A Lost Pet

Last Tuesday, our pet Peckingese, Jay Jay, ran out of the house and never came back. No one was watching him and the front yard gate was open. He's escaped before but he was always found or returned to us by kind strangers, but not this time. Mom misses him the most but it has been effecting me more than I would have thought since I am not even a dog lover. It makes me really sad because I consider Jay Jay to be part of our family. It breaks my heart to think that i will never see him wagging his tail and looking at me expectantly for a treat again.

We've visited the three animal shelters in our area several times and filled out lost reports with no luck. We think that someone probably found him and kept him since he is very friendly and still looks like a puppy. I hope they will be heaven laden with guilt and return Jay Jay to us soon.

A Whole Lot of Family Time

I've been immersed in meeting and spending time with Erik's extended family members for the past 11 days.

For the Labor Day weekend, we were invited to northern California by his cousin to go camping. Little did we realize that it would be an 11 hour long car ride to Redding, California and not the 8 hour drive to San Francisco until the day of the trip. All 27 of us stayed in one house that Erik's cousin had rented with only two bathrooms to share among us all. People slept in the bedrooms, in closets, in the livingrooms, and in tents pitched on the back patio (one person who snored especially loud had his own tent pitched below the patio). The main language spoken was Vietnamese as well as all the food we consumed. There were 8 little children among us who ransacked the entire house from the moment they woke up (which was always way too early) until the moment when they finally settled down to sleep. The parents only paid attention to their children when they needed feeding, showering, changing, or comforting when they got hurt. They were trying to enjoy themselves and busy catching up with each other. Still it was actually peaceful spending time on the lakes, just dipping my feet in the water while sitting on the dock or riding on the boats with the wind in my hair.

When we got home our house was occupied by more of Erik's relatives who were visiting from Australia and two rambunctious and whiny children, Catherine and Cindy. Hoa also came down for the week with Ashley and Brian who added to the noisy atmosphere. I love children but I only like to spend time with them when they have something structured to do and when they are not naughty. It's nice to have peace and quiet in our house finally tonight.