I guess that it’s been awhile since I’ve written and Reuben and I are doing well. I started school again a couple weeks ago and Reuben has been doing a 2 week rotation in radiology. Tomorrow he’ll start a 2 week rotation in endocrinology, after that a 4 week rotation in PM&R (physical medicine and rehabilitation- what he plans to specialize in), followed by another 2 week rotation in infectious disease. After that, he’ll be starting his acupuncture program and interviews but will have all of the necessary stuff done in order to graduate. Woohoo!!! Although not required, he hopes that by doing the extra PM&R rotation he can “get in good” with the UCI doctors and hopes to find residency around here. But for all of you who will be wondering where we’re going to end up in the next couple of years, all of that is still up in the air. Reuben just applied to 60 schools around the nation and we hope to end up in one of those.
I’m getting excited for Reuben to start his acupuncture program. He spent 3 months in Taiwan doing acupuncture and visiting other dimensions of traditional Chinese medicine and also the rehabilitation unit in the hospital but I think that I’m just starting to get used to all the needles. Last night he practiced on a couple of our friends and after some shoulder and neck pain the last couple of days, I let him stick me too. (For some reason, I’m a little hesitant with needles but I think that I’m overcoming my fears.) After about 15 minutes, I could really feel the difference. Unfortunately, I had another very uncomfortable night and woke up with more back pain from all the restlessness. Does anyone have any good recommendations for a pregnancy pillow? I was looking at the Back N’ Belly that got good online reviews (although it is a very large pillow that will take up half of our bed) but I feel a little desperate to be able to sleep through the night again.
Reuben went mountain biking again yesterday. Fortunately this time was a lot more pleasant than the last. The previous time when he went with the same guys, I packed him some snacks but no lunch by any means because they were supposedly going to be home by lunch time. We had to leave by 3:30 to go somewhere but Reuben still wasn’t back. Because this place was famed by its recent Mtn lion attacks, my friend whose husband was also on the trail and I were getting a little worried. Finally by almost 5 we got a phone call. They had got a countless number of flat tires and had to walk their bikes down the mtn after running out of spares. Whew!!! They were safe but hungry and a little scratched up. Yesterday seemed to be a great little ride and this time they really were home by lunch time.
I’ve been active lately too. Me and my running buddy Melissa have been riding bikes (NOT on mountain lion infested trails, mind you) and swimming. Yesterday we decided to put the running back into our triathlon training (for our behinds’ sake) and it was a very humbling experience. After running 3 marathons earlier in the past year, a few weeks without running and a pregnancy totally wiped out the endurance for jogging that I once had. Exercise is great and hopefully it will help keep my weight gain steady.
Last night we wanted to take out our friends for some Chinese food to our favorite Chinese restaurant in Irvine but found it closed down! It’s so sad because it was the first restaurant that Reuben took me to in this area. Instead we went to a Korean soft tofu (cooked in a clay pot) place with our friends. I think that our friends thought the food was interesting to say the least. The good thing is that I think that I’m finally being cured of my first trimester aversion to Asian food! It all started when we found out we were expecting which was half way through our trip in Taiwan. Immediately everything started smelling really bad to me. I thought that I would be cured of this when I got home to the states but still the thought of Taiwanese style beef noodle soup turned my stomach. Now, I feel that finally I’m breaking through!! Maybe this won’t last forever!!!
In other news, for all those who I haven’t told, it’s only a little more than 2 weeks until we have our next ultrasound where we hope they can clue us in whether this little baby is a boy or girl. We’ve had a ton of guesses for both little future white Reubens and also Chinese Katies. My only hope is that it’s either one or the other, boy or girl, and not both!! Reuben doesn’t like it when people guess. I suppose that either because he’s a patient guy when it comes to waiting for destiny or because the means people use to guess-aka “old wives tales” scare him that some people might actually be naïve enough to believe them. However, I don’t mind an honest guess, so put in your vote now!
Thanks to Wendy and John for giving us your BMW customer appreciation concert tickets for the Five for Fighting show! Wendy and John had to go out of town this last weekend and we went in their stead. It was probably the most unique and exclusive concert that we’ve attended. They had a great buffet dinner sponsored by McCormicks and Smitds, a seafood restaurant and had shrimp and scallop appetizer, awesome salads, salmon and filet mignon, and amazing desserts. They even had complementary drinks. (which for us was a bottle water and a diet pepsi, but the other people really got into it.) The concert was great too. The opening act Anna Naleck was really good, she has a pretty popular song on the radio, “breathe, just breathe” and then when Five for Fighting finally sang their final number, the superman song, Reuben’s favorite, Reuben jumped up and yelled, “I love you!!!” (I made him do it) It was a great time and I hope that Wendy and John can get tickets next time too.
In other news I’ve just been shopping around to see what kinds and brands of baby stuff that I should get-strollers, cribs, etc and organizing a baby shower for my friend Pei-ting. I hope that everyone is doing well!
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
Dear Everyone, 8 August 2006
How's it going? Not much has happened in the last weekend. I just finished cleaning up all the closets, cupboards, and everything in our house since pretty soon I won't have time. I didn't start my internship yet, but I should be starting soon. This fall semester I will be quite busy with a large class load and I still want to work part-time. I still have a lot of hobbies too although I think that I will have to focus more on school work this time and not on SCUBA diving and so forth.
My running buddy Melissa and I ventured out and started training for a triathalon. Right now I think that I would still drown if we had to do it today, but that's why we're going to start practicing. My friend also got a good deal on a bike through eBay so we've started riding bikes too. Now that there's so marathon goal in sight, it's been fun to stray a little away from the gruel of running daily and feel the wind in our hair as we ride super fast. Well, maybe not really "super" fast yet, but we'll get there in time :) I've really liked getting back into the morning cardio routine. If anyone of you could get into doing something like this- it's not only a blast- but great for losing weight!
On Sunday we had some of Reuben's family over for dinner. I made traditional American food - mashed potatoes, gravy, roast beef, butternut squash, cornbread, fruit, and peach shortcake. It turned out okay- but I still need some practice. Interestingly enough, I haven't eaten any Chinese food since we got back from Taiwan :)
Reuben also found out what happened to our callings while we were gone. We're still Sunday school teachers- just not the same class. We're now teaching the older group- the 15-18 year olds. I'm a little nervous- that age group tends to develop a little attitude and don't tend to respect "authority" but I bet we'll have some discussions where they participate a little more. We'll see if the boys and girls self- segregate like in the younger class. . .
Well- that's it for the news in this neck of the woods! I hope that you all are doing great!
Talk to you later!
-Katie Chen
PS. Here's another letter from a week ago that I forgot to send. . .
Dear Everybody, 30 July 2006
How it going? I can believe that it already almost August. But then again, it seems like wee been able to do a lot this summer already. Since wee been home from Taiwan, wee done some recuperating but mostly wee been pretty busy. We went to the Sunrider convention and Reuben had a lot of opportunities to talk. It was a really great convention and a lot of fun.
Reuben also helped out with the missionary discussions that they offer to the distributors from China. This year, a few more people wanted to be baptized. One that I remember in particular had been listening to the discussions for a couple of years but she hadn been able to get baptized because she couldn stop drinking. For this year convention, she managed to stop her habit so she could get baptized. Reuben also helped out with the baptismal service.
On the Sunday after Convention, all the members who speak Chinese were invited to a church meeting. It pretty cool that I can understand Chinese much better, but some people still speak so fast and use so much vocabulary that I still don know!! I still have a lot of work to do in my Chinese language skills.
This last Monday we went to my parent place in Pasco Washington. Almost my whole immediate family was there- Justin and David and their families. As soon as pulled into the airport, we headed for the river. It a good thing too, because it was a scorching 106?F that day (it was cooling day from the day before, 112?F.) At the river we went jet skiing, tubing, skiing, and had a great time doing a picnic. I missed seeing Reuben get up on his first time on skis but I was so proud of him when he did!
Tuesday we used the time to go riding on the motorcycle and visit with relatives. My dad took Reuben on his fast road bike and I was thankful when they returned home in one piece!! That night we had a great steak dinner provided to us by my parent's own steers!
Wednesday we took off to Mt. Rainer and hiked up Paradise. We saw some deer and Elk and hiked all the way to the snow line to go sledding on some plastic bags that we brought just for that purpose. Sledding at that point was more work than slidding but it was still fun. Becky and her boyfriend Jared hiked a little farther than us and got some great speed on the snow. They also saw a marmot and a coyote chasing a rabbit.
We were able to stay that night in Ohanopakash camping ground with my friend Carrie, her husband, and their two kids. It was a lot of fun seeing Carrie again and also her new little 6 month old boy, Ethan. Both kids are super sweet and were a lot of fun to camp with. That morning we had a great breakfast (thanks MOM!) and went on a couple of hikes to Silver Falls and also a shorter hike at the Grove of the Patriarchs. We took a ton of pictures and both Reuben and I got a little more experience with parenting. Reuben was a sweetheart and helped to carry the kids along the hike. What a great guy!
That night we went to the Seattle area to see Mark and Emily. I think that it was good for Reuben to be able to see the ther?side of Washington, the part that everyone imagines when I say I from Washington. That night Mark and Emily had their first taste of Claimjumpers when we went out to dinner that night with Kay and Adam and their new baby Lizzie.
The next day we came back to California ready to be back home for awhile.
-Katie and Reuben Chen
How's it going? Not much has happened in the last weekend. I just finished cleaning up all the closets, cupboards, and everything in our house since pretty soon I won't have time. I didn't start my internship yet, but I should be starting soon. This fall semester I will be quite busy with a large class load and I still want to work part-time. I still have a lot of hobbies too although I think that I will have to focus more on school work this time and not on SCUBA diving and so forth.
My running buddy Melissa and I ventured out and started training for a triathalon. Right now I think that I would still drown if we had to do it today, but that's why we're going to start practicing. My friend also got a good deal on a bike through eBay so we've started riding bikes too. Now that there's so marathon goal in sight, it's been fun to stray a little away from the gruel of running daily and feel the wind in our hair as we ride super fast. Well, maybe not really "super" fast yet, but we'll get there in time :) I've really liked getting back into the morning cardio routine. If anyone of you could get into doing something like this- it's not only a blast- but great for losing weight!
On Sunday we had some of Reuben's family over for dinner. I made traditional American food - mashed potatoes, gravy, roast beef, butternut squash, cornbread, fruit, and peach shortcake. It turned out okay- but I still need some practice. Interestingly enough, I haven't eaten any Chinese food since we got back from Taiwan :)
Reuben also found out what happened to our callings while we were gone. We're still Sunday school teachers- just not the same class. We're now teaching the older group- the 15-18 year olds. I'm a little nervous- that age group tends to develop a little attitude and don't tend to respect "authority" but I bet we'll have some discussions where they participate a little more. We'll see if the boys and girls self- segregate like in the younger class. . .
Well- that's it for the news in this neck of the woods! I hope that you all are doing great!
Talk to you later!
-Katie Chen
PS. Here's another letter from a week ago that I forgot to send. . .
Dear Everybody, 30 July 2006
How it going? I can believe that it already almost August. But then again, it seems like wee been able to do a lot this summer already. Since wee been home from Taiwan, wee done some recuperating but mostly wee been pretty busy. We went to the Sunrider convention and Reuben had a lot of opportunities to talk. It was a really great convention and a lot of fun.
Reuben also helped out with the missionary discussions that they offer to the distributors from China. This year, a few more people wanted to be baptized. One that I remember in particular had been listening to the discussions for a couple of years but she hadn been able to get baptized because she couldn stop drinking. For this year convention, she managed to stop her habit so she could get baptized. Reuben also helped out with the baptismal service.
On the Sunday after Convention, all the members who speak Chinese were invited to a church meeting. It pretty cool that I can understand Chinese much better, but some people still speak so fast and use so much vocabulary that I still don know!! I still have a lot of work to do in my Chinese language skills.
This last Monday we went to my parent place in Pasco Washington. Almost my whole immediate family was there- Justin and David and their families. As soon as pulled into the airport, we headed for the river. It a good thing too, because it was a scorching 106?F that day (it was cooling day from the day before, 112?F.) At the river we went jet skiing, tubing, skiing, and had a great time doing a picnic. I missed seeing Reuben get up on his first time on skis but I was so proud of him when he did!
Tuesday we used the time to go riding on the motorcycle and visit with relatives. My dad took Reuben on his fast road bike and I was thankful when they returned home in one piece!! That night we had a great steak dinner provided to us by my parent's own steers!
Wednesday we took off to Mt. Rainer and hiked up Paradise. We saw some deer and Elk and hiked all the way to the snow line to go sledding on some plastic bags that we brought just for that purpose. Sledding at that point was more work than slidding but it was still fun. Becky and her boyfriend Jared hiked a little farther than us and got some great speed on the snow. They also saw a marmot and a coyote chasing a rabbit.
We were able to stay that night in Ohanopakash camping ground with my friend Carrie, her husband, and their two kids. It was a lot of fun seeing Carrie again and also her new little 6 month old boy, Ethan. Both kids are super sweet and were a lot of fun to camp with. That morning we had a great breakfast (thanks MOM!) and went on a couple of hikes to Silver Falls and also a shorter hike at the Grove of the Patriarchs. We took a ton of pictures and both Reuben and I got a little more experience with parenting. Reuben was a sweetheart and helped to carry the kids along the hike. What a great guy!
That night we went to the Seattle area to see Mark and Emily. I think that it was good for Reuben to be able to see the ther?side of Washington, the part that everyone imagines when I say I from Washington. That night Mark and Emily had their first taste of Claimjumpers when we went out to dinner that night with Kay and Adam and their new baby Lizzie.
The next day we came back to California ready to be back home for awhile.
-Katie and Reuben Chen
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