Winnie Ming here.  Hope this finds you well!

We are doing well, "we" meaning my Ba and Ma (my parents), my two older sisters Jun Xie and Wie Poo (14 and 12), and my little brother, Lee (Li) Xuang, who is only six.  Ba continues to teach Chinese to students thinking of traveling abroad (particularly to Asia) at the local college, and ma, she continues to raise us children and Ma, she stays home to raise us children when we are not at school.

We will be going back to school the day after Labor Day, but for now, we are enjoying what is left of our summertime vacation.  We have had a lot of fun going to see our relatives in Chinatown, which is not far from where we live, going to the zoo and to the local fish aquarium, going to the art museum, and burning off excess energies at the park.  We are very fortunate to live where we do because there's allways so much to do to keep us from becoming bored!

Ba has returned to his job, but he's been off for three months.  He still got paid, though, so it wasn't like he didn't have any money coming in.  Ba makes pretty good money because he is so good at his job.

Last month, Ba gave us a scare.  He had some chest pain, and he ended up in hospital for a few days whilei doctors did their tests on him.  The tests revealed that Ba was under a lot of stress, and they advised him to take it easy and to watch the fatty foods.  Ba has been doing his best to try to take better care of himself.

Grandmother PoPo is doing fairly okay; not great, but she is hanging in there.  At least she hasn't been in hospital, but she has fallen several times.  She didn't hurt herself, thank goodness, but she must have taken a few years off of our lives!  She scared us!

Now Grandfather YeYe is with us; he finally had the money to be able to come to America to live with his wife.  He came in early June, and everything is still so new and unfamiliar to him.  He is having a very hard time trying to adjust to the quick pace of life that is the norm here in America.

Well, Ma is calling, so I must see what she needs.  I will write in here again with more stories about Ba, Ma, Grandmother PoPo and Grandfather YeYe, and my brother and sisters.  You have not heard the last from me, Winnie Ming!  Take care and talk to you again soon!

~Love, your friend in California, Winnie (Woo Ming) Ming.  :)