While mourning the untimely death of Michael Jackson, Mom found a new singer to admire:  Ms. Jennifer Hudson.  So we went to get her records. She surely has a strong and beautiful voice.  I wish I had a voice like that.  Maybe I would just spend time coaching my  voice instead of going to school like now.

Well, Ms. Hudson’s already  been talking about how she wants her son to get an education (number one on the priority list per People Magazine ‘s article). Her little boy is barely one  month old (born on Aug 10^th, 2009!).  Maybe education will make you rich like Bill Gates (he and his wife also talk about education a lot on People magazine.)

I happen to  like People magazine ( full of gossips about big movie stars plus it tells you about rating for new movies . I won’t see a movie unless it has 3 stars or above for rating.

Lately,  Scott has nightmares that he misses his homework. Sometimes  after being in bed for a while, he makes Mom getting up  going  downstairs with him so he can recheck the work, making sure that the mouse hasn’t eaten it up.  It drives Mom crazy because Scott can’t even walk downstairs by himself, and Mom doesn’t like getting out of the bed once she lands there (Too old to get up!)

Yesterday we went to see the barber for a hair cut;  Scott refused to come in because someone there said something about his lopsided head  the last time he was there( Scott is the boy who  never forgives  whoever  bad-mouths about him.)

”They made fun of me.”  He announced, so he laid down in the car to wait;   Kevin went in to get the job done;  came out looking like a young monk  : No more hair, almost bald. But  surely he  looked younger than with lots of hair. This morning getting up  for school, seeing  Scott’s hair situation I almost fainted:   looked like some birds came  making a nest  on Scott’s head  but doing a poor  job and left .

We had the swim test on Monday.  Kevin made it to Super Swim Level.  Scott and I stayed back for another session.  I love to swim very much so I don’t mind whatever  level  I am in.

Sept 10^th, 2009

It has been two weeks since we attended the new school.  So much homework, so much discipline that Scott is going crazy.  He has stress you would not believe;  he always looks like there ‘s a green ghost  chasing him around the house: no more  energy left to cause any more trouble.  Kevin isn’t doing any better either.  His face is starting to show pimples!  He doesn’t look handsome anymore.  Mom will take him to consult  our aunt (the Dermatologist in town).

In the mean time, I look up the book we got “1,001 Home Health Remedy”, which Mom has on the shelf to help Kevin get rid of these pimples.  He should follow these tips:

- Wash your face with soap and water once or twice a day.

- Clean skin gently and don’t pick at  pimple.  Kevin likes to play with his face.  He picked the eye lash from the left eye.  Now he got no lashes left and waiting for it to grow back.  One surely looks funny with no eyelash.  Sometimes he looks like one of those guys from “ Star Trek” movie without the pointed ears.

This health tip book is really good.  Scott always has hiccups.  The book says massaging your ear lobe will cure it!  Scott tried it once and he doesn’t  have any more hiccups.

Yesterday, at the swimming lesson, Scott donned one goggle on the right eye to swim.  I looked around the pool to see if there was any other one – eyed goggled kid like him, but there was none.  So I will call him “one-eyed swimmer” from now on.

Talking about eyes, I‘ll say that I have very poor eyes ( I wore glass since I was 2 years old) but I have very pretty handwriting.  My two brothers have good eye sight but very bad handwriting.  God is fair: he gives you something, then takes away something else.  The homeless doesn’t have a house, but he doesn’t have to work very hard either;  just cruise along for fun.

Jacksonville, Florida

July 5^th, 2009

This never happened before and it’s happening now. I wrote a piece about my brothers’ fighting over the fishing rod. I fixed the writing about 10 times so that it could be perfect. At the last minute I tried to save it, but pushed the wrong button and erased it completely. So here I am at it again, and hoping that I can make it as funny as the last one.

Kevin and Scott have been fighting about who would hold the fishing rod at the boat dock. Then they decided each would hold the rod for 15 minutes, and that I would be the one to check when it’s time to switch.

After the rod situation, then they started blaming each other – who did what wrong because there was no fish coming to taste the bait. Scott threw the line 3 times, and at the third try, the hook got caught under the beam of the dock so I had to run inside to get Papa out to cut the line. Then we found out there was no float hooked to the line, so the hook and bait kept sinking down. We lost the bait because the fishes had a good time feasting on the bait under water, and we didn’t know when to pull it up.

After one hour of arguing, we had to come inside. Dad and I went to the store to buy some float and more plastic baits. In the meantime, the two fishermen went swimming in the pool waiting for the line to be ready again. Dad came back, Kevin and Scott wasted no time trying to grab and hold the dear rod again when I brought it out to the dock.

About half an hour later, Kevin got a crab. He got so excited, jumping up and down, while Scott was croaking again in his usual tone. The crab was about 4 inches wide. We put the poor thing in a bucket with water from the river. I kept watching it so it won’t climb out and run back into the water. It was quite a moment of victory for all of us after the whole long day sitting at the dock arguing and blaming each other( I found out when people get bored, they tend to be less peaceful like Kevin and Scott).

It turned quite windy in the late afternoon.Then it was Scott’s turn; he sat and sat. Nothing nibbled under his command. After two more turns at the rod, Scott gave it back to Kevin. He went inside. Patience is not a friend to Scott. I am also tired so I carried the bucket inside to show to our Grandparents. GrandMa boiled the poor thing so Grandpa could eat, but he didn’t want to. Scott looked worried and very sad – the poor crab had suffered so much. Seeing all his ten legs curling upward in a stand still position, I felt sad too; we should have thrown it back to into the river after catching it. But it was too late now, so I decided to taste the poor thing. It tasted quite delicious!

Tonight, I would say a prayer for the little crab so he can go straight to heaven.

BOUND FOR LIFE.

“We have no complaint.” Frank Marrujo, who was with twin, Joe, celebrated their 90^th birthday together. I’m not sure if I want to live till 90 and being around Scott. He’s so annoying. We got this twin story from the San Jose Mercury News. Mom made us read it, compare their life to ours, then write an essay. Mom just invents this new sport that she will pick any story from whatever she is reading, makes us read and write about it.

Last Saturday, Mom and I went to a wedding in Napa Valley (the wine country). Mom’s best friend got married (the second time). Most of Mom’s friends got divorced (in fact, all Mom’s friends got divorced) so most of them got married again whenever they have a chance; a few even went for the 3^rd time; but they feel embarrassed so they usually hold the 3^rd wedding secret in case it does not work out (only a few close friends are invited.) I guess if you do a 3^rd time, you might also do a 4^th or a 5^th , so it’s kind of embarrassing to invite a whole lot of people.

Mom gets to be invited to secret wedding because she can keep a secret. She will bring me along to witness the event. They usually have it in some quiet place, not at some Vietnamese hall where lots of people walk by. The bride doesn’t wear flashing clothes or changes several times like a normal bride would do, just some simple things. People are so quiet; they only whisper to each other. Mom doesn’t even crack jokes; she keeps herself serious also.

Scott still doesn’t get over the fact how someone can get married 3 times. Kevin says anything is possible these days if you are not careful in picking your mate. My best friend lives with her single Mom. Mom asked why she didn’t remarry. She said once was enough to make her stay away from men. I think you have to be brave to go for the second. Going for the 3^rd, you are super brave.

Well, let’s come back to the Napa Valley‘s huge wedding. It was grand with a lavish feast: Yummy fingered foods, all you can drink wine and liquor, then sit down dinner. I noticed Mom drank and talked like it was her own wedding. I kept watching her, but Mom is non – stop once she found her spot. She is quite a good drinker too, never getting drunk.

The more she drinks, the merrier she gets, and people around her laugh even more. Mom could be a comedian if she doesn’t have the accent. All her friends get this strange accent that when they speak English ; they understand one another perfectly. Lately, Mom has been trying to acquire the English accent since she befriended with a Vietnamese who married to a New Zealander. She would say: “Will you ring me later?”

Well, let’s get back to the wedding: You see flowers everywhere. The bride loves flowers (Mom says the bride used to own a flower shop but it went broke because the business was slow. In fact, most Mom’s friends had business and went broke because they are very free- spirited people. They don’t like to work for anyone or listen to anybody.)

It was almost 4 p.m when dinner started: white table cloths displayed tastefully with expensive china. Each person got 3 different gobbles for wine. The couple had two dogs, and the dogs also got to wear a floral wreath around their necks. They even posed for the photographer. I had never seen dogs at wedding; the two dogs darted in and out the wedding party. Maybe they also got married.

The wedding took up almost the whole day. I had so much to eat . We left around 7 p.m. It was still day- light. The drive took us almost 2 hours back home; we were exhausted.

We are supposed to read this book so we can write “Thank you “ notes when we receive presents. Mom makes each of us write a sample ”Thank you.” You should see what Scott‘s thank you note looks like. He drafts a Thank you note to our uncle who sends him $20.00( for real) for buying a toy gun he was dreaming about. In the end, Scott puts a P.S saying he has set up a wish list of what he wants, and how much each costs because the $20.00 Uncle sent was not enough to buy the kind of gun he has in mind! It costs around $35.00 plus tax.

Lately Scott learns how not to squander money. He only buys small and cheap toy guns. He will save money and restrain himself from spending until he can get the perfect toy gun. Now the wish list is the next best thing for him.

Kevin thinks Scott is greedy and that there won’t be any gift coming from his wish list. Scott thinks if you stick to your gun, you will get something in the end. I don’t know what to think, but if you see this wish list, you would try NOT to buy him anything because it’s long and very expensive. The cheapest item is $25.00. Scott is the man who always spends what he doesn’t have per Mom’s evaluation of Scott’s behavior.

Kevin’s thank you note is short, punctual, and boring because it takes him less than 1 minute to compose. I haven’t written mine yet because I am busy writing all this up before I forget all the juicy details coming out from this event. Besides I don’t like to write “Sample”; what I write coming from real life . I write “Thank you Note” for Kevin and Scott all the times while they are busy playing with their toy guns.

Why should we earn our desk?

by Scott Nguyen.

Dear Teacher,

We should earn our desks because it would be embarrassing when others teachers or students walk in and see that we haven’t yet earned our desks.

The second reason is our legs get so cramp, and we really want to move but we can’t. If we do, we can get into trouble by shifting legs too many times.

The third reason is that it really hurts our butt sitting on the floor from 8am to 12 pm except a small break in between.

The forth reason is that it will get our pants dirty, and we have to get them washed so often, this will waste water for the city.

The fifth reason is it’s hard to write when we have no desk.

Those are the reasons we should earn our desks very fast.

By Scott Nguyen

08/17/2009

It’s Monday; we come to school early this morning since you don’t want to be late here. There are a few kids who run in late. They are called to stand in line by themselves and explain why they are late. It looks so embarrassing because everyone staring at you. I would not want to be in their shoes.

I am getting used to this military atmosphere. I think it’s kind of neat to hear loud instructions early in the morning. It wakes you up for sure ( We have to wake up at 6a.m every morning, getting ready and be at school by 7a.m, and it is not over til 5 p.m. Then we have swimming lesson at 6 p.m). Usually we don’t get home til 7 p.m.

I think we have no life at all ever since starting to go here.

Standing in line in the school’s yard, Scott looks like a jumpy mouse because the cat is staring at him. Lately Scott has not been himself: he looks like a worried , old man.

Mom has been taking the three of us to church the last 4 Sunday to relieve stress and getting to know God better. She thinks this Church near our house or the English-speaking God will do something good to us, he will steer us away from bad behavior in this life. Scott is taking the message seriously by setting up an altar near bed with his childhood pictures and God’s picture sitting side by side.

He kneels and mumbles whenever he has a chance.

Finally, we all earn our seat after 2 weeks of hard training in summer school; except Scott and a few other kids who are “not yet deserving” per teacher’s recommendation. Poor Scott; he missed doing his homework last Friday (only did 1 out of 3 pages) and blamed that Mom asked him to go swimming when the teacher asked him for the reason. Then Ms.Steele called Mom to verify the story.

I saw Scott had tear in his eyes when standing up listening to the charge; he tried hard not to cry like other kids. They were crying hard while the teacher went through the sermon why you should do your homework properly.

“ No excuse, no short cut” is the motto printed on our uniform. Mom is right; this boot camp might be too much for the weakly; but she says it will build character and all of us need character badly.

Yesterday, Scott had a change of heart after listening to the science teacher‘s announcement: if they all try hard, every month she would have a pot luck, everyone could bring food to share . Besides goofing off, Scott’s second free time favorite is to eat so he thinks this isn’t a bad place after all

Today, we started at the new school: our first day at the Heartwood Academy . It was very emotional and nerve wrecking for Scott and I.

We came early, stood in line watching; everyone looked so serious. The principal was yelling :

”Everyone should be in a straight line. I mean everyone.”

She reminded me of Mom on the hot days, her voice raises as the temperature does. I looked around to see who is out there besides us? Scott looked green again like the time in Orlando Disneyland when he refused to go on the roller coaster. This is not the scary ride but the sound of the principal caused terror to these little kids including me. Wish you could hear her voice: it was strong, loud and full of power.

“Stand up straight, look straight in front of you.” She went on again.

After 5 minutes of silence, she said hello to the parents and us, then she shouted out each teacher’s name, then we were supposed to shout back: “Good morning, Ms…” whatever the teacher’s name.

From a distance, you can see us like small soldiers in uniform, waiting for the sergeant making the morning drill. Every morning will be like this, we have to get up early; getting here before 8 am; if you are on time; it means you are late. If you are late, teachers will take points against you. Too many points taking off, you won’t get to go on the yearly trip .

After 15 minutes in the yard, we were asked to proceed to a big class room. The teachers asked us to be seated but I saw no chairs. It means we were invited to sit on the floor. The teachers went on to explain how we need to earn our seat, our notebook, our pencils and papers, etc. Nothing is free in this life after all. Scott was surprised to find this out. At the end of the day, there was assignment for us to write why we should earn our seat.

Scott wasn’t happy going here. He wanted to go back to the old school. He said he missed his old friends greatly and not sure if he could function properly here without Ricky (Scott’s favorite boyfriend). Mom is happy sending us to this boot camp since she has a hard time with Kevin and Scott at home because they won’t listen.

Mom has asked us to write: ” My day at the new school.” Scott is too emotional to write; Kevin doesn’t care: he just talked it out to get it over with. And it was so boring to jot anything down from his report of the day.

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Mom came to school to pick up Scott and me. We waited in the yard for 15 minutes – still no sign of Scott. We went to his class room, no Scott there either. So we had to scan the school playground. There were Scott and Ricky playing on the swing like it were still school time.

Scott just found this buddy Ricky who is also Vietnamese. They both look the same, with not much hair on the head, wearing tattered jeans with rips at the knee. They both wear soldier jackets. From the belly up, Scott looks like a Ninja Turtle. From the belly down, he looks like a Hobo. It’s Winter, so Scott gets away with wearing mismatched socks.

I dressed myself very nicely because I decided to be in fashion. I just bought a pair of jeans from Limited Two for $45.00. Mom was aghast, but I paid for it myself. After the jeans and a few Lattes, I resumed my regular status: being broke again. It’s nice to be broke since you don’t have to think about what to buy till you can get hold of some new money!

For every A we get from school, Mom will give us $2.00. It’s very little money nowadays, but is’ better than nothing. It’s hard time out there. Lots of Mom’s friends got laid off. Mom might have to come back to work again. That is the last thing on her list to do. She is in her early retirement program.

Mom likes to read, take care of us, and write poetry. Someday when I am rich by winning the lottery, I will take Mom and my family around the world. She will get inspired to write lots of poems. Mom is only inspired when she is on the move, not sitting in one place like home. Maybe she could publish her own work then. Money is surely a powerful boss; it does lots of things for you.

Kevin is a hard worker in school. This school expects a lot from students and Kevin is fully inspired. Kevin is doing 7^th grade math even though he’s in 5^th grade. Every morning, he wakes up at 6 am, and waits till 6.30 to wake Mom up, to make lunch for him and take him to school at 6.45 A.M.

Yesterday, in the car,Scott was trying to raise some money himself by offering to sell me his portable DVD player he got as a gift at Christmas for $5.00 (this thing costs almost $100.00 at the store). This tells you how silly he is. I didn’t want to buy, then Kevin told him he was a fool. A few minutes later, he raised it up to $40.00, still no offer from me. Mom asked why on earth Scott tried from $5.00 to $40.00. He said because he was a very good business man, his price would be raised if no offer wasn’t accepted at the time.

Scott is inspired to be a better boy these days. He’s reading ”Life is sweet” seriously, even marking the pages he likes with great quotes like “Hiding money” (Stories of people hiding money here and there around the house, then later they find the money by surprise. Or people from Japan hiding money in public places, then leave notes for finders to do good deed with the money if they by luck encounter the money).

Scott doesn’t hide money because he gets no money to hide, but now he knows the trick about Mom forgetting where she keeps the money, and he will look for it.

A few days ago, walking into Target from the parking lot, Scott saw a $5.00 bill laying on the pavement. He picked it up making sure his eyes didn’t lie. It was a real $5.00, crumpled up. He was making noises like a rat finding food. But he complained it was nothing like what I found one time at a restaurant: $100.00 bill laying on the floor on my way to the buffet table. I gave each of them $10.00. Now Scott had this $5.00, I demanded back the money I gave him.

Now Scott has a new habit: Everywhere he goes, he scouts the floor to see if any money comes up waiting for him . There is a hard time in this Silicon Valley so money doesn’t fall around waiting for poor Scott.

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