Subway, Swinging, Sizzling and Singing

July 4 (Monday)

Happy 4th of July to all our American friends!

Our day started off with dentist appointments for John, myself and my Mom. Next stop was with our chiropractor, Dr. Sean McLeod. He's LDS, and we had a nice visit with him. His office is right next door to our Stake President's law office, so we stopped by there to say "Hi" to President MacLennan, and give him a brief report on our mission thus far.

Aubrey, Addie, and Rhome wanted to work at Subway, so after lunch, I took them to the back of the store so they could have a Subway experience, prepping, baking, and washing dishes.

Rhome, Aubrey, and Addie making cookies.

Panning Bread...

Aubrey prepping ham 

Addie Prepping Steak

Rhome washing dishes

Nothing like team work...

Future Subway Artists

My computer has been acting up for months, so I finally took it into Best Buy and had them check it over. Hope all the bugs are worked out now.

Molly made her fabulous meatballs and spaghetti for dinner, then we watched some of the home videos that Jasmine had consolidated onto a DVD. Such fun memories!


July 5 (Tuesday)

Happy 40th Birthday, Jasmine! As I reflect back 40 years and recall this delicate little baby girl entering our life, it's hard to imagine all the livin' and lovin' that's happened over the past 40 years. The old cliche, "Where has time gone?" is so fitting.

John had an appointment at radiology. We both had appointments with the optometrist. Mom had another appointment with the denturist. Jane left on a flight back to Victoria. We made a quick trip out to Coaldale to pick up Jasmine's birthday cake, by special order request a raspberry cream cake.

We decided to treat all the kids to "Get Air" a trampoline park.  John made chicken fried steaks with mashed potatoes and gravy for all the kids and Poi Poi for supper, one of the kids favorite meals.

With all the kids fed, all the adults went out for dinner at State and Maine to celebrate Jasmines's birthday. Poi Poi was happy to stay home with the kids since she cannot hear any of the conversation in a noisy restaurant.

July 6 (Wednesday)

The week passed by quickly and already it was time for Rylan's family to leave. The kids had a blast with all their cousins. It's so nice that they moved to Idaho from Arizona. I'm sure we'll see them more often.

Before they left, we all had one last family gathering at the cemetery to pay our respects to Gung Gung (grandpa, my Dad). He's been gone for 26 years already and we all still miss him so much, especially during family gatherings. Also paid our respects to other relatives and friends who have passed on.

My Dad's Gravestone

Melisa had one request from John before her and Sherry leave tomorrow. She wanted some sizzling go ba, Panda's famous dish, stir fry over deep fried rice...sizzle, crackle, and pop! Mmmm good! We rushed off after making the sizzling go ba since we had a party to attend with our empty nester friends and others.

July 7 (Thursday)

Happy Birthday, Cardiff! Taco in a bag for dinner, the first time I have ever experienced this. Again, a special order cake from Coaldale Bakery. Unfortunately, they spelled his name wrong. We all had a good laugh. I don't think Cardiff was too impressed, but he took it in good spirit.

Are you kidding me? CARDIFF!

The appointments continued as John and I had massage appointments. Mom had another appointment to adjust her dentures and we stopped by the audiologist to see if her hearing aids could be adjusted.


July 8 (Friday)

When the Goodman family came last week, Mike just drove them here, then he had to leave the next day. He was just put in as the 1st Counselor in the Bishopric and they were going to sustain him and set him apart that weekend. So the family stayed here and he returned today to pick them up and drive back on Saturday.

Jongee and Diana had gone down to Idaho to go hiking. Jongee has a goal of hiking the tallest trail in each of the 50 states. Completing Idaho checks off his 44th state! They returned today.

It was another beautiful day and we decided to clean the yard. Since Hannah and Mitch have put an offer on a house, so she will not be living in our house any more. I do miss my house and yard, especially during the summer.

We had everyone over for dinner, BBQ salmon and ribs. The girls all wanted to go to Ardene's since they had a clearance sale of 70% off! When we got back, Bari was there. He's become a permanent fixture these past couple weeks. He is a friend of Emmy and Azia from school. The kids love him and have adopted him as "Uncle Bari".

Said our good-byes to Goodman's since they were leaving first thing in the morning. Things are winding down.


July 9 (Saturday)

We took Mom, Jongee and Diana out to lunch at a Vietnamese Restaurant before they caught their flight back to Toronto. All the company is gone.

Subway sandwiches for Jongee & Diana for their long trip back to Toronto.

We took a little drive to look around some of the newer subdivisions on the south end of town. Our kids had suggested we move into that area. However, after looking around, I think we'll just stay where we are. Our house is small, but I'm feeling so comfortable in it and I love our neighborhood.

Time to clean house. Went to visit my good friend Rita Berlando. I sure miss this lovely lady.


July 10 (Sunday)

We attended Sacrament meeting in our home ward. Later in the afternoon, we went to visit Aunt Helen. She is looking very frail, but is keeping a positive attitude. She was thrilled when she received news that Uncle Jack (her husband) was being honoured on the wall of fame in the Army Museum.

Jasmine prepared our traditional roast beef dinner. This will probably be the last roast beef we will have until we return in November. The sister missionaries (sorry, I can't remember names) were also there for dinner, then they had a ukulele jam session.

Sunday Sing-a-long with the famous Wayne Burton.

Ukulele jam session - Azia, Sister Missionaries, Emmy

End of another week. 5 weeks gone. Only 1 week left out of our 6 week break. Mixed emotions, leaving home again, but anxious to see my sisters of Pen 3 and all our senior missionary friends.

CELEBRATIONS!

June 27 (Monday)

Three weeks out of our 6 weeks break, gone already! Nice to be home for a couple weeks.

Emmy's grad is on Wednesday. Our Little Emmy Bun...graduating! She's grown up so fast into a beautiful young women. We are so proud of her. Emmy and I decided to go for mani/pedi's in preparation for her big day. It was fun just to have Grammy/Emmy time.

Monday is p-day in Hong Kong as well as in Lethbridge. Over the past few years, we have been giving free lunches at our Subway to all the missionaries on P-day. We thought it would be fun to greet them all today, since we feel like we are officially one of them.

Went for a big grocery shopping trip to stock up my fridge. It's so much fun shopping at home where food costs now seem so reasonable compared to what we've been paying in Hong Kong. We picked up my favorite Costco roasted chicken for dinner. I sure missed it.

Now that I'm home, it seems like we were never away. It's hard to believe that it's been over a year already. Not much has changed.

June 28 (Tuesday)

Today we start a string of appointments over the next two weeks. Doctors, dentist, chiropractor, massage therapist, optometrist, podiatrist, audiologist...between John, myself and my Mom, we have over 20 appointments. Most of them were for my Mom trying to fit a new pair of dentures.

I was to pick up my sister Jane from the airport at 5:00, but her flight was delayed due to thunder storms in Calgary. I had a girls night out engagement with my old high school friends, so John had to pick Jane up. I didn't see her till late that night. It was so much fun getting together with the old gang.

June 29 (Wednesday)

Happy Graduation Day...Congratulations Emmy! The day started out with Convocation at Lethbridge College. It couldn't have been a more beautiful perfect day. We saw many old friends there. It was so good to be home for this special occasion. Wayne treated us all out for lunch at Moxie's after. In the evening we returned to the college for the Grand March also known as the "Fashion Parade". This is when all the girls get to parade across the stage and show off their gown. This was followed by the dance.

  

Half way through the dance, the fire alarm went off. Everyone was asking, what's that sound? Finally, an announcement came on, "Yes, that is the fire alarm. Everyone please make your way to the exit." It was amazingly calm, no rushing or pushing. We all figured it was just a false alarm. Good thing it was, since no one was in any rush to get out of the building. That pretty much wound down the evening. Deb, John and I decided to go for ice cream.

We stopped by Jasmine's after, just in time to welcome Rylan as his family arrived from Idaho. Emmy's grad date was Ethan Chase, but she decided she didn't want to go to the grad party. Instead she wanted to be home for when the cousins arrived. I said, "Really?"

June 30 (Thursday)

Today, Mom had an appointment at the Galt Museum with Kevin McLean. He wanted to record any stories Mom had about the old days and women's role in the Kuo Min Tang and what it was like in Lethbridge back in the day when the KMT was thriving. Mom has an amazing memory for details. The museum has been trying to gather history on the Chinese people in Lethbridge.

Jane had accompanied Mom and me to the museum. We then went to Qoola for lunch. Qoola is a little frozen yogurt/lunch place owned by our friends Bill and Sharon Wong. We had chinese noodle soup and invited them to come to Mom's birthday party on July 2.

We decided we better pick up all the groceries for the party today, since tomorrow is a holiday, July 1, Canada Day. Better do it early and not be so rushed. 

Tonight we got together with some of our old FHE group and others. It was so great to see them. With all the excitement of getting together, we forgot to take a group picture! Dang! Those in attendance included Buzz and Vera Layton, Fern and DeWayne Duce, Chuck and Joan Poytress, Kent and Bernice Rolfson, Rex and BettyLou Forsyth, Jack and Anita Stockton, Richard and Anne Nelson, Dave and Anne Richards, Jeanine Colling, Sandy Burbank, Joyce Holt, and Liz Wilson. Thanks Vera for getting us all together and putting on a wonderful spread of refreshments as usual.

July 1 (Friday)

Happy Canada Day! We started the day by taking the kids to the Raymond Parade. This has been a tradition since John started teaching there many many years ago. All the floats throw out candy for the kids. It's more of a candy parade than anything. They were throwing out ice cream bars, ice cream drumsticks, popsicles, frizbees, and lots and lots of candy. The kids got quite a haul.

Jade's family arrived around noon, then we picked up Jongee our nephew and Diana his new wife mid afternoon. My heart is full having all my family home to help celebrate my Mom's 96th birthday.

Meeting Diana for the first time, Grandma, Jongee

With all of my family home, we decided to go to the research station park for a family photo shoot. It was good that Melisa and her friend Sherry also joined us to help with taking pictures.

The Junior Chan Clan #2

Clockwise: Brayden, Aubrey, Crew, Beckham, Addie

4 Generations - Goodmans

4 Generations - Burtons

Grandkids Selfie - Our 12 Grandchildren

Goodman Gang: Mike, Jade, Rhome, Rhett, Ellie

My kids - Rylan, Jasmine, Jade

The Family Tree: Chan Clan #1

The Burton Bunch: Emmy, Parker, Sawyer, Cardiff, Azia, Jasmine, Wayne

Swi-g... (cheesy family fun fotos)

July 2 (Saturday)

Rush, rush, rush. A hectic day ahead trying to prepare meals for the day. We decided to have baked ham, scalloped potatoes, house salad, corn, and pan buns for our luncheon menu. Dinner was BBQ boneless rib burgers, potato salad and chips. We definitely had plenty of food with enough left overs for Sunday dinner. Candace supplied an ice cream cake, custom designed to celebrate all the events that we were celebrating, not just Mom's 96th birthday. Rhome and Aubrey made little flags for the cake including:

    Birthdays -  PoiPoi, Jasmine, Cardiff and Aunt Ruth 

    Anniversary - Rylan & Molly

    Wedding - Jongee and Diana

    Graduation - Emmy 

    Retirement - Linda and Randy 

    New Babies - Beckham and Baby Chow 

Happy Birthday Jasmine, Poi Poi, and Cardiff

Load 'er up...

Audrey and Victor Burton (Wayne's parents), Jane (my sister)

Maddie, Hannah, Mitch, Myles

Poi Poi made a Minion pillow for Aunt Ruth, cousin Carol holding it.

Poi Poi Loves Minions!

Chillin' in the pool

Uke-sters: Jasmine, Azia, Emmy, Deb, Molly

Chan Clan

Goodman Gang

Burton Bunch

We had no special program planned, just eat and visit and visit and eat. We had about 51 people in attendance. Sharon and her daughters, Emily and Amanda came with 4 buckets of frozen yogurt. More eating. It was just a great day to be together and celebrate everyone and everything.

July 3 (Sunday)

With all our family here, we all attended church in Jasmine's ward at 11:00. Great to meet some old friends there, Had a few minutes to visit with Len and Roger Barnes and Deb Binning. Then John and I went to our own ward, Park Meadows at 1:00. Just like coming home! So good to see everyone.

We had a lot of ham left over from yesterday, so dinner was easy. Jas made up more potatoes and we ate again. Not going to lose any weight at home!