest grade of ingredients next to BRTC. They are known for their quality but extremely pricy -some bb creams costing $60. Their design and advertising has a cool look to it often mixed with black and silver. So, which brand? After some research, I found that my original BB that my mom gave me is no longer manufactured. So, after some review....this is what I just ordered from Amazon.com: MISSHA M Perfect Cover BB Cream No.23 Natural Beige SPF42 (50ml) with Anti Wrinkle! I wanted good uv/sun protection and good coverage of my sun/age spots. Total: $17.25! No tax and free shipping!

Wickedly good...

Loved it!  It was the first musical for the girls!  The boy went to play basketball and us girls enjoyed the night watching Wicked at Keller.  ENK and Randy didn't mind at all... ENK said that he was glad he had a son.  "Otherwise, it would be the four of you and just me at home!" 

From an old slide...

Pictures from a box of slides from 1991. Remember this day Candice?

We took a 15 year old Candice Lee after church to Padadena/Huntington Library.... Why? Because ENK and I loved this sweet teenger. We often took her out with us on our "dates". But on this particular afternoon, we took her so she could take pictures of us. We were recently engaged, and didn't have any nice couple pictures. Initially, we thought of having a "slide show" for our wedding reception... but our posed pictures came out too dark.

Back in the days... I didn't wear much makeup, didn't wear tight fitting dresses, short skirts or hoochi momma heels.... I had my hair tied, hardly any makeup, no jewerly, wore loose plain grandma sweater, plain jeans, white socks with flats and loose blue jeans knowing we were going to take pictures? This is our 20th wedding anniversary year... We should call Candice back and do a REDO session! :)

I'm so glad ENK took a picture of us Candice! Yes, Lindsey is your age now!

Christimas 2011...

Merry Christmas!

our family stayed home all day Christmas...ate and ate and ate...

Breakfast:

Turkey bacon

Fritatta

Roasted breakfast red potatoes

Wheat toast with homemade jam

Lunch:

Spicy gook and rice

Dinner:

Salt crusted rib eye roast

Grilled asparagus and zucchini

Stuffing with roasted pecans and turkey bacon

Homemade chocolate chip cookies and ice cream

 

Christmas Photo Cards.....

I love 'em! This year, I'm seeing BEAUTIFUL thick paper cards!!! WOW!

It has been our family tradition to send out photo cards too. We've done it for the past 15 years? We will continue on with this tradition year after year....How sad it would be if life changes somehow....

This year, we started thinking about family picture in November... We had this grand idea of having our friend AO be our photographer. He's not a professional, not even a semi professional but he's good.. but we just couldn't get it scheduled with Andy. Either we were gone or he was unavailable or the weather was bad.... Maybe next year AO! So we chose the ones I already posted on my pineapple blog. Oh well!
Cards over the years...Do you still have any of these?

I keep my cards.. not very organized but I have them all...From years ago...(I like to see the year written on the Christmas card. It helps to keep it together by year)

I was looking through my pile of pictures....
(Kim Family: You can see the boys growing up and you can also see when they started using gmp)

Oh the memories of the past Christmas greeting cards, when the Kim's, the Paks, the Shims, the Changs were so little and so young... (Last photo card I received from the C's was in 1996... what's going on Chang's?)

Thank you dear friends for keeping our family on your list. We appreciate it and we thank you for your friendship! Merry Christmas!

12.11.11.

Today was a good day. We went to a little farm near home. As you may already know, we have more than 10 tree farms within 5 minutes of our house...We went to a neighborhood farm that sells Christmas trees from the side of their house. We walked around their backyard to the side... looking for that one tree. Our kids know that when someone has a "farm" and operates a business in their garage... giving away hot chocolates.... they know why they do it. They may just love growing Christmas trees.. but there's a benefit in getting tax exempt status or tax break benefits from owning and operating a farm! My kids know this because we always talk about purchasing an acreage and planting something like berries or trees to get this benefit as well.... Who knows when this will ever happen. But today being Lindsey's 15th birthday, we made it special. PFT. Pure Family Time!

"I think this is the one guys!"

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl Lindsey Noel!
We had to call her down from studying... She does not approve of this picture.

PS: I just have to throw this picture in... just because I love it so much. ENK on 12/11/96.

Chestnut time....

There's a 100 year old chestnut tree in our neighborhood.  We have been in Oregon for ten years! It's amazing how time just flies by.  I love that as each season passes, our kids remember special family moments.  Each fall, we like to go checkout the chestnuts from our tree in the neighborhood.  Last year, the tree produced inferior chestnuts.... This year, the nuts are small but quite flavorful!   We love to boil them vs. roasting them...  I love the fall season! Now if we can now gather the family for our annual family picture under the big yellow tree...