Elmo's Potty Time

My coworker loaned me a DVD called Elmo's Potty Time. This DVD is supposed to help potty train Arnold. There is another DVD called Go Potty Go, which is about a panda going to potty. Go Potty Go is supposed to be more effective than Elmo's Potty Time, but we're willing to try both at this point.

We have moved into the Sam's Club Building. It's very pretty. Everything is ergonomic. We can use dry erase marker on our windows. The carpet looks very dotcomish. We have a huge cafe that serves a lot of varieties of good food now. We even have windows and balconies. It's a huge improvement from our warehouse-like building before.

I have to commute a bit longer to work though, but that's all right since I've been working from 7 am to 8 pm this week. Traffic is really not that bad at these odd hours, but Biajee had to take care of making dinner.

Arthur had 2 loose bowel movements at school today. We need to feed him starch and banana for dinner only. If he has another loose bowel movement, the school will have to send him home. Fortunately, we're almost at the end of the day and the opportunity of that is miniscule.

冰冷的阿肯色

我们终于深切地体会到阿肯色荸荠科罗拉多来，气候要恶劣很多。这个星期阿肯色连下几场雪，气温降到华氏零度，当地学校和健身房关门好几天，给我们的生活和工作造成很多不便。

Biajee过生日我们去骨鱼烧烤屋吃了很多海鲜，当然是在华氏十度左右的低温下出门，还带着两位小少爷。幸亏菜做得很好吃，还算值得出门一游。我在一月五日早上五点多时试图给儿子们注册游泳课失败，真正的注册始于一月四日早上五点，而且所有课程在一个小时之内全部满员，只好等下一学期了。好在游泳课学期是十周一循环，所以三月底四月初的时候可以再试。

经验教训是一定要在课程开始注册的第一天早上五点钟打电话，否则将痛失荆州。我的同事大大抱怨说这里的人简直是法西斯，非要逼大家早起。怎么办？只好入乡随俗。下一轮游泳课我们一定得注册上。小小体育馆的课程下个星期就结束了，我不打算再给孩子们继续上体操课，因为时间有可能与未来的游泳课冲突。体操的一学期从1月18日到5月29日，还有可能与星期六早会撞车，所以由我们带孩子们游泳比较好。

阿肯色人对雪是很惧怕的，因为这里没有铲雪设施，下过雪之后路面就结冰，导致开车很危险，使大家有借口在家工作。我也只好装得很害怕的样子啊，好象每天出生入死开车上班似的，非常有趣。不过前几天我们小区结的冰完全可以开溜冰场了。今天家门口的世界体育馆的儿童乐园发大水了，我们只好去J街的体育馆，学习了桑巴舞。Biajee跳得很认真。不过好像跳桑巴舞需要身材胖，否则不好看。

圣诞节

刚刚修好的木地板好像又有问题了，这个项目要交给Biajee去做，所以他会给盖房子的人打电话。Biajee说这很正常。

我们的电视和电视柜改为明天送货了，所以这周末并没有看到新电视，但孩子们都很开心。圣诞节的时候下了雪，这是奔腾村自1975年以来的第一次白色圣诞节。

我们又去了当地的家具店，发现有一套餐桌和椅子非常适合我们的早餐餐厅。但是桌面是不平的，有点波浪一样的微微有纹路，据说这是最新潮的趋势，这样子如果孩子们将餐桌弄出凹陷就看不出来了。Biajee和我商量着要不要也新潮一把。而且现在的趋势是沙发前面都不摆放咖啡桌了，要放那种搁脚的奥托曼，这样客人来了还可以坐，又不必使客厅里充满家具。而且还可以买一个盘子，将看电视时喝的饮料放在上面。

总之，Biajee受了现代派家具的教育之后，有点觉得自己落伍了。

早上阿诺发烧了，大概是这几天冻着了。圣诞节那天我们全家去好风景的小公园散步，当时气温只有华氏26度，风也很大，我们一定是疯了。今天一天还没有出过家门，好像应该出门去购物，否则会得“山洞狂”的心理疾病，好可怕的。

我们已经选好种什么样的灌木了，春天就可以去买来破土了。一切都是为了风水。

White Christmas

We filed Biajee's green card application to the attorney's office today. It was sent by FEDEX ground so they should get it around next Wednesday. We hope it'll be officially filed to US Department of Homeland Security some time in January.

It is also said that we're going to get about 6 to 8 inches of snow starting from noon tomorrow. It'll be a true white Christmas then. Nobody should be driving on the road then since it could be very dangerous. We had some heavy rain this morning, which made us feel the ceiling of our office was about to drop on our head.

We made a nice try to to the Circuit Court of Benton county yesterday applying for Arthur's passport. The office was closed between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm since everyone went to a Christmas dinner.

We took Arthur to Table Mesa for lunch instead. It's a modified style Mexican restaurant and their food is definitely first class. They even used Shanghai Bok Choi for both fish entrees we ordered.

Biajee finished cleaning up the rental house and setting up Christmas tree in the new house yesterday. His big project today is to throw away our old queen size bed and mattress. We can no longer stand mattresses. We only sleep on hardwood bed, i.e., tatami beds these days.

Crawling Forward

Arthur officially started to crawl forward on Dec. 20th. He seems to not realize that he has the super ability to crawl forward at this moment. He is only crawling for it only when something extremely attractive is in front of him.

The Zhu Zhu Pets are very well received amongst my coworkers. It is a very cool toy for kids and adults. The Zhu Zhu can run around, squeal or turn according to a computer chip built inside it.

We're planning on applying for a passport for Arthur during lunch today. His picture was taken at Sam's Club a few weeks ago. We just didn't find the time to take him to the County Clerk. Yes, we do not have to go to the postoffice to do it. The county clerk can seal the application, check our IDs and send it to US Department of State. I don't think we're going to the postoffice to apply for passport any more in future.

Biajee's plan today is to clean out the rental house since our utility and water will be stopped by Dec. 23rd. We went to BestBuy last night and picked out a TV console. The store opens till 10 pm for holidays.

Zhuzhu Pet

We got up early today and bought a lot of Zhuzhu pets since I was going to give everyone in my department a Zhuzhu pet for Christmas. Two of the people have left the office for the holiday so maybe they'll not receive anything from me. It'll be weird for them to see something sitting on their desks after they come back from the holiday.

Biajee and I returned the TV and the TV stand we bought from Sam's Club. The Philips TV is nothing compared to Samsung. We ordered a Samsung 52 inch LCD from BestBuy, which will be delivered and installed on Dec. 26th. Now we need to order a TV stand for it. We are still eyeing BestBuy for the TV stand. There is one that costs around $500 that'll probably soothe our needs.

There will be a storm and snow hitting Bentonville starting from tomorrow so we may even have a white Christmas. The weather is beautiful today, but Christmas will be cold. Helen Walton is closed on Christmas Eve so Biajee will have to watch the kids for half of the day since I didn't take any time off.

减价

今天去圣诞聚会之后顺便去山姆俱乐部买了些过节的食品，发现有些东东已经开始减价，于是买了两个箱包准备送给同事。Biajee已经决定星期一早上跟着任潮去抢购猪猪宠物，今年最热的圣诞礼物。我们准备多买几个，送一个给阿瑟当生日礼物。

早上带孩子们去了小小体育馆学习体操。Biajee基本上已经把所有破烂搬进新房子了，只不过大部分东东都还在箱子里。拆箱子大概又要花一个星期的时间。好在我既经决定下星期请假，和Biajee一起去堪萨斯城买家具，还可以在家睡觉，出去吃饭和看电影。

早知道自己这么辛苦，应该多休几周假。我的美国护照申请已经交上去了。现在我们在等待税务局的2007和2008年的缴税收据，拿到之后就可以帮Biajee申请绿卡了。这段时间过节，公司里大部分同事都休假了，很多人已经离开本地，回乡过年了。想不到这里在节日时会如此冷清。

我们的新电视看上去也很好，只是希望山姆俱乐部不要将它减价，否则我们会义不容辞地退货的。我们现在正在搜寻好看的原子钟，其实需要好几个，只好慢慢买。

刚才在网站上发现我最喜欢的护肤品商店买礼品卡打折，于是我用上次打折的礼品卡买了新的打折礼品卡，增加了生前的数量。Biajee建议我再多干几次，没准能将礼品卡的价格减少到最低，多么可怕的物理专业人才。

Hair Business

I went to Brian's home for his birthday party last night after doing my hair.

The salon I go to has 3 hair dressers worked on me so far. The first one was a nice girl. It took her about 2.5 to 3 hours to do my hair. She left a few months ago. Then I got a young girl who was an apprentice. It took her 3 to 4 hours to do my hair. She quit 2 months ago so now the owner of the salon does my hair and I can usually be out of there within 2 hours.

The amazing thing is I used to pay $120 for the first girl, $80 for the 2nd girl. Now I'm paying $75 for the owner. Salon is an interesting business. The markup of products and labor can be so high that it's easy to cut price in half or offer something to customer for free.

I also got a clear understanding of this year No 1 Christmas wish list for kids: Zhu Zhu Pet. Amazon is selling it for $30, eBay is selling it for $50. Starting from next Monday, Walmart stores will sell it for $8 from Monday to Wednesday, starting from 7am. Maybe we should get one for Arthur's birthday. Biajee will have to decide whether he'd like to fight the crowd in the stores next week.

LCD

Biajee bought a new LCD TV and a TV stand from Sam's Club yesterday. This happened at the same time when I was in the oath ceremony for my citizenship. I had to go to the courthouse of Western District of Arkansas in Fort Smith. There were about 50 people taking the oath yesterday and I was the only person from China.

The appointment letter said I need to arrive there at 8:30 am, but I got lost again as usual so I was late for about 20 minutes. The way it was set up was everyone had to sign in first and then the ceremony began. So even if I had arrived earlier, I would still have to wait for all the people to sign in.

Then everyone had to stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance together. We each got a Certificate of Naturlization. Now we can apply for a US passport. Right after the ceremony, I found a parking ticket on my car and I had to go to the Police Department of Fort Smith to pay for it. I parked my car at meter parking, which only takes enough money for an hour. I put more money in, but the time on the meter will not change. This is just a gift of being an American citizen - I contribute to tax dollars.

Trash Can

Our new trash can and recycle can arrived at the new house today. Biajee took Arthur to The Little Gym this morning to make up for last Saturday's class. We're thinking about signing Arthur up for the swimming class in the Walton Fitness Center next semester.

I'll have to join the Walton Fitness Center as a member first. At this point, it's all about Arthur because Arnold is enrolled in four classes at school. We went to his Christmas dance recital last Saturday and he did pretty well.

Biajee forgot to move the hair dryer yesterday so I came to work with wet hair today. Judging that I already caught a cold, it really won't have extra negative effects on me.

Commute from the new house to the company is better than the rental home. It only takes 7 minutes for me to get to work every morning. It's a bless that we live in a small town. I'm really tired of the metropolitan area at this stage of my life.

Virgin Night

I talked to Biajee on the phone. He was making strides moving us. All the beds are in the new house now, which means we're going to sleep our virgin night in the new house.

The downside is that Arthur is sick. He is having diahrrea and is throwing up. Biajee had to go to Hellen Walton and pick him up. We will not have a TV today because all these crisis leave Biajee no time to go shopping for the TV. The Cox guy won't come to switch our service till Thursday so even if we have the new TV, there will be no signals yet.

We unpacked some boxes of books on Sunday and there will be a lot of throw away trash for our family. If anyone needs a superior mover, I would strongly recommend Biajee. He moved the whole family all by himself, without renting a U haul or hiring extra hands. Talking about Every Day Low Cost, the motto of Walmart, nobody has stood by it as firmly as Biajee.

We bought 2 bar stools from Sam's Club yesterday. The were close to cherry wood color, perfect match to our kitchen. We have decided to buy our kitchen table from Nebraska Furniture Mart as well. We look forward to our trip to Kansas City on Dec. 28th, our wedding anniversary date.

Homeowner

We're homeowners now. Today is 13 degrees on the low end and wind chill is close to zero. Biajee is moving in this weather. I told him we could hire a moving company if he doesn't want to move us. But he said he could do it by himself.

We're going to sign the paper work for home owner's insurance during lunch. The house doesn't have insurance yesterday and today so if it catches on fire, we're totally hosed.

I'm thinking of taking the last week of the month off as vacation days and stay home. I need to cool down and recharge and enjoy the new house. We could take a day to go to Kansas City and buy some furniture during that week. And we can go out to eat, shop and just enjoy the time with only two of us. It's been a while since we did that.

I've copied some of the documents for Biajee's green card application. There are still more to be printed. Hopefully I'll get a citizenship card next week so we can file everything to the attorney.

Closing

We are closing on our new house at Elite Title Company in Rogers at 4 pm this afternoon. Our appraisal came out to be exact the same price as the contract price of the house. This sounds a bit weird. But since the house has 90% of what we need, we should not be mad at paying a bit more for it.

It's going to be rainy and cold this whole week and Biajee is going to move us all. It took 4 Walmart associates 2 hours to move all our stuff from Colorado so we assume it'll take Biajee about a week to move most of the things. Biajee had to arrange everything besides moving. It's a huge project.

Biajee went to get a Bentonville Library card yesterday. All our books are packed and in boxes so he had to go to the library to read good books. Our goal is to have everything unpacked and all the boxes emptied and thrown away by Christmas. We need to set up the tree and the gifts for the boys.

Arnold is getting an F-22 transformer and Arthur is getting a train/track set. Santa Claus will bring these to them from the chimney of the new house.

检查

昨天对新房子进行了彻底检查，没有发现大毛病。洗衣机，烘干机和电冰箱都已经运到了。这周末工人们会将木地板重新整修一遍，有松动的地方都会重新刷胶。Biajee星期一下午会再去做一次检查。马上就要搬新家了，我们都很兴奋，想到还要花很多钱添置家具和电器，不由得有些发愁。不过一切都可以慢慢来，先安顿了再说。

非常希望能在新家里住到孩子们上大学。希望Biajee能早些找到工作，我们就可以不用为任何事担忧了。一会儿得帮他把简历改写一遍。现在的问题是Biajee的简历寄出去，根本拿不到面试，所以希望朋友们能把简历寄给他，让他借鉴借鉴，知道该怎么写才能表现自己的价值。

我决定把乔治佛曼的烧烤机送给卡拉了，反正我们也用不到，美国人比较喜欢烧烤。我的秘密圣诞老人上星期送了我一些巧克力和垃圾，不知道下个星期会出什么花样。下星期二房子买下来之后Biajee就会开始搬家，扔东西，想到他一个人要搬我们四个人的东东很是心疼，于是告诉他，所有懒得搬的东东全丢掉算了，反正我没有恋物癖。

我们希望能够买一台新电视，沃尔玛的价钱不错。房子的卖方经纪人会给我800块钱买电视，正好可以买一台50寸的松下平面超薄的，大概可以凑合看了。本来想在楼上装投影机和幕布的，但总觉得那间阁楼太小了，装个大幕不会给人头晕目眩的感觉。

Lost

I lost Biajee today. He wouldn't pick up the cell phone and he is with Arthur. I have no idea where he is at the moment and I was going to go to lunch with them.

Arthur had a fever yesterday and was separated from other infants at school. Biajee was supposed to take Arthur to the doctor's to make sure it's nothing related to kidney problems. We think the cause may be that Arthur got tired of our Thanksgiving trip to Kansas City.

It's freezingly cold in Arkansas these days. It's going to rain this afternoon through tomorrow. I have to scrape ice for 15 minutes every morning before I can drive the car. Can't wait to move into our new house so that we can park in the garage.

My secret Santa at work still hasn't given me any Christmas gift. I've given up hope of receiving gifts this year. At the end of the game, we're supposed to find out who our secret Santa is and I could punch the person in the nose at that time.

The Trip to Kansas

We went to Kansas City for Thanksgiving. We had great Chinese food every meal. Biajee got a stomache flu throughout the four days we were there so he wasn't able to enjoy the gourmet food very much.

We went to Union Station in downtown. There were toy trains set up for running for the holidays, which got Arnold very excited. We also stopped by Hallmark Visitor Center, which is at the headquarters of Hallmark. We saw how a greeting card was made and even asked for one.

We stopped by Nebraska Furniture Mart and Restaurant Depot.

Nebraska Furniture Mart is such a perfect example of a retail store that it killed all the furniture business in the Kansas area. I would cry if I had to compete directly with them.

Restaurant Depot is similar to Home Depot, but targeting the restaurant business. It is still a private firm with 75 stores. Every store is staffed with previous restaurant owners or chefs. They certainly have a market niche.

I'm scheduled to go for the Oath Ceremony for US citizenship on Dec. 16th in Fort Smith. What a busy month.

感恩节前

今年的感恩节全家去堪萨斯城购物。Biajee星期五带孩子去市中心玩，我则去山姆俱乐部工作一天，这样就可以不用年假了。希望可以买到称心的西装和羊绒衫。

上周末大学同学邱育和携妻子蒋玉清路过我家，吃了正宗的重庆火锅，还去购物了。我们自从大学毕业之后就没见过面，算来已经有十五年了。他们夫妇取道美国，去阿根廷做生意，能经过阿肯色是很不容易的。这都是因为以前邱育和在阿肯色的拉瑟村住过八年，此次专程访友，顺便来看看我们。世事沧桑，感觉老同学一点都没有变，好怀念无忧无虑的大学生活。现在想起来恍若隔世。

这几天工作非常辛苦，大概因为快过节的缘故，所有的事情都赶在一起了。我们的新房子12月8日交货。之后Biajee会蚂蚁搬家，在12月底之前把家搬好。我们还得买些家具。这辈子第一次买新房子，很是开心。只希望不要再被公司裁员就好。

Biajee今晚带儿子们上体操课去了。我下班晚，索性回家做饭。明天下午3点就可以下班了，得好好利用。房间收拾得非常干净。Biajee是百分之百的好丈夫。有时候我只想休一星期假，在家和他在一起，就这么对坐着发愣，说很无聊的话，就很满足了。

前几天晚上开车Biajee看到流星了，可是没有来得及许愿，好可惜。他问我要许什么愿，我说：“很简单吗，但愿人长久，就好了，多念几遍。我们还能在一起过3000多个星期呢。”

Citizenship Test

I passed the citizenship test yesterday. I'll receive an appointment letter for ceremony in 30 to 45 days.

I finished my Christmas shopping as a secret Santa after the citizenship test. We stopped at Shogun in Fayetteville for lunch. I don't recommend this a good restaurant. The variety of fish is quite limited and service is not that good. Biajee and I were concerned that they spent too much money on the building and overhead.

Our new house will close on December 8th. We found out that our current Bose speakers will not work with the new structure. The new house is pre-wired with in wall speakers. We need two pairs of them, one for downstairs and the other for upstairs bonus room. Biajee is already studying what types of speakers we should purchase. Chances are we'll buy Bose as well.

I'm volunteering this afternoon at Sunshine School in Benton County. The weather is icy cold, but I have to dig up playground outside.

Offer

We put down an offer on a brand new home last Sunday. Obviously the builder would not come down on price. I was a bit nervous because the house is still under construction. If I negotiate the price too hard, they could deliver a crappy piece of finished work.

We got a 2nd counter offer today. The builder will buy us a new side by side refrigerator and a set of top line side-by-side washer and dryer and write us a rebate check. Basically he doesn't want to sacrifice his comparable sales per square foot so that when he sells to other customers, he could still make money.

Now the ball is in our field. We have to decide whether to buy the house or not. Biajee and I will meet for lunch to talk about it as the builder would like to know today. He is holding up the painting job and other work for my decision.

My boss told me he would never buy a house in Bentonville because his salary and bonus already ties to the performance of Walmart. He cannot have such a large investment as a house tie to the same company. It's like putting all the eggs in one basket.

Then I asked him whether he'd fire me. He said he'd guarantee that I wouldn't be fired in 2 years, but cannot guarantee as long as 10 years. Of course, the relocation contract says that I would have to give back all the money they paid for if I leave the company in 2 years so I should at least stay here for 2 years.

It's a very hard decision.

Halloween

We took the boys to my company on Friday for Trick-or-Treat. We got the same amount of candies as we got from Corporate Express in the previous years. The decorations in the office was amazing. Our people were very efficient. They turned the buildings into haunted places within 2 hours.

Yesterday we went shopping in Promenade Mall, an outdoor mall that imitates the mall in LA. Biajee bought a shirt from Jos A Bank and I bought a pair of Yoga pants from Victoria's Secret. Our redemption coupon of a small beauty item expired so we didn't get a free lip gloss for me.

It feels great to walk outside. We went to Runa's house for a Halloween party. Most people dressed up and the food she provided were amazing. Everything was vegetarian but delicious.

We left Runa's house at 8:30 and went for Trick-or-Treat for a while. It wasn't long enough for Arnold. Arnold would rather go Trick-or-Treat for the whole night than a Halloween party. We need to remember that starting from next year we'll block Halloween night for Trick-or-Treat only. No parties or any other plans.

繁忙的星期六

美联储的利率如果不涨，经济便没有真正复苏。失业率仍然是9.7%，所以房地产市场不会很快上扬。不过现在应该已经渡过经济危机的最低谷了，因为再也不会有那么多例如里曼兄弟公司和AIG之类的大公司破产了。

Biajee现在算是正式失业了，所以全家的生计又落到我一个人肩膀上了。现在沃尔玛总部又贴出很多技术部门的工作，Biajee申请之后被告知不合格，所以我正逼着他改写简历。简历写得不好，连面试都拿不到。他终于同意我的意见了。

阿瑟现在已经会叫阿诺的名字了，但还不会叫爸爸妈妈呢。他觉得爸爸妈妈很好，但是哥哥很酷。昨天早上带阿诺和阿瑟去上体操课，之后阿诺去踢足球，还进了球。我们回家吃了火锅，下午出去给阿诺买了一双新的足球鞋，是“山猫”牌的，他非常喜欢。试鞋的时候，Biajee更喜欢一双耐克的白色足球鞋，我不得不提醒他我们是在给阿诺买鞋，应该尊重阿诺的意见。儿时的可怕记忆充满了我的脑海，想起以前爸爸妈妈带我去挑衣服，买的衣服全都是他们喜欢的，从来没有我真正喜欢的，所以到今天我也不会给自己买衣服。当然另一个原因是，我喜欢的衣服一般都是最贵的，以前的经济状况下根本买不起。

晚饭在山姆俱乐部吃了热狗和比萨饼，回家已经困得睁不开眼，阿瑟醒来了，于是赶快为他吃奶，吃香蕉和小星星饼干，之后全家睡睡。希望今天下午能去看红叶。

Immigration Interview Appointment

I received the immigration interview appointment today. The big date is November 17. I have to be there at 10 am and be prepared to answer all kinds of questions of American history and politics.

There is a CD in my car at the moment so that I could listen to the questions and answers every day to be prepared for this interview. I'll have to give up Chinese citizenship soon. Part of me will be empty forever.

Tomorrow is gymnastics and soccer day. Biajee is still in Colorado. I've had a long and exhausting week. Can't wait for Biajee to get home and shoulder off some of the parenting burdens.

It's been rainy and cold lately. We should go shop for some pants or suits for me. I need pants that go with suits and pitifully I don't even know which brands are nice and where to buy them. I definitely would welcome any advice. The theme for work clothing should be boring and conventional.

快速阅读

我们组的副总裁建议大家学习快速阅读。每个学习了快速阅读的人都可以和他共进午餐，并且由他承担午餐费用。第一个学习完《快速阅读》的人可以挑选自己最喜欢的餐馆。我们花了十几块钱从网上订购了全套教材，包括6盘磁带，一本书和一盘录像带。

由于上述物品全部属于上个世纪，我们只好去沃尔马买了一台磁带播放机，今天听完了六盘磁带，赶快把磁带播放机退了。现在我们在俄克拉何马城的旅馆里试图用自带的录像机播放录像，不幸的是机器绞带子了，而且只有两个台是可以放录像的，第三台和第四台。第三台只能放出声音，第四台只能放出图像。我们选择了第三台，因为这种录像带主要是听声音，看到的图像是无聊的培训员的脸。

明天早上阿瑟在医院做检查的时候我可以把那本书读完，之后就可以预约和副总裁吃午饭了。我还得把这套教材借给下属，她用完之后我们再放到网上卖掉，以得到最大的投入产出比。学习这么落后的技能实在是一种挑战，就连起码的设施都不存在。看来让副总裁请吃午饭也不那么容易的，真是命运多舛。

今晚住的旅馆和上个月一样，是从网上订的拉群塔旅馆，最低价格，用的是我们公司的员工优惠价。明天早上8：30就得到医院报到，9：00开始第一个检查，之后是10：00的检查，11：00的检查。下午4点钟看医生，大概就能决定阿瑟需不需要做手术。我心里很紧张，这么可爱的心肝宝贝儿舍不得被医生来回摆弄，但这完全是为了他的健康。希望一切顺利。

Cricket

A cricket was in our master bedroom last night and it was singing all night long. I got up at 4:30 in the morning, couldn't stand it any more. After taking a shower, I found it on the bathroom floor. Then I killed it with toilet paper and flushed it.

Arnold didn't sleep well either because of the noise. Arthur had a bit of cough this morning. I'm suspecting that he picked up some bugs from Helen Walton Children's Enrichment Center. The kids love the new school, especially Arnold. He is learning so much every day.

I have to prepare bottled milk vs frozen milk in the morning. It's more like Montessori standard. I'll do notary this afternoon when I pick them up and sign both boys up for photography. The sitting fee is $10 per person.

It's been raining all day. I need to leave the house earlier tomorrow so that I could go to the gym in the morning after dropping them off. Arnold is already unhappy with me. "It's still dark outside." He said yesterday when we started the car at 6 am. Well, they wake me up and I need to wake them up as well. We're a family and we share the burden.

Car Insurance

Our car insurance went up $220 for half a year after we moved to Arkansas. It's quite dangerous to drive here. Police cars are hiding at every corner of the road and will stop you even if you're one mile above speed limit.

There are a lot of trucks on the road as well, which makes driving more stressful. Biajee went to the DMV today and was told we didn't have sufficient documents to get our registration processed.

We're running out of vegetables soon. Maybe we can survive with bean sprouts and carrots today, but we may need to make a grocery shopping trip tomorrow. I don't think I need anything while Biajee is in Colorado next week. I'll just try to survive.

The seller asked us to fix a list of things after home inspection and I refused. My realtor suggested that I drop the price of the house for $1,200 more. I refused again. We don't know whether the house could be closed by end of this month yet, but at least the buyer has paid for inspection.

The Little Professor

Ms. Linda is Arthur's teacher at Roger's ABC Happy Kids. She was almost in tears when she learned that Arthur would be transferred to Helen Walton Day Care Center. "He'll be a professor when he is 3 years old." She said.

Helen Walton Day Care was set up by Sam Walton's wife and has been a highly regarded and accountable place for infant and pre-school care. When we picked up the kids last Friday, I saw Ms. Linda's comment on Arthur's Daily Activity Sheet, "I'll miss my little professor."

It breaks my heart to have to move the children to another school since they just got used to the current one. However, it's for their best interest and my best interest. I cannot have any more speeding ticket in the mornings and cannot waste time in traffic court or traffic schools any more.

Arthur had had his first taste of icecream in the past weekend and apparently was very fond of it. Although we should not give him any citrus, I still let him lick the orange cone we got from Braum's. At least I didn't give him true ice cream with dairy in it. That would be devastating.

公民

今天早上4：30就被阿诺吵醒了，他又发烧了，看来猪流感非常盛行。只好接着已经起床的这股东风，把申请公民的文件搞齐，星期一去公司复印之后就可以寄出了。

两个孩子劳动节之后就转学去海伦沃顿幼儿园了。学费会比现在昂贵一些，但学校设施非常好，而且离家和公司都非常近。阿瑟今天上午8：45去试上小小体育馆的课，主要是练习爬行和走路。阿诺11：45去试上体操课，下午1点去踢足球。之后我们会给阿瑟注册一个学期的小小体育馆，但阿诺已经参加了足球队，所以就不上体操课了。

晚上我们会去朋友家聚餐，每人带一个菜。我们准备带的菜还在山姆俱乐部呢。今天准备烤三文鱼，等两个孩子的活动结束之后就去买鱼。这里的朋友很多是华人教会的，好在他们并没有极力逼我们信教，所以还是可以一起吃饭聊天的。大部分人都在沃尔玛工作，今天聚会的主办家庭是潘统升家，他在沃尔玛国际部投资策划部做高级财务经理，非常聪明的一个人。沃尔玛分舵和国际部分舵的人好像都比山姆俱乐部分舵的人聪明，每次和他们谈话都有“听君一席话，胜读十年书”的感觉。

Biajee正在剪草，下个星期六他就要回科罗拉多了，我又要一个人带着孩子过苦日子了。上次他申请的四份工作有两个职位被取消了，另外两个职位已经招了别的人。今年初技术部门裁了1000人，所以再找人的时候一定会先从这1000人里筛选，除非Biajee是程序界的泰斗，否则很难与这些人竞争。能被招进沃尔玛公司的人全都是天才，需要经过严格考试，简直和进微软差不多。

Selling the House

We got an offer on our house yesterday and we countered back. The buyer has signed the contract today. Now we're selling the house at $18,000 below the price we bought at. In today's market with the double digit unemployment rate, I am not too upset about it.

We have to go through inspection and then seal the deal. I don't think I'll pay for anything if the buyer finds out a list of things of the house that need to be fixed. They've already got a sweet deal and if they don't want to invest any more money, we'll just break the deal.

I feel like part of me has gone blank. After the house is closed, which will be at the end of September, if the buyer has no problem getting the loan, we totally cut our connection with the state of Colorado. Arkansas will be our permanent and only home going forward. If I ever get laid off again, the same amount of money will last us longer in Arkansas as the day care and housing is cheaper.

I'm taking Dale Carnegie class at the moment for 12 weeks. We meet every Monday evening for 4 hours. I am learning a lot about confidence, communication, public speaking and managing stress.

暗度陈仓

从我上班的第一天起，老板和同事就信誓旦旦地告诉我山姆俱乐部坚决反对加班和周末加班。但后来老板的种种举动让我觉得他实际上是非常需要我周末加班的。尤其是着周末他开始给我发电子邮件，我的下属也开始给我打电话询问工作事宜。原来他们说得那么漂亮的工作生活两不误的话全都是幌子，所谓“明修栈道，暗渡陈仓”讲的就是这班人马的所作所为了。

我其实并不反对加班，但对心口不一的人和事非常反感。我宁愿接受丑陋的现实，也不愿意为加班的理念和精神困扰。山姆俱乐部去年被员工们评为最糟糕的部门，所有人都不堪忍受这里的工作小时和强度，纷纷跳槽去了沃尔玛和国际部，导致现在部门里的大部分人都是新面孔，加入公司超过两年的人寥寥无几。

Biajee今晨又踏上了回科罗拉多的旅程。这次走之前，他帮我将垃圾桶移到前院了。明天晚上倒垃圾的时候我会省很多力气。昨天早上他剪了所有的草，只有我们和邻居公用的草坪没有剪。我问为什么，他说邻居星期四刚刚剪过。可是如果是我还会再剪一遍，因为下周末Biajee要加班，可能星期六赶不回家。而我们全家要在星期天下午去俄克拉荷马城给阿瑟看病。

这个星期我真正上班的日子只有三天。星期四全天培训如何领导不同种族的人。星期五幼儿园放假，我也请了假。星期一全家在俄克拉荷马州给阿瑟看病，自然也请了假。终于可以好好休息一下了。

Half Grass

Biajee cut only half of the lawn today because Arnold woke up and required to be held. We had egg rolls and sesame glutinous balls for breakfast. Then we all went to the gym, took 15 minutes of the leftover Yoga class and 30 minutes of the spinning class.

Biajee decided that he'd mow the rest of the lawn tomorrow. We walked around the neighborhood last weekend and found few of our neighbors even mow the lawn so our grass is absolutely the model of lawn mowing in the area.

We bumped into our real estate agent in Braum's last night. I told her we were now interested in buying a house in Bell View Elementary School neighborhood. Bell View is the best elementary school in Bentonville and Rogers area. The best high school is Bentonville High School. There is no open enrollment here in Arkansas so we may have to move to Bentonville after the kids reach the age to go to high school. It is amazing how our lives and priorities revolve around the boys.

林园

成功渡过第二个单身妈妈周。我改为每天早上5点钟起床，为两个孩子准备上学的尿片，奶瓶，母奶，衣物，并将他们喂饱，穿戴整齐，搽好防晒霜，放进车里。之后将自己上班的皮包，吸奶器，水，午饭装车，然后在疯狂的上班交通大战中冲到幼儿园，放下两个孩子以及他们的一应用具，签到，付他们的学费，和他们的老师寒暄并嘱咐几点钟喂孩子等等之后，跳上车，再杀回来时的方向，在早上7：30之前准时将车停进山姆俱乐部的停车场，并以崭新自信的姿态走进办公室。

上个星期吃了有生以来第一张超速罚单。星期二的早上送完孩子才7：05，我的小心一阵窃喜，以为终于可以在7：15之前抵达公司了，便踩了一脚油门，不到30秒钟就被警车拿下。这里的警察个个都是抓超速的高手，而且专门在上下班高峰时抓，我所有的同事都警告过我。可惜我“年年打雁，今年却被老雁钳了眼。”只好下个星期打电话付罚款，并注册上驾驶学校以避免记点。所谓“欲速则不达”，说的就是这个道理吧。

不过我后来发现自己有两次下班接孩子的时候都在不能左转的地方左转了，但没有警察在场。所以吃一张超速罚单并不是人生中最为低调的时刻。现在我时时提醒自己：人生苦短，不要每时每刻都以90迈的速度行驶，也不要指望在各个方面都比别人强。要经常停下来，闻闻路边的玫瑰。人比人，气死人，只要自己，孩子和Biajee能够丰衣足食，安度此生，就没有遗憾了。

今晨阿诺吃了一整张地瓜煎饼，之后我带他们去体育馆锻炼，然后去美景镇的小公园走了两迈，阿诺骑着他的小三轮车跟在我和阿瑟后面。阿诺这个孩子非常厉害，才三岁已经可以骑三轮车走两迈了。我三岁的时候还懒得动呢。不过他今天骑了一半就累了，他累的时候就找借口停下来喝水，聊天，撒泼耍赖，如果Biajee在，他就会缠着要抱。Biajee不在，他无法要求我抱，就只好硬着头皮走完两迈。

作为奖赏，我带两个孩子吃了林园的自助中餐。这实际上是阿诺一早钦点要吃的，只可惜他们不供应早饭，我只好为阿诺作了地瓜煎饼，并告诉他中午一定去吃自助餐。餐馆的中国服务员看我一个人带着两个孩子，换尿片，喂奶，喂孩子，都帮我拿食物，陪我聊天，还夸我是女超人。嗨，超个头，当生活逼你入绝境的时候，再不愿意也得硬着头皮上了。

林园是这里面积最大的中餐馆了。这里实在没有好的中餐馆，很多同事都问我去那里吃正宗川菜，我只好说我的厨房实在是最佳选择，或者他们可以去越南店买调料自己做，要么去P。F。张吃美式四川烧烤。林园的好处是不贵，而且小孩子总能找到好吃的，比如今天阿诺就吃了炒面，炸蟹饺，排岔，冰激淋，果冻等等。

现在两个孩子都在睡午觉，我也刚睡醒。阿瑟的作息时间很规律，每天下午必须睡长觉。阿诺不想睡，但很困，所以我睡下之后他就在地毯上睡着了。我终于借着这个机会付了手机帐单，查看了银行账号，并上网订购了马上即将告罄的洗发水--居然没有减价促销，气死人了。下次减价的时候非得买多几只不可。所有的衬衫也熨烫完毕，现在得开始做晚饭了。根据最新报告，Biajee可能在一小时之后就到家了。吃完饭我们要去山姆俱乐部卖西瓜和婴儿食品，去勃拉姆斯买牛奶，吃冰激凌。

生活多么琐碎和美好呀，真希望每一分钟都是永远，因为每一秒钟都值得回味，即使最艰苦，最黑色的阶段也是人生的一部分，也是美的一部分，因为生命本身就是一种美，每一小块都是美的一部分。