Family Update

So just a quick update on what's been going on here in the Land O Leung...

APARTMENT LIFE:
We wrapped everything up for Apartment Life at the end of January. It was bittersweet. The most encouraging thing was receiving emails of THANKS from some residents. We were really affirmed and blessed by their words. We hope to take all the lessons we've learned here into our new community.

NEW HOME:
It's official now. We are new homeowners! :) We're very grateful for this home and for the many ways God has blessed us in the last few months.

MYLA!
Can you believe she's turning TWO in less than four months? Here are some Myla facts at 20 months:

• Myla has more molars now => more new foods to eat!
• Her favorite words/expressions are... go-go (dog), mao mao (cat), nai-nai (milk), buh (bird), wow... ("that looks yummy" or "that looks cool"), mmm...("that looks yummy" or "this tastes good"), uh oh, and the ever popular MORE? (always in question form)
• She LOVES to dance esp. for her go-go. She'll grab him, set him down, and just wiggle and twirl around him. It's so fun to watch.
• Myla's transitioning into one nap during the day. We're having a tough time with this one. Poor girl went from sleeping a collective 2.5-3 hrs. on two naps to 45 mins - 1 hr. with one nap...plus waking up screaming and crying. Maybe she's not ready yet...
  
• Chicky is a MEAT LOVER! YES! She esp. loves to munch on chicken drumsticks. She must have been going through a growth spurt the other night. She ate a piece of thigh and drumstick all by herself...in addition to a string cheese, some pasta, and a bit of veggies. Amazing... She loved that drumstick so much that she started eating the soft parts of the bone when all the meat was gone! I had to take it away from her.

MYLA TUBES:

It's so fun to explore different things with her these days. At first, I tried to have her finger paint, but she surprisingly didn't want to touch the paint. So I dabbed different colors on the paper and just had her paint with a brush.

Myla is in love with dogs...any kind of dogs. If it's furry and it barks, she loves. She was sick and stuck at home that day, so I made a texture tub for her and hid stuff inside the rice. She had a lot of fun with it, and when we found that dog, she was elated. :)

This was fun. :)

STILL TASTY!

I just love this website:

http://stilltasty.com

I look back at how many times I've thrown away food bc it was past the expiration date. It's a lot of wasted food. But there are tons of things in our pantry/fridge that can last well past their expiration. It just depends on the food and how it's stored.

Today I baked a cake using three eggs that were bought right before Christmas. They're still good! I did the the "submerging an egg in water test," and the eggs sunk to the bottom like they should. And to think I almost threw half a dozen eggs out this morning...They're STILL TASTY!

I LOVE This Kind of Stuff!

Missed Connections is the title of the blog of Sophie Blackall, an illustrator in NY. She looks through classified ads on sites like Craigslist and Village Voice where people post listings to find others they have missed a connection with. She pulls from those sites and illustrates them. The ads themselves are interesting and her art is just so charming and fun.

missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com

A Film About Sophie's Blog

Sean Bono created this awesome idea of having Art Battles as a way to "correct a system he saw flawed." What started out as simple painting battles in his canvas-lined apartment has grown into large live art events with Art Battles now offering competitors a unique and powerful way to showcase their work & win residences at galleries.

Live Art Battles

Myla Hugs

Myla has been going through this phase where she likes to HUG, usually people she likes. Sometimes the hugs are successful and sometimes they're not. :)

An Unsuccessful Hug (Beautiful Malak is one of our residents' daughter.)

A Successful Hug (It helps that cousin Faith has great temperament.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

God is Truly SO GOOD to Us...

He has carried us safely through this year and His love for us is evident in the people in our lives. We are so thankful for our friends and family. We couldn't have gone through this year without you all. Many of you guys were our prayer partners for Apartment Life, and we just appreciate you so much.

PARTING from APARTMENT LIFE...

As we complete our final month here as a CARES Team, we remember all the people we have met through this ministry. It has been a blessing and honor to be a part of this community. Many people have opened their lives to us, and shared their joys and pains with us. We have both celebrated and cried with them. Some we've even been able to share Christ with. Apartment Life has truly been such an awesome experience. It has been part of our daily living for the last year, and even though we look forward to taking a much needed break, we are going to miss living and serving here a lot.

Words that come to mind when I think of our experience as a CARES Team...

unique, humbling, amazing, fun, worship, prayer, community, care, service, relationships, food...lots of food :)

Things we "Leunged"in 2009...

• Worship through obedience
• Serving through simply being available
• Hospitality
• Cooking food for tons of people
• Sharing food = sharing life
• Saying "hello" to neighbors, esp. the ones we don't know
• Appreciating those who work behind the scenes (ie: our maintenance crew at the apt.)
• Our parents and siblings are so loving and awesome
• Myla is most likely a lefty
• Myla has rhythm
• Dunkin' Donuts Coffee is still our favorite
• Having our cup of coffee in the morning is as important as brushing our teeth
• Sleep is precious
• You don't always get what you want, but God will always give you what you need
• Listening to good music in the morning is good for the soul

HAPPY 2010 EVERYONE!

Myla, Uncle Pat Pat, and Myla's singing "go go"

Christmas was a bit different this year. All the Leungs were out of town, except for us.

We spent Christmas Day with the Yangs. It was nice to have everyone together again.

Myla was still healing from a bad cold, and Gordon and I were both sick. But none of us were too sick to enjoy great food with people we adore.

Highlights:

Peking Duck, homemade treats, yummy cookies Patrick got from a shop we like on his way back from Austin, awesome, awesome egg custard with lots of crust (my personal fav), spending time with everyone, and watching Myla Fall in Love with "Go Go," her new singing dog

MYLA and "Go Go"

So my dear friend Joyce got us this cute singing dog along with some yummy chocolate covered strawberries for Christmas. Myla was really scared of "Go Go" (it's what she kept calling him, even though the tag says his name is Monty).

By Christmas though, she had warmed up to him a bit. She was still hesitant to even get near him, but she LOVED dancing to the songs it played. So all day long, she would ask people to turn it on for her. This is what we heard all day long for like three days straight, "More...Go Go. More?" She says this of course with her puppy dog eyes and this desperate look on her face, and we fall for it every time. arrgh...I still have "Jingle Bells" ringing through my head.

Resurrection of the Blog

Yes.  We're back!  I'm giving this blog thing another try...again.  Hopefully I'll keep it up this time.

SNOW in Houston!

 When we first got outside, Myla just stared at the snow falling.

 

More staring and wondering...

 

She did try to feel the snow but then quickly proceeded to something more familiar-

hopping in all the puddles. :)

Thanksgiving in Maryland

The whole Leung clan spent Thanksgiving this year with Mike and Lydia in Maryland. It was Myla's first trip out of state since she was 2 months old. It was quite an adventure.

Poor Myla was not in the mood for a photo.

Super fresh and tasty oysters from Cantlers.

The cherrystone clams were fresh and even more delicious than the oysters.
Mmmm....would love to have some now.

Family pic at Cantlers. (Let's ignore the fact that I'm the only one not looking in the camera, and even worse...I think I was trying to taste Myla's chicken tenders. They were tasty.)

Faith is so cute. :) She likes to smile with her tongue sticking out.

Myla working diligently on her corn.


Myla! In our bedroom at Uncle Mike and Auntie Lydia's.

Mike and Lydia were great hosts and were super gracious...esp. when it came to enduring Myla's screaming during the night. She just never adjusted well to the changes. We were all very tired... But spending time with family was worth it all.

Myla: Thanks for playing with me, Uncle Mikey!

THINGS we Leunged:

-It's best to travel with Myla in the morning.
-When traveling with Myla, distract her with lots of food.
-Flying with an overtired Myla at night = nightmare.
-Myla can climb out of a pack n play now.
-Letting go.

Things we Enjoyed: 

-Eating with the fam at Cantlers: crabs, oysters, cherrystone clams, and hushpuppies...YUM.
-Timbuktu crab cakes (still the best we've ever had)
-Having lots of Dunkin' Donuts Coffee
-Seeing Mike and Lyds
-Spending time with everyone

The Honeymooners are Back!

...And we are safe and dry. We did not get swept away! No hurricanes in the Dominican. Only blue skies, tall palm trees, and beautiful beaches. The only dangerous thing there was probably the numerous topless European women and their men with tight skimpy speedos. (Nothing against Europeans, bare boobs, or speedos, but our eyes were just not accustomed to seeing them everyday...all hours of the day.)

********************************************************
We stayed at the Majestic Colonial Resort in Punta Cana. Very new. Opened Winter of 2005. Very pretty, and very clean.




The pool was like a river


Stairway up to grand lobby



Hotel lobby at night

****************************************************
We had a great time. It was very relaxing. We went to the beach almost everyday, did two excursions, drank a lot, ate a lot, and slept a lot. We had cable in our room, which was a luxury for us since we hadn't set up our tv since we got married. So we watched a lot of cable too. It was great!

The food at the resort was ok though.
Dominican Republic has wonderful fresh fruit.
But Amy started to get bored of the coconuts after Day 5. She really missed Chinese food.
She had beef noodle soup two days in a row when she got back!










****************************************************
We drove a jeep with another couple and toured the countryside with other tourists.








We visited a typical home in the mountains of DR. There we ate different types of fruit, sampled Dominican coffee, and watched a cock fight.


The Leungsters and fresh Dominican coffee beans




Cock Fighting: Kinda like sumo wrestiling but just with more feathers and flapping




Our final destination was this beautiful beach.




There, we ate a typical Dominican Republic meal, went horseback riding along the shore, and just relaxed.




*************************************************

We also went Sea Walking.


We wore these astronaut-like helmets and walked around this underwater aquarium in the ocean. Air was pumped inside to keep the water out. We looked kinda creepy, but it was cool to take a stroll with a bunch of beautiful fish.

*************************************************

We visited "Don Lucas," a cigar workshop/store near the resort.
They put Gordon to work right away. :)





Cigar maker, Gordon, Luca (co-owner)

*******************************************************

Things We "Leunged"

1) Rain or shine, the only way to get on a plane in Punta Cana is to go outside.



2) Gordon can out-relax his wife. He can be SO chill...just laying out on the beach for hours. Such talent!



3) Amy + Bubbles = Bad Wife.
In an attempt to be romantic, Gordon put together a nice bubble bath for two. But Amy bursted his bubbles when she discovered how fun it was to play with them. As you can see, Gordon did not find Amy's attempt to make him look like George Washington amusing.



4) Beware of Sea Lions. Their kisses are smelly.




****************************************************

Well, that's about it, folks. We had a great time, and, without the help of bubbles of course, we rekindled some of the sparks that had sort of faded since the wedding.



Maybe someday we'll set foot on the sandy white beaches of Punta Cana again. =)