The Annual Flea Market at Church

It was an extremely busy day...

Thankfully, Kurtis was able to supervise Mom while I left early to set up and to sell stuff. I had brought 40 kilos of things back, plus we cleaned out things from our house to donate and sell.  The Flea Market started at 9, but people were already coming around to buy things by 8:30.

By 1pm, we had made 12, 600NT$! That's only our booth.

Kurtis came with my mom at 11am and my mom proceeded to eat, eat and eat some more... If she wasn't eating, she was bored!

I had scheduled a massage session for Kurtis and Mom at 1pm.  So, they left to walk over there at 12:30.

People from church helped me to pack everything up and whatever was unsold, I donated to the Second Hand Store... and the summer items and toys, I'm going to pay for boxes to be mailed to the Philippines!

I rushed back to pick Kurtis and Mom up... and I was exhausted.

I had to clean up what I had and sort through things...

Mom watched Little House and had dinner...

Abby was at school to help with the Freshmen Orientation while Isaiah had an Alumni/Students Tennis Tournament!

I was going over the schedule with Kurtis and he looked stressed... I was saying that he has tutoring three times a week and would be over here twice a week to help with "Grandma"... He didn't look happy with that... so... I think I'll just have him come once a week to help with "Grandma". It was a tiring day for him to supervise her... I thought he was used to this since he did it for the month while Grandma was in the States... Maybe it is harder with the weather being so hot and humid... I'm not sure...

Anyhow... The Annual Flea Market was a big success...

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A Sudden Downpour!

Isaiah's practice was cancelled... so he was home by 10am.

I asked him to bring Kurtis over to the modeling agency... and if they like him, they will probably ask him to sit for a portfolio shoot. And that's exactly what happened! I'd love to see Kurtis on a bus ad... and my mom and James, too...

I went to Costco and restocked our fridge. I also ran a few errands... including checking on the cell phone for my brother James as he can't receive any text messages in Vietnam using his Taiwan SIM card. I also put money in the kids' "easy public transport cards"...

The afternoon flew by... and I had to tutor.

Kurtis went to the elderly center and took a pre-ordered taxi back with my mom. Hopefully by next Wednesday, we'd be on track and the Center will escort Mom down to the taxi...

This evening, the kids and Kurtis were all home. I had lots of food in the fridge...

We watched TV... the kids and Kurtis were on their cell phone until the wifi was turned off at 11:15. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow with the Annual Church Flea Market! Finally, I can unload all that I've accumulated in the back of our car! Please pray that the rain today will give us a cooler morning!

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Trying to Get the Window Fixed...

I've been working on this for three months... Now that it's super hot, I really need to get the window fixed.

It's the window in Abby's room.

We closed it and it got really jammed!

I've called a guy to come and look at it... but he said it would be 10,000NT$.

I wanted a second opinion. But the guy has been too busy to come.

I called him again and sent him pictures of the situation. He says he will try to come before September 8th!

I had three hours of teaching today...

And Kurtis went to the Elderly Day Care Center and picked mom up and took the pre-arranged taxi back.

When I got home at 5:30, they were already home. The taxi was at the Center by 5:05! YIKES.

Tomorrow we are going to do this again... But I will have to set the dinner out before I leave.

We are going to try to see if by Monday, the Center will have someone to walk mom down!

It was another sizzling hot day!

We are all looking forward to cooler weather!

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Pictures Are Back Up...

Yes, it is finished...

I wiped everything thoroughly and started to try where to put the pictures. I didn't want to have the same arrangement. But to shift things around, I didn't want to be putting too many new nails or taking out any of the old nails.

I tried a few things and by 2pm, I was finished! And I love the way things look.

I then moved on to prep for my classes, tidying up the house and doing another load of clothes.

Isaiah went to the zoo with Vikki.

Abby worked in the morning and afternoon before joining friends at the movies.

Kurtis was home... and I turned on the AC for him as it was an extremely hot day!

I tutored this afternoon while Kurtis stayed with Mom.

No news about the scooter yet... he's taking a look to see how much it will be to fix it. Our friend told Isaiah not to buy the second hand scooter... so we have 10 days before we have to make a decision.

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Too Much for One Day... One HOT Day...

For those who read yesterday's blog, you knew what I was attempting to do today...

It was too much for one day...

But it's finished! God sustained me...

I told Kurtis that it would take about five hours, as I was calculating the time to get everything down and paint... then to put the house back in order...

Unfortunately, he wimped out quickly...

But I pushed on... Plowed on... Moved on... Fast... as I had to pick up my Mom, drop her off and dash to my tutoring.

In the midst of all the painting, I was trying to arrange: fixing Isaiah's old scooter, finding transportation for my mom (so I won't have to pick her up each day), contacting people to find out about buying a second hand scooter, and setting up a meeting time with friends from the States.

Right now, next to me are all the pictures from the wall that I still need to wipe down before I hang them back up again. Plus, I wanted to see if I can change the arrangement a bit...

The walls look so nice... Even though Kurtis wimped out quickly, I definitely needed his help as he was tall enough to reach the space closest to the ceiling!

And I still have three cans of paint left. But this paint was great. The smell was minimal and the walls are all dried! I am not going to hang anything up until tomorrow!

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Searching for A Scooter for Isaiah

This was a busy day.

I was going to take Kurtis out for a public bus tour, but we didn't leave by 9am. So instead, I went and ran errands... paid off another 2500US$ on our house loan and then went to the library to pick up a book. I then went to a scooter shop to see what they had. There were two second hand scooters and I asked about what they had for new ones. We will see what Isaiah thinks when he comes over to take the second hand scooters for a spin!

I sent Kurtis out on his own. He took the bus to Soochow University and walked around!

I scooter over to B & Q to buy paint. God worked it out miraculously. As I was talking to the paint guy, I asked for the 'rejects' and when he led me to that shelf, I couldn't believe it! There were five cans of the exact yellow that I wanted! Each can used to be 11US$, but now on sale for 4US$! I was ecstatic! This was the 'healthier' better quality paint!

I will start painting tomorrow.

I then went to Costco and bought chicken nuggets for Kurtis and some drinking yogart!

I rushed back as I got Kurtis a new student. I wanted to drive and drop him off before going to pick up my mom. He will walk back home!

Isaiah started tennis practice and Abby was gone the whole day!

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Sunday!

I started the morning getting Mom ready before I took off to tutor!

It was a hot day...

On the way back home, I went and donated blood... They had the blood mobile right by the Miramar Entertainment Center. Then we had church at 2:30...

Oh... I'm working on so many different things.
1. Isaiah's scooter... we will probably have to buy a new one.
2. Isaiah's summer internship possibilities... FBI might not work out as he might have to be in the States to complete the process.
3. Kurtis and Isaiah need more part time jobs. So, I am trying to see about getting Kurtis into modeling and more students for both of them.
4. Abby has so many different activities going on... it is difficult to keep track of what she is doing these days. I'm not sure if all her decisions are wise as she tends to be impulsive and excited about something for 10 seconds... and these might be things she went and paid money for... and then... the excitement fades... so it's difficult to get her to follow through on all her possible commitments!
5. My tutoring and teaching schedule... many of my students want me to tutor them more than one day a week... YIKES... I can't give any of these students to Kurtis or Isaiah as they need a teacher who knows the American curriculum...
Well... there are more to list... but you get the idea!

Please keep me in your prayer...

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Time for A Massage!

Kurtis was happy to accompany my mom to her massage this afternoon... while they were at their massage, I went and got one, too...

And this morning, I went to pick up Mom's Aricept medication. The doctor increased it to 10mg. But I won't start on that until we finish all her 5mg. The doctor asked if I noticed any improvement... but I couldn't see any difference...

Other than that, I worked on cleaning the house...

The day went by so quickly!

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It's Friday... ALREADY!

I need to start preparing for my upcoming talks...

I've just been busy with settling back to life in Taipei... Plus organizing for the flea market sale on 8/31, not to mention getting back to teaching and tutoring...

I was going to drop off the car to get the headlight fixed... but I pulled the car out... turned on the headlight... it was working fine. So I told Alan that I'll wait until he gets back.

Isaiah is still trying to finish his application for the FBI Summer Honors Internship Program. One requirement is that he's supposed to be in the States to finish the 'security check'. We hope that they will have a way for him to complete that while living in Taiwan. We shall see...

Abby worked and got together with her friends...

Kurtis went for a long bike ride at the River Park... I thought it would rain since a typhoon is approaching... but instead, it was hot, hot, hot... At the end of his ride, he stopped by Burger King and had a late lunch...

We wanted to have family time... but instead we ended up watching TV this evening.

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Surprise Visit of A Dear Friend!

Today was moving so fast... I can't believe I've already come to the end...

Dropped Mom off and came home to get things done... I was going to drop off the car to get the headlight fixed but a friend dropped by. We talked until when I had to leave to teach at NSB.

James, Isaiah and Kurtis picked up Mom and took her out to dinner... I'm sure she ate a lot!

Abby finally started teaching again... but she's thinking of quitting!

I'm not sure what she will decide as her choices are all based upon her feelings... I pray that she would center her life on Jesus and His Word...

This evening we had our Complex Meeting.

Isaiah did not get his transcript as the school was 'closed'... Plus he ran into a snag as one of the forms stated that he needs to be physically present in the US to complete the security process part of the application. Huh?? How in the world do they get people to actually go to a place to take a polygraph test??? We will see...

As for the weather, it was really scorching hot. I went out for my short run and got back before 8... and already I was pouring in sweat in 30 minutes!

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