just us.

oh my gosh...I'm back!

this has got to be some sort of record for me.  twice in a month, seriously?

I stood in the shower earlier today after what I felt was a really good workout for me, and wanted to blog but had no idea about what.  So I guess a bunch of recent pictures will just have to do.

I couldn't remember exactly what was going on at the time, but I was at work and pretty sure I was about done.  With school being back in session, things are getting busier and flu shot season has started.  Oh joy.

This cross stitch piece is 99% done.  Just need to embroider the recipient's name on it, frame it and wrap it up from Christmas! I have ideas for more things to do, just need to get the patterns.

Just another Friday afternoon in the Lieu household.  Mike watching IronMan and swimsuit-clad Keira on her tablet watching some Disney movie.

new suit, new goggles, ready to go!  Freestyle and backstroke have improved, onto breaststroke next.

Saturday gym session for the two of us.  Me at athletic training/boot camp, him doing cardio on machines.  We got our sweaty on.

Uncle Mike laying down the law on the 3 kindergartners.  Running around the house, screaming like crazies.  There was a timeout right before this talking-to, those 3 can be too much!

so that's that. Keira is on her 3-week fall break right now, and next Friday we head to Maui for 8 days of rest and relaxation!

we are still alive

It's a shame how long I've left this space blank.  Our lives aren't THAT busy that I can't update here at least once a month, but I lack drive to get myself here.  But currently...

Keira is 7 weeks into her first year of Kindergarten!  Just this week she earned herself 10 compliment slips for positive behavior in school and got to take home a Mighty Mustang for one night.  She has made a lot of friends (and has no problem doing so) and seems to be enjoying school.  I had our first parent-teacher conference on Tuesday and Miss Muranaka says she is doing well.  Overall, she is above average (woo hoo!) and her nightly assignment is to read for 10 minutes.  Up until this week, Mike and i were doing all the reading.  Now, Keira is reading to us!  I'll admit it's not the easiest 10 minutes of my day, and sometimes 10 minutes becomes 30, but she is trying hard to sound out the words and will look at us when she needs help.

Keira started formal swimming lessons a few weeks ago, and is swimming surprisingly well for never having had lessons before.  She's learned both the freestyle and the backstroke and can swim from one end to the other nonstop.  Maybe swimming (instead of hockey) is her thing!

Mike had a cardiac ablation done back in June, that would hopefully help with the atrial fibrillation he's had for a few years.  It was a long procedure, and an even longer day for the both of us but he is doing well, and hasn't experienced any episodes since.  He's got to go back in a month to wear a heart monitor and then follow up with the cardiologist.  We definitely want him around for a long, long time!

With Keira in school now, Mike and I are hoping to get ourselves to Disneyland while we still have our passes.  Just the 2 of us went last Friday (shh, don't tell Keira!) for a little date day, and managed 6 rides in 3.5 hours.  And they were all the "big" rides, ones we haven't been on in some time.

As for me, not much has changed.  Still working, still working out, still helping to take care of things on the homefront.  I've started cross stitching again, and spend a lot of my downtime working on projects (I've got Keira's teacher's gift done and am working on Keira's Christmas gift too!)  I've got to make more of an effort to keep this thing updated, because I can't let memories go unnoticed.