The Thief in My Yard!

Ok, my backyard was raided many times this past week. The darn thieves laugh loudly as fly away with our Golden jewels ~ Our Pee Pahs! This year the weather has been colder than the past, so our precious Pee-pahs took forever to ripen! I just took a bite out of one of our finally ripened loquat, and Man! They are good! Sweet as honey!

If anyone's interested after seeing this post, leave a comment and place your order! I'll remember to give some to you! [*Note: Fruits are limited, as you are competing with relentless & wasteful avians!] These stealthy black crows casually land on our branches, even shooing away red-chested finches so they can hoard their loquat buffet! But we're just being sour-grapes, since the sweetest ones are too high for us to reach anyways!


Birds (like our babies below) are pests in the eyes of the agricultural community because of their bad table manners. Like toddlers, they'll take one bite out of your sweet fruit or veggie, toss the rest of the perfectly-edible fruit aside, then go on to the next one! How environmentally irresponsible!

Yellow-Nape Amazon

Senegal parrot

Below is one more pest crowing proudly (note head bopping up and down), heartily plucking off our yummy fruit by the branch and flying off with the prize!

Post Scriptus ~ Hubby wanted me to add that: We are like crows, and though we are not pretty and are oftentimes annoying, God still loves us and looks out for us! Like the yummy fruits provided to them, God also provides for you and me! Then hubby chuckles to himself, "I should start my own Website and post this insight!" [Of course, he stated this intention 2 years ago but never acted on it, so I'm dedicating this caption to him. ^_^]

Kobee's Lucky Day!

Apparently, ALL of us, human or not, love to eat 85 degree Bakery pastry! I guess we all have the same taste (and cravings)! Yummy bread and Greg Laurie sermon in the background ~ A birdie's life is good!

Kobee bird got a treat this morning because guh guh (big bro) didn't finish his breakfast. There's some egg yolk on the white toast too! See how a bird can hold bread though he has no hands!

Our Little Ballerina!

In 2 months, Abbie will have the very 1st Ballet performance in her life! Now she and her little ballerina friends are practicing for the big day!


As you can see, as the youngest ballerina in the troop, she's *ahem* a bit choreography-challenged. Nevertheless, she's having a blast!

Below we got a Japanese cartoon series from our friend Tommy and Carolina called, "Little Angel". They let us borrow this cartoon because they noticed Abbie looks like the main character, "Little Lien"! Abbie is now officially addicted to this show! ^_^

What an Egg-Sighting Day!

It's Monday........today we are back to the routine, after all the Spring break and Easter weekend hoopla. Abbie and I woke up egg-stremely late for the first time this year (not divulging exact time, since hubby ~ if you're reading this ~ will lecture me saying, "You sleep too much!").

We had a late brunch and headed off to the park. She played on the swings and I noticed a big lizard (blue belly, the species I kept when I was in 4th grade). He was brave and didn't run, despite the fact that Abbie screamed and waved at him. Next to him, in the bushes sat a bright yellow plastic Easter egg! What a find! This poor little egg was definately "left behind"!

I opened it, and whoa, there was a Smarties and a rolled up Dollar Bill! The lizard had already slithered away by then, and I was already hooked, looking for more monetary surprises in the bushes nearby. (Ok, and my greedy nature hopes it's a $20 this time!)

And what luck, ANOTHER orange plastic egg hid under a tree. I opened it, and there was a Bubble-licious gum and ANOTHER dollar bill! Wow, next year I think we should come HERE for our egg hunts! I looked around to make sure I wasn't on spy-cam or candid camera....but no one jumped out of the trees to announce a set-up. So we took off with our loot.

I told hubby the story about our find when he came home from work and he said, "Hey, you should put it on your blog! This doesn't happen all the time!" So being a submissive wife, I followed through on his wishes, and Voila! This unexpected surprise reminds me of the biblical story of the tax collectors asking Jesus for money, and He asked Peter to catch a fish and inside its month was the four-drachma coin needed to pay the taxes for Peter and Jesus.

So I suppose God can do anything He wants, and will provide what we need in ways beyond our comprehension or imagination ~ whether we find them in mouths of fishes or in left-behind Easter Eggs!

A Very Special Zoo (The Finale!!)

This is one of the three American Bald Eagles with a missing wing.

On Day 2 of our trip to Big Bear, we walked 0.4 mile from our cabin to Moonridge Zoo. It is a small, but very exotic zoo because all of the animals are rescued from the wild. We do not see the majority of the animals who have sojourned here, because their injuries are mild and they recover quickly and are re- released into the wild. Those that do remain for us to admire are the ones who are orphans, or are so injured they will never survive in the wild.



Despite their physical condition, like broken/missing limbs/wings, or blindness, these beautiful creatures gracefully live out their lives. Because of their disabilities, we can see them up close and personal(and this is far more amazing than the faraway, microscopic view we see at SD Wild Animal Park!) Thanks to them, we are able to learn so much about them as they live freely, even in captivity.

Perhaps, when we go through physical or emotional struggles, we allow others to see up close that none of us are perfect. Yet God's power, joy, and peace shine brightest in the darkest nights. Let us trust Him in the snowy seasons of our lives, because one day we will understand fully His good and perfect plan for each of us.



Here is a nesting vulture who kept ignoring the fresh rat offered to her. She kept eating the two day old rat and was reprimanded by the zookeeper. Abbie asked, "Why is the mouse sleeping?"


Kids were grossed out by the 'fresh food', aka: dead rats and chicks.


Ok, to clear my name as "The Girl who cried Wolf" (or "Bear"), I've enclosed this picture to prove that there are REAL, moving bears in the area (that we know of). The five of them are beary friendly, and loved to sit around and eat oranges and bear snacks. Can you see one here?

Beary Close Encounter! (Part II of Our Story)

So to recap, we had enjoyed a fantastic snow day on day 3.
On my Facebook page, the following exchange took place:
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April 8, 2009 Wednesday

Sophie Tsai at 10:06am April 8
It's snowing it's snowing! :0)

David Wirths at 10:08am April 8
Should I guess you are not in OC today?

Sophie Tsai at 10:14am April 8 via Facebook Mobile
Haha... Yes...otherwise, I'm just hallucinating again. And no kidding, there is a brown bear outside my window. Picture (evidence) to follow (and to prove my sanity) in my blog soon!

Tony Chen at 10:43am April 8
Hey, brown bear encounter in Big Bear...that's cool!

Sophie Tsai at 2:26pm April 8 via Facebook Mobile
Ok, I got a pix of the bear outside our kitchen window! It's standing up :0)

Chenchen Tsai at 1:17pm April 9
HEY! How come we didn't have any luck seeing a bear while we were there? Where is your cabin located? I want to see the pictures.

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So because I've promised our MBA (and Grapevine) buddies some evidence of my bear sighting, here we go! Brace yourself for an encounter with nature, my friends!!

Do you see him? He's outside our door, across from our cabin! Standing up, too!

Here's a pictures of Abbie and Mr. Brown Bear, on day 2 (Before Snow)!


Picture of Caleb and Abbie with Mr. Brown Bear on day 3 (After Snow)! SEE? I told you there was a brown bear standing outside my kitchen window. No kidding, right?

It's Snowing, It's Snowing!!

Ok, we're in Big Bear right now for our family spring break trip. I admit, we have no life and I'm blogging while on vacation (plus, I'm separated from my Chinese soap opera!!!). But this is so exciting and I couldn't help but yank hubby's iPhone away from him to write about our trip!

Today is day 3 of our vacation, and we woke up, looked out the window, and saw....white stuff blanketing the ground! Was it.....snow???? As it turned out, it was! We didn't expect to see snow on this trip, and amazingly, God gave us a surprise gift!

Daddy was so happy that he geared up and stood in the snow for a couple of hours.....just grinning and examining the snowflakes he caught in a plastic bowl. Later, he and Abbie competed in a snowflake-eating contest!

Finally I came out with my cup of hot tea (unwillingly, since the snow was falling harder), got a picture taken while snow fell into my teacup, then scurried back inside the warm cabin.

The snow got so big that the kids started to snowball fight with dad!

Post Script: When we studied the snowflakes carefully, we realized that it is true ~ Every Snowflake IS different! Not one snowflake is exactly the same, thus they are uniquely made.

As I think forward to Good Friday, I realized the love of Christ displayed in His death to redeem each one of us. We, like snowflakes, are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalms 139:14), and each of us show forth the glory of God when we let His Spirit live through us.

Our time on earth may be brief, like snowflakes melting in the warm sun up at Big Bear, but we know that this is only the beginning of a beautiful journey into a place that will never end.... a place called Eternity ~ where we spend with our Heavenly Father and our loved ones in Christ! Happy Easter, my Beloved!

Happy Easter, My Bunnies!

Today Abbie and I went to our neighborhood Easter egg hunt!

We saw many of our neighbors, visited the local businesses booths (and signed up Caleb for Basketball camp in August, hahahaha...), brought home candies, giveaways, and tons of plastic eggs filled with goodies inside!

Last year I heard that eggs are a symbol of the Easter holiday because signifies "LIFE", just as Christ gave up His life for us on the cross to redeem us and give us a NEW LIFE with Him!

Big bro was too lazy to go to Founder's Park for the egghunt, so we brought the egghunt to him! We had a homemade egg hunt in the back yard, courtesy of mama!