Rachel, the Gymnast?

As you know, I make sure my kids stay very physical active (could it be over-compensation for their mom?). We have tried many different kind of activities, each in efforts to find the perfect activity for that child without extending myself out too much. Rachel has always been a bundle of energy. In fact she has many nicknames... energizer bunny, hurricane Rachel, you name it... she has THAT much energy. She can't even sit still for her meals... always fidgeting, moving around... on top of that she's one STRONG girl. She can lift up her brothers & sister. She's just 8 years old, not even 4 ft. tall, and under 50 pounds and she can lift up Chris who is 5'7" and almost 120 pounds! She's strong! Plus she's always climbing things... when she was just 1-1/2 years old I found her on the TOP of the piano! an upright grand piano! Yikes!

As a toddler I used to take Rachel & Lizzy to our neighborhood community center for their tap/ballet class... she enjoyed it, but it wasn't enough for her, but she managed to keep herself busy... after all she has 3 older siblings! But last year after a repeated request from me to stop tumbling in our family room (our WHOLE house is hardwood floor) I decided that it may be safer for her to learn to tumble in a safer environment... and she would also learn to do it properly. So one day in January 2007 I took both girls in for their "free session". Rachel LOVED it! Lizzy wasn't too sure it was for her, besides she was already in TONS of extracurricular activities.

Rachel has been going to Pozsar's Gymnastics since February of this year (once a week). She loves going to gymnastics. It's an old, converted market... with high ceilings, etc. I didn't know it at the time, but Geza Pozsar, the owner of the gym, is a famous coach. Pozsar defected to the United states with Bela Karolyi in 1980 during the Nadia Commaneci exhibition tour. He was the team choreographer for the gold medal-winning women's Olympic team. Geza participated in four Olympics and eight World Championships as a member of the coaching staff for Romanian and American teams. And to think that Rachel is training in his gym... how cool is that!

Today she was just promoted to level 3... that's the highest level for recreational gymnastic program here. Starting level 4 it's at a competitive level... I'm not sure about that. We'll see. For now she's enjoying gymnastics and I like the fact that she eats so well afterwards. So will you see her in the future Olympics? Only time will tell...

Happy 10th Birthday Lizzy!

Our third child, Elizabeth Sarah Choi, was born on September 25th, 1997 in Loma Linda University Medical Center via C-section. She was our first girl and was a petite 6 lb. 12 oz. baby. She, like her brothers before her, went into preterm labor but with the help of drugs & bedrest was delivered full-term (39 weeks). From the moment she was born, she was different... she looked a lot like her brother, Jeffrey, but more feminine and delicate. It's hard to imagine that it's been 10 years! She's double-digits! Wow! Anyhow, we celebrated her birthday over the weekend at our local bowling alley (Country Club Lanes). We had a blast playing glo-bowling, eating pizza & soda lunch followed by cake & ice-cream, and playing arcade games. It was a blast! Friends from both school and church came to celebrate with her.

Here's Lizzy... make a wish!

Beautiful cake

Alright... let the games begin!

Here's Lizzy rolling her first ball

Lizzy with her friends Brynne & Courtney

I think the ball is too heavy for Rachel

Erin, Rachel and Courtney waiting for Miranda to bowl
(she's on the left side of the frame)

In one other lane, Chris & Jeff bowled with Joanne, Jane & Esther

Chris, Joanne & Jane... I think they had fun too!

Aly getting ready to bowl

Group photo...

Birthday girl, Lizzy!

Our neighbors... Miranda, Aly & Erin

After lunch all the kids got a handful of tokens and headed into the Arcade... how fun!

Happy 10th Birthday Lizzy!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

That basically describes my life. Yes, I'm glad that all the kids are back at school and I have a moment to myself, but those hours seem to disappear in a blink of an eye! I don't know how? One minute I drop them off, a cup of coffee and few e-mails later it's already noon! Then couple of errands later I'm already picking them all up! It's when they are done with school that life become chaotic again. This is pretty much how my day looks like...

• 6:40am... get up... start packing lunch for kids
• 6:50am... Jeffrey gets up... feed the dog... gets ready for school
• 7:00am... Chris gets up... gets ready for school
• 7:10am... Chris & Jeff eats breakfast
• 7:20am... Jeffrey leaves for school (he carpools with our neighbor... whew!)
• 7:30am... Girls get up and start getting ready while I take Chris to school
• 8:00am... Girls eat breakfast
• 8:20am... drive girls to school
• 8:35am... I'm back home... I FINALLY get to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, and maybe some breakfast... take care of some bills... take care of some soccer stuff (I manage a soccer team)... make some business calls... check e-mails... read papers kids brought home the night before... you get the picture... do a load of wash... load up the dishwasher... maybe grocery shop, or buy supplies kids need for school... on a rare occasion maybe lunch with other moms...
• 2:40pm... Jeffrey out of school... rides home with neighbor (whew, again!)
• 3:00pm... pick up girls along with our neighbor. Once a week Lizzy stays after school for Band, in which case I will be back in 40 minutes to pick her up.
  
• 3:30pm... after a brief break, kids start on their homework. depending on the day Chris is either practicing soccer after school or playing a game against another school... Once a week all the kids will have to go to piano lesson (on two separate days)
• 6:00pm... Jeff, Lizzy & Rachel goes to soccer practices on Monday & Wednesday... Rachel goes to Gymnastics on Thursday...
• 7:00 - 7:30pm... everyone is FINALLY home... takes a shower
• 8:00pm... we finally get our dinner... then kids finish up their homework and whatever else they may need to do... did I forget piano practice? or flute? or oboe?
  
• 9:00 - 10:00pm... everyone to bed...
  

After 10pm... I try to get some laundry done, clean up the house, veg out in front of the t.v., trying to catch up on some news... check the e-mail again...Well, that's my life in a nutshell. So if I haven't been particularly good about updating my blog, now you know why.

Yea! Another School Year Has Begun!

Yes, it has FINALLY come. School year has just begun... and I get a break! Getting up early this morning was made even more difficult because we just drove back home yesterday from Grandma Song's Birthday Party in Southern California. It was just one of four time we drove down to San Diego area this summer alone! Anyhow, with some nudging I was able to get all four of them off the school on-time (no small task may I add). This year, however, was made easier because Christopher chose to go to the High School closer to our house. Also even though our kids go to three different schools it's not as crazy as it looks. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful neighbor, Barr family, who we carpool with. They do Arden MS and I do Mariemont. It works out BEAUTIFULLY!

Yes! Christopher is now in High School. Can you believe it? He started 9th grade today at Rio Americano High School. Most of his old buddies from Churchill Middle School is going to another High School, Mira Loma High School, but he chose not to continue with IB program.

Jeffrey is continuing at his current school, Arden Middle School, as an 8th grader. He is enrolled in the HA (High Achiever) program. I am excited for him, and I know he'll do well

Girls are also continuing at their current school, Mariemont Elementary School. Lizzy is starting 5th grade with Mr. Violette and Rachel is starting 3rd grade with Mrs. Carson. I think that they have a great year ahead for them this year. I'm very excited for them all, and look forward to all the learning and growing they will do.

Happy 70th Birthday

Grandma Song

August 18, 2007

This past Saturday was my mother's 70th Birthday. We all drove down to Temecula (Eddie flew down later) to spend the Sabbath/Birthday with them. It all started out with the Sabbath Worship at Temecula Korean SDA Church, followed by a luncheon at my sister's house. Eddie thinks that we easily had about 120 people there, if not more. Many of mom's friends came to celebrate with her.

Mom & Dad Cutting The Birthday Cake

This is our massive Cho Clan

Mom with some of her old friends


Mom with her High School Classmates

Helen, Mom & Me with Mom's old High School Classmate
(Sam Oh's Mom)

Helen & Me with Mrs. Cho
(Wife of Our Dad's BFF & Mom of Sue, Sam & Josh Cho)

Helen & Me with Mrs. Bae
(Our Mom's High School Classmate's Wife and
Mother of our friends Richard, Scott & Steve Bae)

Dad with his partner in Crime...

Mr. Sang-Moon Cho
They have been best friends since childhood...
He's the father of Sue, Sam & Joshua Cho

Brief word & prayer before lunch

Lunch Buffet Line


Second Table of Food

Ladies in the kitchen... trying to look busy... hehe

From left to right...
Auntie Myung-Ja, Grace, Mom, Lauren, Helen & Auntie Seung-Ja

Some of Temecula Church Members

Mom's friends from LA Area

Three Sisters...
Auntie Seung-Ja, Mom, and Auntie Myung-Ja

And Two Brothers...
Uncle Kwan-Ku & Uncle Sung-Ku

Uncle Kwan-Ku with his grandson, Justin

Cousin Kevin on the Drum Set
(He's Justin's Dad)

Auntie Cho (Uncle Sung-Ku's wife),
Catherine & Baby Kayla

Cousins... from left to right
Janie, Lauren, Minju & Bernard

Cousin Dylan with his girlfriend Aileen

Mom with my brother Curtis (He took all these pictures!)

Last but not least... all the grand kids

(from left to right)
(back row) Taylin, Christopher
(front row) Jeffrey, Matthew, Elizabeth, Kayla & Rachel

Just back from PUC Campmeeting
Talent Show, August 11, 2007

Chris, Jeff & Matthew participated in Talent Show this year again... with their remix. Here's Pokemon Master with their entry that won them 2nd place. Enjoy!

Matthew, Chris & Jeff after they received their prize.

Northern California Swim League
Gold Rush Conference Championships
July 28 - 29, 2007

Those that know our family know that our children are involved many activities, especially sports. They have been a member of the Arden Park Swim Team since last season. It's a recreational swim team in our neighborhood. Our season starts in April and goes until the Swim Championship weekend, which was this past weekend. During the season they practice Monday through Friday; girls for one hour and boys for one and half hours. It's been really good for both their body and their mind. They have come to appreciate hard work and the results it bears.

In Northern California Swim League there are four Conferences, and in each conference there are anywhere from four to six teams. They meet during the regular season for "dual meets" and then at the end of the season every team in the conference meet for the "Swim Championships". Our conference this year was Gold Rush, second highest level for a recreational swim team. Our conference consist of 5 teams, with total of 993 swimmers. Our team had 176 swimmers. Ages span from Under 6 to 18 years old. Each age/sex category competes with each other in same category. During the season each swimmer may swim up to 5 events, but during the championship they are required to swim ALL events (Individual Medley, Backstroke, Short Freestyle, Long Freestyle, Breast Stroke and Butterfly). On top of that each team entered two teams to both Medley Relay and Freestyle Relay.

Rachel was the 1st alternate to the Medley Relay B team, but never got to swim it. However, she was in the Freestyle Relay B team... was the first to swim out of 4 swimmers and placed 7th place in the girls 7-8 100 Yard Freestyle Relay: Her first swim medal ever! Our boys have been in both relay teams all season so it was not a surprise to see them on the team. Jeffrey was on the A team for both relays. His team came in 5th in 11-12 Boys 200 Yard Freestyle Relay, and 4th in 11-2 Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay... he was the anchor and swam the freestyle. Christopher was in the B team for the 13-14 Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay and placed 8th, but for his Freestyle Relay he swam up in the 15-18 Boys 200 Yard Freestyle Team which placed 7th. Overall it was a wonderful weekend made especially better because their Uncle Curtis came up to watch them as well as take these beautiful pictures (thank you Uncle Curtis!).

In between events we had a lot of down time.
Here's Jeffrey relaxing before his next event

Lizzy LOVES to swim and it shows!

We have to bring things to entertain ourselves between events. Here's Rachel ATTEMPTING to solve the Rubik's Cube.

Lizzy's first event: 100 Yard IM (Individual Medley)
This particular stroke is her butterfly.

Lizzy's second leg of her IM: Backstroke

Christopher swimming his Short Freestyle (50 Yard).

No... the swim cap says "Arden Park Idol"

Rachel is getting ready for her next event.

Waiting at the Ready Bench

Time to get focused

Rachel in her 25 Yard Breaststroke

Although this is not her favorite stroke, she does it very well.

Fortunately all of our children love to swim.
Here's Lizzy getting ready for her event with a smile.

A smile before diving off

Lizzy's Backstroke

Christopher was part of a 13-14 Boys Medley Relay Team. He swam the third leg of the relay, Butterfly Stroke, for the team.

Here as he comes up for a stroke (and a breathe)

Impressive wingspan, huh?

Jeffrey's 50 Yard Breaststroke

Jeffrey's form has improved so much this year.

Here Jeffrey finished off with a 200 Yard Freestyle Relay.

This is Christopher's 200 Yard Freestyle Relay.

But the best event of the day was this...
Christopher was able to finish 7th in the 50 Yard
Breaststroke with 25.63 seconds! His personal best!!

This truly was a wonderful season. Not only were my children getting physically stronger, but they learned so many valuable life's lessons. They worked hard everyday, even those days they really didn't feel like going to practice. They stuck with it through the end and learned to fulfill their responsibilities to the team. For that I am grateful. In the end they were all glad they finished the season successfully.