Christmas surprise

Christmas 2007
What a surprise!
What an excitement!

When Andrew told us that he was impressed to come to Maine for Christmas, that is where we began our Christmas rush, not for presents but for setting up the environment. You see, we weren't even going to set up the Christmas tree. We barely got it set up before the Andrew Tang family's arrival.

Mom set up the traditional family Christmas tree. We couldn't find the Christmas Star. The hand-made meager was arranged on top of the piano

There is a couple temporarily living in the ward, the Vogels. Noina is from Thailand and Matt is from Texas. At least his parents are now living there. He has lived a number of place in the US and even oversea. Matt served a mission in Thailand. He speaks fluent Thai. They met in Hawaii . They really wanted to meet Liew, Andrew, and Andersen. We invited them over for a "pot luck" dinner. Noina and Liew cooked the Southern Asia food for us to enjoy.

We had our traditional breakfast with our usual except the potato patties or harsh brown potato while we watched the Ann Arbor, Michigan Tangs opening presents through the Webcam. It was a lot of fun watching them. The exitement was certainly in the "air". Ethan, Issac, and Lilly responded well to the camera. They even brought their presents close to the camera to show us what they have got from Santa and their mom and dad. This is for sure the 21 century celebrating Christmas even though we are apart. Where is Andersen? Beddy bed for a nap, like father like son!!!! At least parents can eat in peace.

It took a while for Andersen to catch on what was going on. Once he got into the swing of things, he was excited about opening presents. He has more presents than he could handle. What a spoiled kid. He said, "I don't care. I am happy."

Cooking Christmas dinner was a blast. We got away with our oven cooked turkcy and used the grill on the deck. Guess what we were eating? Beef and scalop wrapped with bacon strips. Andrew was our professional Chinese chef. This is his life dream and the dream has come true.

Yummy beef!! Whose idea is that, breaking away the Christmas tradition.

What kind of chef is that. Can you wait. Customers come first. Besides he was splattering sliver everywhere on the steak. We shuld fire him. Very bad professional conduct.

Fabulous Acadia National Park on a Perfect Summer Day

Wednesday, August 29, 2007, was one of those perfect summer days. Clear blue sky, very comfortable temperature, slight breeze, we decided we need to go to visit Acadia National Park. Dad has a life time golden age park pass that admits mom too.
We packed a light lunch and off we went.
At the Ellsworth visitor center, we discovered we could park our car at any stops of the park shuttle bus route and catch the fare free bus to visit various places. We elected to park at the Hull Cove Visitor Center. What a great idea, no need to search for parking spaces in Bar Harbor and save us gas. We rode Bus 1 into Bar Harbor, changed to Bus 5 to get to Bubble Pond. In less than 30 minutes, we were sitting by the water edge to have some lunch and to enjoy the quiet scenery. No one was around, so nice.
Then we started our 5 mile walk on that part of the 45 mile Carriage Road. Our destination was Jordon Pond. The walk was easy on level and gently graded gravel road, 16 feet wide. The first mile or so was along Bubble Pond, then it weaved towards the forest. On the way we met cyclists, horse drawn carriages, horseback riders and even a set of walkers, either coming or going.
No runners for some reason. It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes, but that included stopping to chat with a couple of people, taking photos and shaking out shoes. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk, thanks to John Rockefellar, Jr., who designed and supervised the building of the 45 mile road for his family and guests to ride on horse drawn carriages to explore the natural beauty of the park. He took great pains in blending the road into the environment and keeping bridges as well as guard rails looking rustic.
At Jordan Pond, we took Bus 5 to Seal Harbor Beach. It's a nice sandy beach enclosed in a cove. All sorts of folks were sunbathing stretched out on towels on the sand. Some played in the water. We found a patch of grass to sit on to eat lunch while savoring the ocean breeze and enjoying the scenery. Wealthy folks have homes along the two sides of the cove.
Bus 5 took us back to Bar Harbor where we transferred over to Bus 3 to take us to Sand Beach. Wow, what a nice, big beach at low tide, with lifeguard, and facilities for changing and showering. We admired nifty sand castles built by someone, and watched children frolick in the waves. Reminded us of the wave pool in West Edmonton Mall, but these were real! A ranger was on the beach giving lessons on sea birds. We listened to her until we had to catch the next bus to Thunder Hole. Some of our family had been there before in December when everything was coated in ice. We went down to the railing end to watch and listen to the thundering sounds made by incoming waves. It was still low tide, so the sound was quite dramatic -- the awe of nature's forces. We were not able to insert the video clip at this time, will later.
That ended our fantastic day. The shuttle bus runs from the third week of June till Columbus Day. We'll never drive into Bar Harbor again during those times. Taking the bus was perfect. The Park actually encourages everyone to do the same to reduce traffic congestion and to protect the environment from pollution. These buses run on clean propane gas, funded by LL Bean. No cost, but donation is welcome. We definitely will go again next year to explore another lake and another part of the Carriage Road. The perk of living here is we could choose the perfect day to go enjoy God's creations!

Reunion with the Sommerfeldts

It was fun to meet up with the Sommerfeldts on on Friday, May 18, 2007 in Bar Harbor, Maine. Matt Sommerfeldt graduated with a law degree from the University of New Brunswick. That is one of the major reasons the Sommerfeldts came to visit Eastern Canada. Since Bar Harbor is only a "stone throw" away, why not came to Maine for a small vacation. It was nice of them to invite us to Bar Harbor to dine with them to celebrate Matt's graduation. We had such a wonderful time to catch up with news of many of our old friends in the old 7th Ward. It was a delightful evening.
Today, Sunday, May 20, 2007, the Sommerfeldts came to Ellsworth, Maine to church. It was our stake conference broadcast from Salt Lake City. I was assigned to Ellsworth representing the stake presidency to conduct the meeting. We met up with them again. We brought lunch and we had a nice chat during lunch. Two weeks from today, we shall see them in Edmonton, Alberta. Matt and Karen had left town the day before for Lethbridge to his new job.
We have not seen Matt for 13 years. We left Edmonton, Alberta when he was on his mission to Montreal. I tell you, we wouldn't have recognize him if we saw him on the street. He has changed so much. We have never met Karen. Her maiden name is Harker, a Southern Alberta stalk.

Convocation - May 12, 2007

Another milestone for many of the students at Husson College graduation day on May 12. It is a proud moment for both students, their relatives and friends. In Maine, many of these graduants are first generation college bound students. It is a big deal to them. I am humble to be part of the contributing force to their success. The number might be few, but we are accumulating success stories one student at a time.

This is our graduaing class of ten in elementary education.

I believe this is a New England tradition. The bagpipe band
lead the processional to the stadium

We followed the students into the stadium. Since
I was assigned to read the names of my students,

I got to go first in the faculty section.

This is a close up of the faculty section of

the processional by the photographer (mom!).

Since I love myself so much, I will let you see

a close up of me!

This is where I read the students' names as they

came forth to the podium

to receive their diplomas.

Games we played while visiting Oregon

These were the four games we played while we were visiting Oregon. Some of them I don't even know. Therefore we will have to rely on Nancy, Michelle, and Steve's knowledge to be the judges. Whoever is the first to identify the games and able to identify them correctly will be the winner. The competition is now begun. There will a prize to follow.

Sorry, Barkers and Nancy Tang. You are working for the cooperation. You can't play.

One of the newest US citizens

Mom became the newest citizen of the "good young" USA yesterday. She will never forget this day. It was FRIDAY the 13th, 2007. For those of you who didh't catch on, if you are superstitious, oh, this is a bad day -- bad things will happen. For the orientals, this is just as good as any other days. Just to invalidate this superstition, it turned out to be completely opposite. We had the most wonderful day.
Here are a few pictures to show you the event.











This is mom speaking next. Because the process was drawn out over so many months, the swearing in was sort of anti-climatic. Still a good day though, more of us have dual citizenship now. There were about 16 individuals sworn in as American citizens. We each got a small flag from the Portland chapter of the Daughters of American Revolution. If dad could have been sworn in too, it would've been much more exciting. Another thought -- I think because we come from Canada which is also a good country to live in, it's not quite as exciting for me to become an American as someone coming from another country that might be not politically safe or economically favorable to live in. Well, at least dad could take photos of me. When his turn comes, I will be able to do the same for him. Hope that'll be sometimes this year.

Christmas in Portland, OR

December, 2006, Mom and Dad traveled across the continent to be with Michelle and Steve for the holiday season. Nancy came from Utah to stay with them to do her internship in recreational therapy with Portland Parks and Recreation after the New Year.

This year, we combined the Barker and Tang traditions to celebrate Christmas. The Barker's tradition is to have pizza for Christmas Eve. We had two huge pizzas for five people. It was quite a feast. For some reason, I didn't take any pictures. I could have hit myself now. On Christmas day, we woke up to a song which is a Barker tradition and then went downstairs to start the day. I don't remember the song now. Ask Steve, he will be able to tell you. We cooked and ate the usual Tang breakfast. Then we opened the stockings. There was no time for presents for we had to go to our Sunday services. I had the most wonderful time attending this ward. The sacrament meeting was a musical program describing the birth of our Savior. They have some talented members in the ward. Michelle and Steve were in the program. Sunday School was great. A lot of people participated in the discussion. I especially like the high priests in their quorum meeting. They must have 20 high priests in attendance. The discussion was so enriching. In our ward, we count ourselves lucky if there are 8 high priests in the quorum meeting.

After Church, we went home to open presents. The spirit of giving and receiving was in abundance. Here are some selected few pictures for your enjoyment.

We took our grand old time to open presents. Even though there was a lot of laughter and joy, Christmas without young children is very different. I hope everyone else agrees with us. Anyhow, while we were opening presents, the turkey was in the oven, while the ham was cooked over at Michelle and Steve's friends. The Whitely-Ross family came over for Christmas dinner. As soon as the presents were opened, we were busy setting up the dining room to welcome our guests. There was an incident that happened during dinner. I am not privy to mention here. If you want to know, ask Michelle and Steve directly yourself. The Whitely-Ross family brought the party hats over. It seemed it was a Christmas and New Year combined dinner. There is a picture of Steve cutting the Turkey for the first time, I believe. You have to decide whether he was doing a good job or not. Here comes a few pictures of the dinner.

This was a fun filled day. We were tired by the end of the day after the guests were gone. What a wonderful day and there were so many things to be thankful for.