Ugh

So, I get a call to my cell phone this morning, and this very cocky sounding guy starts saying, "Hello, I am such-and-so from Publishers Clearing House"

Me : "Yes, May I know who you are looking for?"
Guy : "Haven't you heard of me?"
Me : "No, Sir, I have not. Can you tell me who you are calling for?"
Guy : "Haven't you seen me on TV?"
Me : "No, Sir, I have not."

I proceeded to tell him that I had somewhere to go and that I could not take his phone call, and hung up.

3 minutes later, the hub's cell phone rings.  Our cell phone numbers are a couple of numbers apart.

I basically have the same conversation with the same guy, and after I assured him AGAIN that I had not heard of him, nor seen him on TV, HE hung up. LOL!

Anyway, later on I googled the number, and find out that it originated from JAMAICA, and that loads of other people have had Jamaican numbers call them, telling them that they had been winners to some capacity in the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes and that they needed to pay some "taxes" before they could receive their cash winnings.

Er. Yeah. Right.

Chinese New Year Celebrations 2014

This year, we once again went off to Albany for their CNY festivities, and then joined the ACU CSSA students for their CNY dinner.

Xiayu's parents were supposed to join us for the day, and they had been ultra excited.  However, the night before, her mother had had a bad bout of gastroenteritis or something, and even had to go to the emergency room in the morning.  They were extremely disappointed as they had really been looking forward to a double-outing for CNY that day.  :((

The little boy, however, had fun.  At the Old Jail Art Center there were booths with activities for the little ones, and the little boy made sure to go to each one of them.

He got to "manhandle with supervision", some artifacts which the lady in charge very kindly and patiently explained the history of. As you can tell from the photos, the little boy was more interested with what was going on on a big screen that they had set up. ( It was an animated storybook version of the story of the Chinese New Year )

I even got in on the action on the Buddha Boards, where I (tried to) wrote out the Chinese characters for each of our zodiac animals.



Last year, the little boy ran away from the Japanese Drums with his hands over his ears.  This year, he really enjoyed them, and tapped his feet, clapped his hands and danced in time to the drum beat.



I got to enjoy a little snack of Chinese stir fried noodles while the little boy did some mazes.



The Shackelford County Youth and Livestock show was on nearby, and so we decided to head over there next.  It was quite an eye opener as I had never been to one before.  The little boy was quite enthralled.








It was such a community thing, and I couldn't believe how much the bid kept going up up up for the animals that were shown.



We went "behind the scenes" and looked at the animals that were waiting to be auctioned off.







We got home with a little bit of time to let the dogs out and do a few things around the house, before we were out the door again to join the ACU CSSA kids for a Chinese New Year dinner at Sunrise. :) I mean, with Pig Trotters on the menu, you KNOW it is authentic Chinese food. :)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year started yesterday, and will go on for 15 days.  After numerous years of not going home for a reunion or having familiar Malaysian CNYish stuff, I decided this year that I would order some things online from an online asian store opened by a fellow Malaysian.

I got just a few things - mainly little sweet cookie/biscuity stuff which I used to take SO for granted back in Malaysia.... and a packet of assorted noodles :)

Another thing I got, especially for the little boy, was a packet of Chocolate Gold Coins, which I had planned to put in a few Red Packets/ Hong Baos for him.

 

Of course, on Chinese New Year, he got some red packets with actual money in them, but he was very much okayIseethemoney, but May I Have My Chocolate Coin Please?

*grin*

The Playground by Grandad's House

When Grandad was still alive, we would bring Jaxon to the nearby school's playground to play and romp.  Usually this was after school hours, when we could have the grounds to ourselves.

After Grandad passed, and we didn't go by there anymore, we didn't go back to that playground for the longest time.

 

So when we were by there the other day, and saw that the old equipment had been replaced by all new equipment, we thought that THAT would be as good a time as any to revisit the place.

Anyway, we invited Cindy to come with us, and she brought along Qi and her parents - who were staying at Cindy's house. 

The little boy was very excited about all the new equipment, but was a little confused that the old equipment wasn't there anymore, and at one point wanted to go off insearch of them.

 

Qi, her parents and I walked over to Grandad's old house - which was now owned by friends who go to the same church - for a bathroom break ( after being all thick skinned and getting Cindy to call first - hehe ), and the house looked wonderful.  The couple was doing a bunch of renovation, and the house never looked more beautiful :) It brought back a lot of memories to be back in the house again, and made me choke up at some point, but I am glad it is in the hands of people who are lovingly restoring it and loving to live in it.

Belated Christmas Party

Cindy left for Zambia before we could have our Bible Class Christmas Party. We had to postpone it because of a freak weather event that happened right before Cindy left, and so we had it yesterday, at Madge's house.

We watched an inspiring video sermon, and the hubs was the Barista, serving his Pumpkin Spice Lattes to the delighted ladies :).

Madge had a shelf of little toys to keep the little boy occupied - there was even a View Master, just like the one we had as kids, and I showed the little boy how to work it. Surprisingly, he enjoyed using it.

It was a pot-luck brunch, and everything was absolutely delicious :)