Who Are You Calling Little?

Unexpected

2012-01-29T00:41:00.006-06:00

My pink rose, five days later and still lovely.

On Monday, the dreariest and wettest day of this past week, I was forced to leave the warm cocoon of my home and drive myself to my mammogram appointment with my orders for my yearly screening (sort of like an early birthday present from my doctor--ha!). I had not visited this particular imaging center before; there are dozens of them all over town and I usually choose one that I'll be near on that particular day.

I dragged myself into the imaging center. It was surprising. Tasteful decor and comfy reception room furnishings and coffee and donuts too. It even smelled pretty in there. I was tempted to take a donut while filling out my paperwork, but I fought the temptation. After I was whisked into the changing room, which was also quite nice, I was given a pink gown to wear and told to wait in an anteroom with other ladies. There were lots of magazines, TV airing 'The View' (of course) and several space heaters to keep everyone comfy-cozy while waiting. You could even text or check messages because everyone was allowed to keep their phones and purses with them.

The procedure itself is pretty quick and painless, with just a little bit of squishing-squashing to get the correct images. Honestly, I dread the idea of the mammogram more than the event itself.

After getting dressed again, I followed the exit signs back to the reception area and passed a table filled with snacks (granola bars, candy, etc.) which I thought was a nice touch, but passed on a snack to go. As I left the office, I was handed a single pink rose and thanked by the receptionist for coming.

I put the rose to my nose and inhaled deeply. Roses rarely fail to deliver their sweet scent. I was truly surprised and completely delighted by my perfect pink rose and this amazing boutique imaging center for women. I know I smiled all the way out the door of the office and into my car. I drove away under an increasingly-ominous sky with my perfect pink rose in the seat next to me, a tiny bit of joy unexpected.

Are You There Blog? It's Me, Melissa

2012-01-25T01:36:00.006-06:00

My Lunar New Year Resolution: Blog More

I'm baaaaack! Have not blogged since last summer, and just once in memory of sweet Steve. I was too ashamed to blog, really, since my spectacularly short-lived 'Year of Living Creatively' experiment crashed and burned after 2 short weeks. (I actually started a Week 3 post, but never finished it. So much for living creatively.)

My "business" blogs suffered too. I did post several cakes last year on my Sweet Spot blog, but the Paper Dolls site was basically dormant, without a single post in 2011! Sorry!

But as always, I have been online night and day, even if I haven't updated my blog(s). I discovered that Twitter is waaay more fun than the new Facebook and the even newer Facebook Timeline. So I've logged in 268 tweets in about a year. My love-hate relationship with Facebook continued throughout. I teetered between obsessively checking it multiple times a day and not just caring about the 20, and only 20, friends that Facebook thinks I need to know about.

I read voraciously online. Anything. Everything. The Internet is the single most amazing invention in my lifetime and I honestly cannot remember what I did in my free time before it took over the world. I love that anything and everything are at my fingertips, literally. I think my screen time increases exponentially each year, frightening thought. All last year I had a smart phone, bought at Thanksgiving 2010 for our Christmas trip to Disney World because I wanted to use the Disney parks apps! I was slow to get started, but once I figured out everything you can do with the tiny computer masquerading as a phone, I was online "via phone" all the time. By Christmas 2011, I had to request an increase in my data plan allowance due to consistently going over my plan!

But I have missed blogging and sharing news, photos and stories with the few lovely souls who used to read them. So my Lunar New Year resolution (too late for the official one!) is to try to blog again! I said "try" because I'm not Yoda. I may not be able to post on all four of my blogs all the time (been there, done that, too much work!) but I hope to be here more than I was last year. Don't give up on me yet!

Image from Google Images

Tyra-and-Steve

2011-07-02T00:12:00.007-05:00

Today would have been my dear friends Tyra and Steve's 17th anniversary; I was their Maid of Honor at their wedding, which seems like both yesterday and ages ago.

I have two favorite pictures of Tyra and Steve together. My first favorite is this one, from their wedding day, a few hours after the ceremony.

My second favorite is this one, from sometime in the 1990s. I snapped this pic at their home in Carrollton, where they lived as a young married couple and then as a family with newborn Cooper. I don't know the exact date of this pic, or if they even knew I was in the room while they cuddled by their fireplace. I just know that I love this photo and the memories of weekend visits with them that it evokes.

i carry your heart with me
(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it
(anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate
(for you are my fate, my sweet)
i want no world
(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

e e cummings

I wish so much that we were all celebrating 17 years of marriage with them today. Instead, I will celebrate the memories of being with Tyra-and-Steve, the couple, and the privilege of having witnessed so many fun and wonderful moments, like the one captured in this photo, during their 15 years together.

The Year of Living Creatively: Week 2

2011-03-15T22:24:00.010-05:00

So Mondays are hard . . . for just about anything. This is true when you're trying to be creative. Day 7, March 14 2011: I introduced my kids to the joys of scrapbook stickers. Don't laugh. This was truly a creative and spontaneous thing. I wanted to do something with my 10 year stash of stickers (yes, I started collecting acid-free stickers in 2001) and pulled out two binders full of them so I could *do something* with them. My younger child became very interested in what I was doing; she'd never seen my full collection, neither had my older daughter. We went through the whole collection, mostly Carys and I, and thought off all kinds of projects we could do with them! Carys seems to love them as much as I do.

I have adored stickers since I was a child. I have albums full of them from the 80s (sadly, not acid-free, but full of memories of cool designs and allowance money spent.) I also decided, sort of spontaneously as well, to bequeath half (or more) of my collection to my girls, so they too can start their own collections and projects. We divvied them up and they took theirs away in acid-free plastic boxes, new treasures for them to dive into if they need inspiration for their next craft project. And I was okay with that.

Day 8, March 15, 2011: Oh we were so creative today! Funny how an expiring Groupon can spur you to such creative heights. I bought a Groupon to a local paint-your-own pottery place months ago, and we had to use it. We had decided beforehand that the girls should paint something for my Dad's upcoming birthday, and they did. But while browsing the selection of ready-to-paint pieces, I discovered the perfect metal frame with hooks to hang in my house. In fact, I'd been thinking for the past week or so that we need some hooks on the wall to get stuff off the floor. Stuff like backpacks, etc. The metal frame holds 4 large tiles, to be painted by me (with some help from the girls). So 2 1/2 hours later, the girls had painted tiles decorated with their handprints and I had designed a monogram tile for each of them. I even free-handed the designs! A huge leap for me. I usually don't trust myself to do something like that because I might mess it up and still have to pay for it! I can't wait until the pieces are fired and assembled.

Days 9-10, March 16-17, 2011: Okay, it's also hard to be purposely creative when you're traveling. We did quick road trip up to Austin, packed with visiting friends and relatives, eating our favorite Austin food and shopping. Too busy to be creative, seriously. Then when we arrived home, we had out-of-town guests join us about an hour later! So I'm amending my 'year of living creatively' rule to excuse traveling days (and days when we have company) when necessary. (Although I did attempt to be creative when we were in Houston last week.)

Day 11, March 18, 2011: This was the day our lovely visitors departed for home in the midwest. I had big plans to try some new cake techniques today, but really just spent the day watching shows I'd recorded on the DVR, playing on the computer and napping! So, no excuses at all for the lack of creativity. But everyone needs a "catch-up" day, where doing nothing at all is the order of the day. Am I right?

Day 12, March 19, 2011: I put on my Super-Creative Mom Cape and walked my younger child through the steps of creating her own board game for a school project. Choices of projects were: report, poster, PowerPoint presentation or "other creative idea." Obviously we chose "other." I casually suggested that she create a board game about her assigned research topic: Kangaroo Rat. I love creating board games. The first time I made one was in 5th grade for a Civil War project and my teacher absolutely loved it, asked if she could keep it, and had it laminated for future classes to play with. Laminated. Immortalized forever at the tender age of 11. Carys loved the game idea too so we ran with it.

We made a list of what supplies might be required (the list she created was pretty amusing, by the way, and highlights the unique logic of a 1st grader). Then we went to Target and walked up and down aisles looking for things that could be used as other things. *Super Creative Juices at Work Here.* For example, small drawer knobs became game board pieces, with some tweaking of course. Electrical tape to make decorative hinges for the board. Super-proud that everything we bought was my idea, but then again, I was shopping with a 1st grader. Carys designed the board game path ("No shorcuts like in Candyland, Mommy.") and I cut out the squares for the game spaces. We didn't finish the game; attention spans were waning. But it was an awesome start and I loved the feeling of creating something totally new out of lots of other things.

Day 13, March 20, 2011: This was Day 2 of the Kangaroo Rat Game project. I was really getting into it. I went online, as my daughter is not allowed to Google yet, and found cool pics of super-adorable kangaroo rats from various educational websites. We had all these ideas about how the game should be played and therefore what needed to be created for it (too many ideas really). This kept us busy for a while, as did some non-creative but very necessary research about the kangaroo rat. Super-Creative Mom's work is never done!

Photo from Google Images

The Year of Living Creatively: Week 1

2011-03-14T02:01:00.008-05:00

I kicked off my Year of Living Creatively on my birthday, and have attempted to be "creative" each day. The first day was actually the hardest, as it was jam-packed with mostly non-creative things to do. But I tried. It was sometimes fun, sometimes surprising. As I go along, I am sort of defining what counts as creative, at least to me.

Image from Amazon.com

Day 1, March 8, 2011: I read a story aloud to my Daisy Girl Scout troop about the founding of Girl Scouts on March 12. 1912, in celebration of Girl Scout Birthday Week. I had to think of an activity for them to do that would be meaningful and fun at the same time, so at the very last minute (as in 30 seconds before I introduced the activity), I asked them to create a birthday cake on paper for Girl Scouts (99 years old this year!) that incorporated different elements of the story I had just told them. I almost always plan something for the girls to do ahead of time, so I really went out on a limb during the meeting when I spontaneously made up an activity for them to do that would also help them earn their Girl Scout Birthday patch! The girls were a little confused by my instructions at first, but they took off with it and I was so pleased and surprised by the results. They managed to incorporate different things from the story, each girl remembering something that made an impression on her. Some of the "decorations" on their cakes included: 1912, the year of the 1st Girl Scout meeting; 18, the number of girls who attended; Savannah, Georgia, where the meeting took place; basketball, an activity the first girl scout troop enjoyed; blue, the color of the first Girl Scouts' uniforms. Overall, the girls showed more creativity than I, but I did have to come up with the idea of the Girl Scout birthday cake in a matter of minutes, so I was quite proud of myself anyway.

Day 2, March 9, 2011: This was a good baking day for me. I finally perfected the new vanilla cake recipe that I've been tweaking since September! I have been baking it for customers since October, and it tasted fine, but I was less satisfied with the cake's texture. The recipe was originally a mash-up of at least 3 recipes that I liked. I had an 'a-ha' moment on Wednesday evening, used a new ingredient and tweaked the recipe some more, and it turned out exactly like I had envisioned it in my head. And it tasted divine! Prior to last fall, I had been baking the same old vanilla cake since 1999. It was ok, but I finally felt like it was time for Vanilla Cake 2.0.

Day 3, March 10, 2011: This was my 2nd day to be creative in my work. For the first time ever, I decorated a cake for a customer entirely with rolled fondant only. I have always had a love-hate relationship with that sugary medium. Since I began decorating cakes in 1998, I have always shied away from 100% fondant cakes. I love buttercream too much, for one thing, and fondant has always seemed too much like messing around with Play-doh. I prefer the challenge of turning out detailed decorations on a cake with buttercream and a variety of decorating tips, but on Thursday decided that my creative challenge would be to do an all-fondant decorated cake. Obviously I have used fondant, fairly regularly lately, but mostly for small decorations on top of the cake or accent pieces. This time I went all in. I even threw in rice krispy treats as part of the cake's construction. It was a 3D Minion (from the movie Despicable Me) for a sweet 1 year old girl's birthday. I loved how it turned out and felt very creative at the end of the day.

Day 4, March 11, 2011: I went out for sushi for the first time since I moved to this city eight years ago. Is that creative enough? I do like sushi when it's mostly cooked ingredients (ie. Korean style) but feel a teensy bit squeamish when it's raw fish. I probably wouldn't have thought of Happy Hour at a sushi restaurant, but thanks to my adventurous friends, I went anyway and enjoyed it! My previous eating-out sushi experiences have been in Austin, Dallas and Vancouver, so it was nice to find a sushi place here that everyone seems to like.

Day 5, March 12, 2011: I went out of town and discovered that I had forgotten to pack several things. Necessity is not only the mother of invention but of creativity as well! I figured out how to make a paltry couple of pieces of jewelry fit several outfits, and how to apply my makeup without my key makeup brushes. That's creative, isn't it?!

Day 6, March 13, 2011: I became a child again at the Children's Museum of Houston and created some Pop Art with my 6 year old. I was simply going to watch her be the artist, but the tables loaded with markers and blank pages were too irresistible for me. I honestly could not remember the last time I sat down to color and draw just for fun, so I needed to retreat back to the childhood self who loved to do just that.

Today starts another week of being creative every day. I'm looking forward to what I can do and try over the next 7 days!

40 = Creative Every Day

2011-03-08T00:58:00.006-06:00

Hmm . . . It's an hour past midnight on March 8, 2011, and I am now officially 40 years old. I've approached this date for the past several months, weeks, days by alternating between feeling horrified (God, I'm so old!) and pretty blase about the whole thing (eh, whatever). Either way, for a few weeks now I've felt like I needed to shake things up a bit, step out of my very cozy comfort zone, and do something. Something else. Something different. Something scary. Something fun. I just wasn't sure what the something would be yet.

Just a few days ago, I stumbled on a blog called The B-Roll. It officially kicked off on March 8, 2010 and chronicles one man's journey from birthday to birthday with one goal in mind: "Do something creative at least once a day and document it." I was tickled that he and I share a birthday (alas, I am older than he) and that he has spent the last 365 days doing something creative or even trying something new each day. Perhaps it wasn't an accident that I discovered Charlie's blog.

This challenge led me to Creative Every Day. For almost 3 years, blogger Leah has hosted the Creative Every Day Challenge, complete with optional monthly themes for inspiration. Participants sign up and post the results of their creative endeavors. Exactly the kind of semi-organized nudging I need.

So I am stealing a page from both of these amazingly creative people, and in honor of turning 40 years old, I am launching my own 365 Days of Creativity! And I'm telling everyone right now--I will not be blogging daily about it. (You know me, that would admitting defeat before the whole thing even begins!) I will commit to updating weekly what I have been doing creatively every day!

Obviously, creativity can be defined in so many ways. That's what makes this challenge so difficult and easy at the same time. I have no idea, at 1 1/2 hours into my 41st year, what forms my own creativity will take or where this challenge will lead me. I don't care; the journey will be interesting enough!

"Be an everyday creative, be creative every day."
~ Creative Every Day blog

Will You Be My Valentine?

2011-02-14T01:24:00.005-06:00

Well, from one holiday greeting to the next! That's how we roll here at my blog! Sheer laziness coupled with extreme busyness has prevented me from posting since last month. But here I am again, with homemade Valentine wishes for everyone:

My digital Valentine is becoming an annual tradition for me! I truly wish I had time to create a special one-of-a-kind valentine for each and every one of my nearest and dearest. But until I do, please accept this one with much love and friendship from me.

Happy Valentine's Day!

LAYOUT CREDITS:
Card design scraplifted from Two Peas in a Bucket, artist unknown; Papers: Rhonna Farrer for Two Peas in a Bucket 'Basic Black & White' Gift Wrap Kit; Robyn Gough for Digital Scrapbook Place 'Pieces of Mmm' Free Kit; Embellishments: Rhonna Farrer for Two Peas in a Bucket '2 Organic' Kit, Betsy Tuma for Two Peas in a Bucket 'Glitterati' Free Kit; Peanuts cartoon strip by Me; Font: Traveling Typewriter by Carl Krull

930 Things to Be Happy About

2011-01-23T23:57:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year! January weather is very often too 'wintry' for me-- dark, dreary, wet, cold. Without the anticipation of any holidays to perk things up a bit, January for me is a slow month of let-downs. It's far too easy to start obsessing about little things and get down in the dumps when you have dreary weather outside to match. How easily one loses perspective.

Last week I was feeling sorry for myself for several reasons. Resentful, even. It took me until today to give myself a little shake and to remind myself that my problems are too upper-middle class to be taken seriously. That is, they are not real problems.

I was rummaging around in a storage closet tonight and discovered something that I hadn't thought about it years; I had no idea I still owned it. It was my huge 930 Things to Be Happy About poster that I bought in Fall of 1993, during my first semester of graduate school at the University of Washington. I knew the moment I saw it at a gift shop on The Ave that I had to have it. I taped it to my closet door in the bedroom of the apartment I shared with five other grad students and would often look at it when I was sick of studying. It always made me smile. I think it wasn't entirely an accident that I found it again tonight.

It's almost impossible to feel sad and sorry for yourself if you read through just 1/100th of the entire list of 930 Things. I remembered this instantly after unrolling the poster. (Why 930 Things? Because that's all that would fit on the poster! The poster, of course, was based on the very popular 1990 book 14,000 Things to Be Happy About by Barbara Kipfer.)

I put the enormous poster in my office, where I have absolutely no wall space left due to books, frames and shelves, but am determined to find a spot for it so that I can once again glance at it whenever I need a little pick-me-up. Seventeen years later, those Happy Things will once again be my constant reminders that life, especially mine, is pretty good.

Holiday Greetings 2010

2010-12-18T15:46:00.004-06:00

We are trying something new this year--no Christmas cards in the mail! I actually did create several cupcake-themed Christmas card designs for us to send out, but December was just too short and the list of holiday things-to-do too long. These are the actual cards we planned to print and mail, so please enjoy our digital holiday greetings instead:

Please click on the digital card for a larger view!

Please click on the digital card for a larger view!

Please click on the digital card for a larger view!

Joy to the World and Cupcakes for All!
Love,
Dylan, Melissa, Thalia & Carys

My Christmas Wish

2010-12-18T15:22:00.008-06:00

December just flew by so quickly, and with too much to do and not enough time to do it, I decided that sending holiday cards would not make the 'to-do' list this year. However, I would never not want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas in some shape or form, so here is my heartfelt Christmas Wish for all of you, the friends and family who bless my life each and every day:

Please click on the digital card to read the poem!

Merriest Christmas Wishes to All!
Love,
Melissa

Digital card layout credits:
Paper and Embellishments: Scrap Girls Kiddie Christmas by Keri Schueller; Word Art: Creative Memories Frost Digital kit; Overlay: Creative Memories NYC Celebration 2010 Digital kit; Poem: Anonymous

He Lives In You

2010-11-03T02:42:00.019-05:00

Ten years ago this week, I saw The Lion King musical at the Lyceum Theatre in London's West End. Much has been written already about this spectacular production. The unique costumes. The amazing choreography. The new songs not heard in the movie version. Although a decade has passed since I saw it, the show was truly one of the trip's highlights and quite unforgettable.

Everyone knows the story of The Lion King. A young cub loses his father much too soon and grapples with the guilt and shame of believing, erroneously, that he caused his father's death. It's heavy stuff for a Disney movie, which is probably why many consider it one of Disney's finest.

Coincidentally, I was listening to some random Disney songs on iTunes the other day, and one particular song from the Lion King musical that I really like came on. For the first time, despite having heard it many times, it reminded me of our friend, Steve Damm. In fact, I couldn't believe that I hadn't thought of Steve before whenever I've listened to it in the almost 14 months since he passed away. For this song is about how a father, although no longer with us, lives on forever in his children and his children's children. It's about him being everywhere and seeing everything. Just like Steve.

So with much love, I send this song and video out to Steve's family--his soul mate, Tyra, and their precious children, Cooper and Katie, in his memory. Happy Birthday, dearest Steve. We miss you but you truly live on in everyone whose lives you touched.

HE LIVES IN YOU

Ingonyama nengw' enamabala [Here is a lion and a tiger]

Night and the spirit of life calling mamela
And a voice with the fear of a child answers mamela

Ubu khosi bo khokho [This is the throne of our ancestors]

We ndodana ye sizwe sonke [Oh, son of the nation]

Wait, there's no mountain too great
Hear the words and have faith
Have faith

He lives in you
He lives in me

He watches over
Everything we see
Into the water
Into the truth
In your reflection
He lives in you

He lives in you
He lives in me
He watches over
Everything we see
Into the water
Into the truth
In your reflection
He lives in you

He lives in you
He lives in you
He lives in you
He lives in you

He lives in you

He lives in me

He watches over
Everything we see
Into the water
Into the truth
In your reflection
He lives in you

He lives in you
He lives in me
He watches over
Everything we see
Into the water
Into the truth
In your reflection
He lives in you

Music and Lyrics (English and Swahili) by Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin and Lebo M

Stepping Out of My Comfort (Food) Zone

2010-10-27T02:59:00.004-05:00

Many of our family photographs catch someone, somewhere, chewing. Much family energy was spent arguing the merits of this vegetable or that fish. Food offered a way for my parents to communicate their love for us when words failed. It became a passion we could all share and we took our family's preoccupation with food for granted. What a surprise to find out as an adult that not everyone shared our outlook. One way I know I'm still Chinese is because of my attitude toward food.

~ Ellen Blonder, second generation Chinese American, in her book Every Grain of Rice

When I first read the wonderful cookbook-memoir, Every Grain of Rice in 1998, I felt like I could have written about my childhood memories of food in a very similar way. I know I am still a Filipino-Chinese-American because of my own perspective on food. To be Asian is to know, appreciate and love food.

Food brings people together; it also sets us apart. Food means so many different things to so many different people. It's not simply food that's on your plate: it's individual or collective memories from your past; trying something completely new; dietary restrictions for medical or religious or personal reasons; flavors that provide emotional warmth and comfort; it's sampling an entirely different culture from your own; it can signify social prestige; it's the taste of national pride.

A whiff of Filipino barbecue on a stick is enough to bring a flood of memories of countless backyard parties and birthday celebrations from my youth. The smell of canned beets transports me to my pre-school's lunchroom in the Chicago suburbs. Just a tiny cloud of freshly spun cotton candy on my tongue reminds me of how much I loved it when I was a tween, and how it made too many trips to Showtime Pizza (one of my brother's favorites) bearable.

What's great about certain foods as comfort is also what makes them boring after a while. I realized not very long ago that I basically cook the same dozen or so meals over and over again and have been doing so for at least a dozen years. Why? Everyone in the family likes them and will eat them, I have all the ingredients all the time, and I know how to prepare them quickly and easily. And not only that, I also realized that some of these foods weren't exactly the healthiest things we could be eating, although certainly not the junkiest either.

Moreover, I felt like I needed a complete and total body do-over. "Baby weight" from two pregnancies and middle-age spread slowly but surely crept up on me in the past 10 years. I was feeling tired more frequently than I should. When I looked in the mirror, I was often shocked at the face and body that stared back at me--who was this person and where did the real me go?!

So I said a firm but wistful goodbye to my comfort foods, those of my childhood as well as my current favorites, and decided to try the Clean program by Dr. Junger. I've blogged about this on our family blog recently, but I was hooked after reading his book. I liked the whole philosophy behind the program, that it's not just a diet but a new way of life and thinking about food and health. And not just our personal health but the collective health of our planet and everyone on it.

I'm almost all the way through the 3-week program, and I can honestly say that it's changed the way I think and feel about food and eating forever. I'm not an immediate candidate for the raw food movement quite yet, but there are foods I used to love and crave that I may never want to eat again. During Clean, you pare everything down to a minimum and then have time to really think about and savor the foods you eat. You appreciate the flavors and textures of your one solid meal per day. You try new foods you've never even heard of before, and love some of them immediately. You miss some of your old favorites, but not so much that you can't live without them. Even cooking, and this time from scratch for each meal, has become enjoyable and fun again. Total irony since I've cooked more in the past 3 weeks than I ever have before!

I now know that I love kale, steamed with garlic. (I don't love kale smoothies. Yet.) I also love kale chips made by a high school classmate who I serendipitously reconnected with during this diet. Carrot-Pineapple Juice is wonderful. So is my homemade hummus, which I hadn't tried to make in probably a decade. Buckwheat noodles, which I had never bought before, reminds me of the texture of Asian noodles I ate as a child. Tuna steaks are amazingly versatile; I thought I disliked them before, but I was wrong. I drink quite a bit of water now, and I've never liked just water before.

I've really, really stepped way from my comfort zone during this program, but strangely enough, some aspects of it have also reminded me of my food beginnings. Many of the Clean recipes rely on the flavor of wheat-free tamari, which is basically like soy sauce, sesame oil and quickly cooked fresh veggies, by stir-frying or grilling. I grew up with stir-fry meals and soy sauce, of course, so I've often felt like a kid again when I eat these meals. Perhaps I was fated to find my way back to some of the tastes of my Asian childhood. I confess that when I grew up and lived on my own, Asian cooking was never a priority for me. I was too eager to try all the foods I didn't eat growing up--Indian, Mexican, Texan, etc.! Asian cooking also intimidated me; I couldn't do it as efficiently and easily as my Mom and Aunts because I didn't know the recipes or have all the ingredients (or couldn't even pronounce them.) Now I feel like I have a new comfort level in preparing dishes with Asian flavors, ones that are healthy versions of things I've tasted before, if not completely traditional ones.

Food is not just food, just as this diet I'm finishing is not simply a diet. The food we eat, or don't eat, says volumes about us. I choose now to eat purposefully and thoughtfully, for the betterment of my own self and hopefully even beyond that.

Forever and For Always

2010-07-02T02:01:00.001-05:00

Part of this is a repeat of my post from July 2, 2009, exactly a year ago. This day last year was the 15th anniversary of my dearest friend Tyra and her wonderful Steve, and their last one together before he passed away in September.

In honor of their beautiful marriage, here are some images of that special day in 1994 that I was privileged to be a part of as the Maid of Honor:

Fourth of July Wedding Weekend: Wedding Day, Post-Wedding Party & Texas Rangers Game with the entire wedding party

Tyra and Steve, taken on the balcony of their hotel room hours after their wedding, Dallas, Texas

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life

which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart

i carry it in my heart

~ e.e. cummings

Scout's Honor

2010-06-24T00:54:00.000-05:00

Last week, two things I read reminded me of something that happened almost exactly 10 years ago. One was an old post I stumbled upon from October 2008 at More Than a Minivan Mom, a Mom-blog that I've been following. (Post is no longer available online; I was backreading through my subscription on my Google Reader page). Another was an article, a minor item, on the Huffington Post's site. The topic of both of these pieces was the Boy Scouts of America's ban on gays and atheists from membership and leadership in their organization. Ten years ago, the Supreme Court basically ruled that the BSA has the right to exclude people they don't want, such as a gays and atheists, because they are a private organization.

At the time of the Supreme Court ruling, I was a newly minted Girl Scout leader, still in training, and had yet to lead my first meeting. I remember feeling totally disgusted that the Boy Scouts organization was institutionalizing discrimination, and I have "officially" disliked the Boy Scouts ever since. This excerpt from More Than a Minivan Mom's post reminded me that the Boy Scout organization has unfortunately not changed their official tune, in almost exactly 10 years:

According to the poll on my blog over the past few days, 17% of you have no clue that the Boy Scouts actively and purposely discriminate against atheists and gays. According to the poll on my blog over the past few days, 22% of you know this and still think they are a wonderful organization.

Interesting.

At first glance, the Boy Scouts seem like a wonderful organization promoting family values (a phrase that involuntarily invokes my gag reflex) and charitable good deeds. According to the Boy Scouts of America National Council, the purpose of the Scouts is to "to provide an educational program for boys and young adults to build character, to train in the responsibilities of participating citizenship, and to develop personal fitness". The Boy Scout mission, "is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law". The Scouts are the largest male youth organization in the country, and as of 2007, nearly 3 million young boys were involved in Boy Scouts.

My two sons will never be one of those 3 million young boys, as long as my husband and I have anything to say about it.

As the Boy Scouts of America website proudly states, you cannot be an atheist or openly gay individual and join the Scouts or serve as a troop leader.

Quite frankly? There's no way in hell I will ever condone that type of mentality by allowing my sons to participate in an organization like that.

Don't get me wrong - I agree with the courts that the Boy Scouts, as a private organization, have the right to enforce those guidelines (it's their Constitutional right to be bigots, I suppose), and I can also agree that there are elements of Boy Scouts that are wonderful. But for me, and for my husband, all the leadership training, camping trips, and volunteerism in the world cannot excuse an organization that so openly and proudly flaunts their narrow mindedness.

Coincidentally, the BSA were in the news again, same topic, different twist: Many Scout groups receive free or discounted use of public, as well as private, meeting places around the country. But why should public government--your tax dollars--support an organization that discriminates against certain sectors of the public? Just because the Supreme Court said it was okay to discriminate if you're a private organization, the government is under no obligation to extend special benefits to your organization. It's interesting that the Boy Scouts' ban has held for so long, but I wonder if these kinds of local challenges will finally make them realize that just because it's legal to discriminate, it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

In theory, if I had a son, I'd say NO to him joining Boy Scouts. But I'll bet it would be hard to do so in the face of everyone else's kid being in it and also being known as that kind of parent. You know, the kind that values inclusion and diversity and sticking to what you believe in. I'm glad I only have a "hypothetical" son to consider.

But what about choices your friends make as parents of boys? Now that I'm a Mom and many of my friends are as well, I have since shifted from strong dislike to tolerating Boy Scouts because of my many friends who are Moms of Boy Scouts. Shockingly, I have even given them money for their ridiculously overpriced popcorn. The first time I bought their popcorn, I felt like I was giving money to the devil. But it was my friend's son, and he is a sweet, kind and loving boy, the total antithesis of what the BSA has institutionalized for a decade. Then the next year it was another very good friend' son, and the same thing--he is sweetest little boy ever. And these boys still are, despite being Boy Scouts.

It's interesting that the BSA are still officially focused on excluding people from their membership and leadership, while the Girl Scouts perspective on the same issue contrasts greatly. Ten years ago, the Girl Scouts of the USA Communications Director stated: "It's a non-issue for us. We don't ask people to declare X, Y, or Z. It's not in our makeup to have to define people like that. The Boy Scouts believes that to be gay is somehow immoral. That is not our feeling." Girl Scouts don't ask members or leaders if they're gay. They also don't expect everyone to believe in the same God, or any for that matter. Ten years later, I am so proud to be a part of an organization that continues to value inclusion and openness.

I still "officially" dislike what the Boy Scouts say they stand for. I don't hate any little boys though. I wish more parents of Boy Scouts would stop thinking it's okay for an organization that has such an impact on so many young boys to exclude anyone they don't like and demand change. Life is too short to systematically dislike/exclude/hate someone because they're not who you want them to be.

Image from Google Images

Putting It All Out There

2010-06-18T01:56:00.000-05:00

A little "what if?" game to play in your head. What if your spouse of over a decade tells you that he no longer is in love with you/has had an affair with someone else/is ready to move on? No, it's not my spouse. Or even a close friend or relative's.

What if the people involved in this situation are people you read about in a blog? I've been following a Mom-blog by a friend of a friend, not religiously, but now and again because I liked reading about her life as a working Mom of 3 kids in Austin, and then later in a Dallas suburb, and because her stories were funny and clever. She has a way with words and is a truly gifted writer. But what can you say when her words become too uncomfortable and heartbreakingly sad to read? And you don't even know this person? You go from innocently catching up on Mom-stories to knowing waaaay too much about this woman's marriage, and even worse, it's like an accident on the side of the road-- you can't not look.

She wrote, at first, that her husband said that "maybe this isn't working for him." That was Valentine's Day. Then she wrote that she could not elaborate more about her marriage, except that she did exactly that--about their couples' therapy, her feelings, frustrations, insecurities. And then the other shoe fell--her husband's confession of infidelity--and even more of her intimate thoughts came out on her blog. Until the day she decided not to write anymore, that "my marriage means more to me than my blog." However, only a week later, her marriage had pretty much ended, and the blogging started once again. That was this past Monday.

I feel so much sadness for this woman who I've never even met, because she was blindsided, and her life was already full and challenging enough. When you read a person's blog, you get to know them a little bit, and only 7 days before everything started to fall apart for her in February, she wrote of her marriage:

So far, perhaps the greatest accomplishment of my life. More than my degrees, my career, even my three children... I am proud of our relationship.

It felt more than a little voyeuristic to continue reading this woman's blog after it went from being a thoughtful, funny snapshot of modern family life to a one-sided view of the unraveling of a relationship. But I was hooked, I'll admit it. It was like a real-life suburban soap opera unfolding before my very eyes. I cried through several of her posts. What would I do in her shoes? How would I feel or react?

All the while I was catching up on her posts, I also cringed for her and her family's privacy. At this point, it's almost non-existent. She had upwards of a thousand hits per day on her blog sometimes when her life was "normal." And while there is an awesome online community of strangers who are supporting her through this, it's unnerving to think about the sheer numbers. I send prayers her way, that she will get through this and be stronger, not broken, from the experience. I also pray for her precious children. She and her family have been in my thoughts very much this week. But I also wish, despite how much I admire her ability to put into words exactly what she going through, that she would not write about it at all. So much is out there about her and her family, and these are children whose ages are the same as my kids', whom we now know more about than just what their Halloween costumes looked like or that they love Chuck E. Cheese. I write this a little bit hypocritically of course, as I am still keeping up with this woman's posts. But if her blog finally goes dark, I will respect her silence all the more.

Blogs are such strange creatures in the online world. Kind of like your own personal diary broadcast to everyone and anyone. A tribute to one's own healthy bit of narcissism, in a totally different way than updated-every-second social media sites are. Perhaps that's why my own blogs have never quite moved beyond the merely-out-there-occasionally-updated-rarely-read status: I can't bring myself to write about anything particularly private or intimate from my own life or those of my family members. And sometimes I think that has a stultifying effect on my blogs overall. I don't own my family's thoughts, actions, feelings, words, even as they affect me. They each exist apart from me and our collective "family." They deserve their own private lives.

So my posts are as random as the thoughts and ideas I feel comfortable sharing with the wider world (whoever you are!). I wish I could write everything in my life, maybe my life would make more sense to me(!), but I just can't give up my family and my privacy for that.

I Give Up

2010-05-31T23:57:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of the year, I lamented the sorry state of my four (yes, four) blogs. They suffered from benign neglect with a very few posts showing up now and again. I decided that my blogs needed some "structure." Hence, the five-days-a-week schedule of stuff I thought everyone needed to know about me and mine.

Okay, since I haven't blogged in over a month at pretty much all my blogsites, I'm throwing in the towel. Hell, I threw in the towel long, long ago. Structure is SO overrated.

I loved the idea of it. I still do. But with the exception of the couple of weeks spent on my couch while recovering from surgery, our family's lifestyle (that would be code for 'my personal laziness') is too busy to allow for regularly scheduled posts. I admire greatly blogs such as Heather Binkley's Did You Remember Your Pill Today that manage to entertain us each and every day with her very busy family's antics. And countless other Mom-blogs out there do the same, in spite of their collective busy-ness. But as for me and my blogs, it's just not gonna happen.

So the new blog schedule goes like this: Recipes, retail love, book reviews, daily blessings and creative writing attempts will continue to appear, but only when I have time for them!

So if you've been a loyal follower of my personal 'rants and raves' blog, thanks for sticking around and don't give up on me yet! I may surprise you all (and myself) with a little less structure!

Portions of this blog post also appear on With Four You Get Eggroll

52 Blessings: A Coke and a Smile

2010-03-25T22:42:00.001-05:00

Wow, I only seem to blog on '52 Blessings' days! It's been a busy two weeks since I last blogged. Been too busy, but in a good way, I suppose.

Today's blessing is also possibly my worst vice! I am thankful for my first sip of Coca-Cola each day (usually morning.) Yes, my daily Coke is a blessing! It helps jump-start my day if I have one in the morning, or revive my flagging energies if I have it in the afternoon. It's a craving that coffee can't fix; I need that sugar rush.

I love Coke so much that I recently taught my Girl Scouts the Coke 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing' song for World Thinking Day! All we were missing were the candles and Coke bottles!

I've been obsessed with Coke since I was a very small child and they came in family-sized glass bottles. I would beg for Coke for breakfast! Drinking it makes me feel happy, just like it did when I was three years old. I travel with my own Coke if I know I won't be able to get to a convenience store anytime soon. Good friends have a six-pack waiting for me in the fridge when I visit.

Although I prefer an actual Coke, I'm not such a cola snob that I won't drink other brands when they're on sale or put in front of me. I recently had a Boylan's Natural Cane Cola with a shot of Black Cherry--not bad at all. But I'll take my high fructose corn syrup-infused Coke any day. It's a blessing to be able to buy and drink a Coke pretty much whenever I want one.

Pic from Coca Cola website; video from YouTube.

52 Blessings: Libraries

2010-03-11T21:16:00.001-06:00

Today I'm grateful for the blessing of Libraries, specifically libraries that are freely available to the public. The first time I remember going to a library was when I was a young child in the suburbs of Chicago and there was a bookmobile parked near the grocery store parking lot. It was amazing. I checked out a Barbie chapter book.

My favorite library ever will always be the Carrollton Public Library that was located on Jackson Road and Josey Lane. The library opened the same month our family moved to Carrollton, Texas, in March 1981. It was brand-new and filled with books! Whenever I think of the library, the Carrollton Public Library pops into my head. It's no longer there, relocated to much larger location after we moved away and Carrollton's population exploded along with all the other North Dallas communities. But it lives forever in my memories. For six years, I frequented the library with my Mom and my brother, or browsed by myself for hours, or met my friends there for study groups, or walked there with my high school pals after school to hang out (yeah, geeks do that). Being at the Carrollton Library was like being at home--comfy, cozy and I knew where everything was.

Ever since we decided to proactively trim our family budget in October 2008 in the face of the still-to-get-worse recession, the public library has been a treasure trove of entertainment in all forms of media.

I've successfully resisted the urge (usually) to buy new books since our "money diet" and yet haven't suffered things to read thanks to the San Antonio Public Library! I can browse the stacks, if I have time, but usually I just put books (and CDs and DVDs) on hold and pick them up a few days later. It's like my own personal media concierge service!

A few weeks ago I submitted library purchase suggestions for two non-fiction books that I wanted to read but were not in the library catalog. The library has already ordered both books and I'm first in line to check them out! Cool.

I also love that my kids are getting to know the ins and outs of the library as well. I want them to understand that it's a privilege to have such a great library system available to us. Not every city invests equally in their public library system. Our library is not perfect, of course, but it's ours, paid for with our tax dollars. And more than ever, it's a blessing.

Photo from Google Images

52 Blessings: Normal

2010-03-05T23:23:00.000-06:00

Aack! The whole week's gone by and no blogging since Monday. I've been caught up in everyday life, which I am now officially back to and can no longer use the excuse of my 'recuperation' to avoid doing stuff. And we started our taxes this week. *Sigh.* One of the two things we all want to avoid (the other being death), and I do my best to avoid doing them until my husband starts nagging continually. We are due a refund, you see, but that still doesn't make me want to do my share of the taxes (Schedule C for my business). On a brighter note, I've been writing up wedding invitation orders, working on cake designs and once again participating fully in my kids' school and after-school lives!

Anyway, I have a myriad of choices for blogging this week, as I've not blogged anything on schedule. A recipe? Some retail love? No, today I'm writing about another of my 52 (and more) Blessings.

I am very thankful this week that my children are "normal." Your typical, average kids living in Suburbia, USA. When I say normal, I mean that they are on track as far as their physical and mental growth and development. (Otherwise, they've got their little quirks and oddities about them in spades!) Neither has ever been diagnosed with anything that requires complicated medications, therapies, special assistance or additional help at home or school. They've walked on time. Learned to tie shoes on time. Talked (way too much sometimes) with the appropriate number of vocabulary words at the right times. Expressed emotions at every age.

I thought of all this in the past week after talking to my Mom about a distant cousin of mine whom everyone in the family has known to be "slow" for practically his entire life, but whose parents did not seek additional help or resources to help him become more independent or cope with every day life. His condition seems fairly mild and he could probably, with the right kind of help, do much more for and by himself. He is a young adult now, but still lives at home and requires his parents to help navigate life each day. I wonder what will happen to him when his parents are no longer able to do so. It scares me to think about it.

A dear friend's son was identified as autistic last year. He is a great kid, but of course requires a different kind of education and more resources now than they had ever planned on. I could feel my friend's stress through the phone lines last year, as she related the decisions they had to make about who would care for their child while they both worked, or if they could even find a place willing to care for a child with special needs. This school year, he started elementary school, introducing another kink into the big picture. I wondered how I could ever cope if I were in her same shoes.

It is a blessing to have kids that are so normal that they're basically like everyone else's in matters of health and development. We take it for granted too often, especially when the situation can change in a heartbeat. Only God knows what He has planned for my children. I pray for their continued "normalcy" and count it as one of my many blessings.

Creative Writing 101: High School Days

2010-03-01T20:18:00.000-06:00

Freshman - Sophomore Years

Churchill High School: Junior - Senior Years

I was out of town Friday to Sunday, so Creative Writing 101 is a bit late, but here it is! FoodieLicious is off this week (still can't decide if I liked the brownie recipe I made up last night enough to share with others.)

Describe a typical day during your high school years:

For the first three years of high school, my typical day consisted of classes, classes, classes and then after-school varied, depending on whether or not I had any after school activities. I played no sports, so my activities were related to various clubs and councils. such as Future Teachers of America, Key Club, Anchor Club and National Honor Society. I was an officer of several organizations.

My senior year was more frenetic than the previous years due to the added burden of working on college admissions applications, an after-school job as child care provider for a local Jazzercise instructor and being a member of the Academic Decathlon team. This was in addition to my other school clubs and activities.

I was on the self-chosen honors graduation track, requiring certain honors courses and more science and math than the regular degree. So my schedule typically consisted of: English, History, Math, Science, PE or other elective, and Art or other elective. Academic Decathlon was also a class. Lunch was somewhere around 4th period. Not enough passing period time to even go to my far-away locker after each class, so shared lockers with friends who had advantageously-located lockers.

Now that I'm "old and gray", I am amazed by how much we packed into a typical high school day. So much learning and activity in 7 hours. And then more activities and homework well, well into the night. My typical bedtime became later and later each year, so that by senior year, I was up all the way through the David Letterman Show, which ended past midnight, and went to bed halfway through Sally Jessie Raphael!

52 Blessings: Health Insurance

2010-02-25T20:36:00.000-06:00

While the battle rages on in Washington, DC, over health care reform, I am thanking God and all of my lucky stars that my family has decent health care coverage. By extension, of course, I am thankful that my hubby has a kick-ass job that offers this insurance for him and his dependents!

I've been to two doctors this week, wrapping up my 'Health Care February' that began at the beginning of the month. I've had a double surgery, which should be pretty much covered, minus my deductible. My very nice gynecologist told me that this week's appointment was 'no charge.' My meds (thank God for the meds!) were even reasonably priced thanks to insurance-negotiated rates.

In addition, my Mom and I took Carys to the after-hours minor emergency clinic on Monday night, after three days of earache complaints. No ear infection (hooray!) but the doctor thought it might possibly be strep (boo). An exam and strep test later, Carys was clear and just needed some OTC meds. Her doctor visit, although not to her regular pediatrician, was covered by our insurance as well.

I shudder to think of what my life would be like without health insurance, knowing full well that so many people in this country are not as lucky as I am. This week's blessing is truly one that cannot be taken for granted. If we were to lose our coverage through loss of employment for example, could we afford the outrageous COBRA premiums? I can't think about it! So I will just be extra thankful for what I have at this moment.

A Woman's History Turned Upside Down

2010-02-24T22:50:00.000-06:00

Pic from Amazon.com

Finally! A new book on my nightstand and I'm actually reading it. I finished up two books in the past week that I'd started weeks ago. Now I'm reading a very interesting, sort-of feminist take on about 500 years of historical research on a very elusive person: Shakespeare's wife.

The book, aptly named Shakespeare's Wife, is Germaine Greer's attempt to turn history on its head as it pertains to Will Shakespeare's better half. Publisher's Weekly notes that "generations of critics" have purported that Ann Shakespeare "being eight years older than Shakespeare, was an unattractive woman who seduced and trapped him in an unwanted marriage, from which he escaped as soon as possible. His abandonment of his wife and three children supposedly without support is generally regarded as their just desserts, as is his will, leaving her with nothing but his second-best bed."

I'm only into the first part of the book, but already we see that Shakespeare's family, his father in particular, were kind of losers, and Ann Hathaway's family had land and money and much more going for them. Hmmm. What crazy female would want to seduce that?

I'm very interested in how this will unfold, how Greer will address all the different points of the supposed myth built up over centuries around this mysterious wife. Her research seems to be very thorough; her sources are logical and, not to be sexist, but the ones that a woman would think of. Like, for example, a list of Ann's possessions to ascertain how she was doing at a certain point in her life. But then again, I've been away from academic life for almost 14 years, so what do I know?

I do know that I'm enjoying this book, which is a departure from the stuff I've been reading of late.

Retail Love: Birthday Wishes

2010-02-23T21:22:00.001-06:00

Thalia and Carys talk constantly about their birthday parties, no matter how many months away their actual birthdays are. No doubt this is a byproduct of having a Mom who is always creating birthday cakes or printing party invitations! Likewise, they keep a running 'Birthday Wish List' of things they really want for their birthdays, again with no thought to how far away their big day may be. They want odd, random things: Playmobil wedding set. Chinese food. Bath toys. A dog. Whatever catches their fancy.

Well, I'm a bit like my kids too. (Or rather, are they a bit like me?) I keep a running Wish List in my head of odd, random things that catch my fancy as well. Some items on my List have been there for years, things I have a deep affection for. Sometimes, I'll forget that I thought something was really cool until something jogs my memory.

A benefit of reading other people's blogs is finding out about more cool things to add to my Wish List. For example, I just added these to my mental list today after reading about them on someone else's blog:

Clearly she has good taste! Charbonnel et Walker Pink Marc de Champagne Truffles from the UK

Hmm, what's not to like? Pink chocolates made with champagne?! I love chocolate and I love champagne. And I love the UK. Good thing my birthday's in 2 weeks! I may have to buy myself a gift from my Wish List.

Photo from SaksFifthAvenue.com

FoodieLicious: Spicy Chicken Dip

2010-02-23T00:30:00.000-06:00

Key ingredient: Spicy Chicken Dip

One of my foodie delights is to eat an entire meal made up of snacks and appetizer foods, all of which are totally bad for me. Chowing down on spicy, cheesy, creamy snacks--what could be more decadent? Televised sporting events give us good opportunities to do this. I missed the Superbowl, but I celebrated UT being in the National Championship Game with an impressive (given that it was just for me, my hubby and kids) menu of yummy junky food:

Shrimp Cocktail Dip
Guacamole
Kid-friendly Queso
Mini Fish Tacos
Hot Wings
Honey Wings
Salmon Mousse
Tortilla Chips
Potato Chips
Crackers
Crudites (gotta throw in something healthy)
Beer
Hot Chocolate
And . . . Spicy Chicken Dip!

Spicy Chicken Dip is this awesome dip I had at our Troop's Holiday Party in 2008, made by my friend Pam. I could eat it all day if it weren't so spicy! But it's still soooo good.

So if you're inclined to have a sybaritic meal of snacks soon, try this one:

Pam's Spicy Chicken Dip

8oz cream cheese
2 cups cheddar cheese
6oz hot sauce
8oz ranch dressing
2 chicken breasts cooked and diced up

Melt together the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, hot sauce and ranch dressing. Stir in the diced chicken.
Serve with tortilla chips.

My Notes: Pam serves this with homemade fried tortilla chips. Whatever. I have also added a small package of blue cheese, thus making it a Spicy Buffalo Chicken Dip!

Creative Writing 101: Five Things

2010-02-19T23:45:00.000-06:00

Me and my Pink Giraffe, a gift from my godmother, in 1971.

You can only keep five things you have. What will they be?

Well, if I'm taking this prompt literally, then aside from my husband and kids, the "things" I would keep are:

My wedding ring
Thalia's baby book
Carys's yellow ducky blanket (any one of the four she owns)
My oversized pink giraffe stuffed animal from 1971
The external hard drive attached to my computer (Is that cheating? It technically holds more than 5 files.)

Each is meaningful in its own way. If my house ever caught on fire, I hope I could at least save one of these '5 things.' However, in the end, the most important things in life aren't "things"; the most important things in my life are my family.

Prompt from Imagination Prompt Generator

52 Blessings: Mom

2010-02-18T21:55:00.000-06:00

My Mom and my girls, wearing gifts from Mom!

This week I am really, really thankful for the woman who made my entire existence even possible, my Mom! She rode in days before my double surgery like a Lady in shining armor and took charge of hearth and home. In the past two weeks, she has cooked, ironed, laundered, shopped, chauffeured and run errands for us all, with love of course. We would be quite literally lost without her!

Along with my Dad, my Mom is the most self-less person I know. I try to be like them, but fall far short of their example. They give and give and give of themselves, often with little thought about receiving for themselves.

So while I've been hanging out on my couch this week, I've been blessed with having my Mom here to literally lend me a hand up. And that part of my week has been a blast.

Retail Love: Lilly

2010-02-16T20:31:00.000-06:00

From my perch on the living room couch, which I have to admit I am really getting tired of, I have been shopping online since I got home from the hospital last week! I'd been saving up catalogs and coupons for the past month for just this moment-- when I'd be forced to "take it easy."

But shopping, in whatever form, is always good for the soul, I say. I'd decided a few weeks ago, with positive input from Thalia and Carys, to finally redecorate our second bathroom. We've had two full baths in each house we've lived in, a total of three in 13 years. In each house, the second bath decor has never changed: leopard, leopard, leopard. In fact, it's not just the same theme, but the same stuff that's moved from house to house to house! Same towels, rug, shower curtain, decorative accents. Even after the addition of two kids, the bathroom has stayed the same! So now I'm finally sick of the leopard bath. Hooray!

I suggested the idea of a Lilly Pulitzer bathroom after receiving a mailer from Garnet Hill announcing their new Lilly bed and bath collection. The girls were soooo happy we were retiring the leopard kitsch. (Honestly, you'd think I'd been torturing them their entire short lives.) And they looooove Lilly.

So this week I am tackling the bathroom project by ordering new everything from the Garnet Hill Lilly collection, using my Garnet Hill coupon code, and from other online sources. The Lilly towels are so cheery in the midst of winter, I can't wait until they arrive! And the monogramming was free!

Lilly Pulitzer Home Collection

I always think white eyelet goes perfectly with anything Lilly, so I found a lovely white eyelet shower curtain that will really pop after we (Dylan) repaint the walls a Lilly-ish green color.

Eyelet shower curtain--sweet.

I'm also sick of the bath accessories after 13 years, so I also have my eye on this bamboo wastebasket, which is even lined with natural cotton. Eco-friendly and wallet-friendly on sale.

Friendly bamboo.

I'm sure more ideas will present themselves as I further browse online. We're going to need some Lilly-ish artwork for the walls, maybe some floral-fruity knobs for the cabinets, etc. Shopping in my PJs from home rocks.

Pics from Garnet Hill.com and Sears.com

FoodieLicious: Fat Tuesday Treats

2010-02-15T02:01:00.000-06:00

I'm a little sad about being laid up this week because there are so many February holidays and special days to celebrate with friends and food! In previous years, I have hosted celebrations for the Super Bowl, Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras and Girl Scout Thinking Day. Not to mention San Antonio Rodeo-themed possibilities. Oh well, at least I can think about all the yummy treats I would have cooked up!

I missed the Super Bowl completely due to icky pre-op prep required by my doctors. I kind of forgot about Chinese New Year, it being eclipsed by Valentine's Day. I did as much as I could, given my current limitations, for Valentine's Day, but even failed to take a single photo of our family! The heart-shaped homemade pizza was pretty much not going to happen either, although delivery from Domino's did.

The next holiday up is Fat Tuesday--this Tuesday--and I will especially miss serving up some Cajun favorites to everyone. However, in honor of Mardi Gras, I am sharing one of my recipes that I like to make on Fat Tuesday. This one is from Emeril Legasse of the famed New Orleans restaurants, so it's pretty authentic.

Classic Remoulade Dressing
Recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse, Food Network

Yield: 6 servings

For the Dressing:
1 egg
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
3 tablespoons Creole or whole-grain mustard
3 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt
Cayenne pepper
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup olive oil

For the Salad:
Lettuce leaves
Onion slices
Cooked shrimp
Fresh parsley

Combine the first 10 ingredients in a food processor with a metal blade and process until smooth. Season with salt, cayenne, and pepper. While the machine is running, slowly add the oil, a little at a time, until thick. Reseason if needed.

To assemble, toss the lettuce with half of the dressing. Season with salt and pepper. Mound the greens in the center of each serving plate. Lay the onions slices over the greens. Place 3 piles of the shrimp around each mound of greens. Garnish with parsley.

My Notes: I omit the raw egg from the recipe. I sometimes leave out the cayenne pepper. I use less oil than called for in the recipe. I have also served this with chicken instead of shrimp.

A Valentine Just for You

2010-02-15T00:41:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all! Trying to be more eco-friendly and going digital with my greetings whenever I can, despite the fact that I sell paper!

Had an low-key, uneventful Valentine's Day with my kids and hubby. It feels kind of strange on a Sunday! Dylan built new shelves for our kitchen pantry today--the best Valentine's gift ever! I requested them just a week ago! Excellent storage for my ever-growing stash of cake decorating supplies.

Another gift from our friends Genevieve and Robert--the girls are gone tonight through tomorrow afternoon at a sleepover at their house! They wanted to give me time to rest and relax. So thoughtful!

I hope everyone had a bit of peace and relaxation today and lots of love!

LAYOUT CREDITS:Scraplift of 'A Day to Remember' by Lea L. on Two Peas in a Bucket; All papers: Creative Memories ''Sending Love' and 'Delight Fashion Diva' kits; Embellishments (some recolored): Creative Memories 'Freebies', DSP 'Angel Whispers 2' page kit by Nicole Young, C Smith, Scrap Girls 'With Love' by Brandy Murry, Scrap Girls 'Calendar Year Brush Set 2010' by Brandie Valenzuela; Fonts: 1942 Report by Johan Holmdahl, 2 Peas Billboard by Melissa Baxter for Two Peas in a Bucket

Creative Writing 101: Fridays

2010-02-12T23:42:00.001-06:00

Fridays make me . . .

take a silent sigh of relief! The week is over, mostly, and I can finally catch my breath. Sit down for a second. Relax. Although in reality, our weekends are often as packed as our weekdays. But mentally, Friday is the portal to precious stretches of hours that can be spent doing whatever we want to do. T.G.I.F.

It's funny how kids learn early on that Friday is the most special of all weekdays; they can usually stay up later than usual, parties happen, family movie nights are instituted, weekend trips begin as soon as school or work is over. Friday, how do we love thee?

Photo from Google Images
Prompt from Imagination Prompt Generator

52 Blessings: Life, or Avoiding the Complications

2010-02-12T01:12:00.000-06:00

Art by Jody Uttal

This week I'm back to counting my blessings. As many of you know already, I'm in "recovery" from my double surgery earlier this week. Before the surgery, I signed page after page after page of legal documents informing me of nearly everything and anything that might go wrong during my fairly low-risk procedures. In fact, I had to sign extra papers just minutes before surgery to remind me of what I had already read and signed a few days earlier!

One can either choose to read carefully all of the possible complications or simply skim through them. I went for somewhere in between, and can I just say that the few heart-stopping phrases I did read were enough to scare the you-know-what out of me?! So today, I am really thankful that I am alive and have, as far as I can tell, avoided the really bad possible complications that could have happened earlier this week. Because, as the physicians always preface any conversation about surgery, there are always those "risks." I thank God for being here and whole for yet another day.

Valentine {Retail} Love

2010-02-10T17:44:00.000-06:00

And just like that, another week or so goes by without any blogging! But I really have a good excuse this time--hospital stay and recovery time! I had my surgery (appendectomy and hysteroscopy) on Monday, was released on Tuesday and now slowly getting back to my regular self. Prior to the surgery, I had a few days of annoying, required pre-op tests and "prep." Thus, these procedures have consumed my life for several weeks already!

So now I am confined to bed/couch this week with no heavy lifting or driving allowed per doctor's orders. Ha! Just moving from room to room is a monumental effort, forget doing anything else. Here's the thing about recovering from abdominal-area surgery: bending, walking and sitting, which usually require no thought whatsoever, must be done very, very carefully. Even breathing is a bit more labored, post-surgery. I also have a fancy breathing tube to practice deep breathing again. In any case, it's nice to be back in my own home again and surrounded by my favorite people and things.

Today is my book review day, but not having finished any good books since last week (although I did bring them to the hospital), I will just pick up blogging with some retail love in honor of upcoming Valentine's Day. Have you seen the Paperchase line of paper and gifts at Borders? Paperchase is a UK company, but you can find their stuff stateside at Borders book store, sometimes on sale. On Saturday, Dylan treated me to an early Valentine's Day date night, and after dinner we browsed Borders. They had a whole display of Paperchase Valentine products for 40% off! Although my favorite find was a set of pink and red heart-shaped plastic chopsticks (no pic available), here are some other too-cute things they had:

Vintage LOVE design tealight holder

Heart key caps

Vintage LOVE design mug

If you're lucky enough to be over the pond, you can buy their stuff from Amazon.uk too. Otherwise, a stroll through Borders can turn up some of their adorable designs. I also scored some whimsical plastic heart-shaped champagne flutes (sorry no pics yet) for my kids; they'll be charmed, I'm sure!

Chalice of Roses: The Holy Grail Across Time

2010-02-03T14:30:00.000-06:00

I am just about finished with a brand new anthology of linked novellas about the Holy Grail. As in Jesus and the Last Supper, Arthurian legend, Celtic tradition, etc. I love Grail stories, and can only remember reading one other romance that uses the Grail legend as a backdrop, so I really looked forward to reading this anthology. I also like these particular authors, whose novels and short stories I've read before.

What is most notable about Chalice of Roses is that the four stories have the same premise, the same Holy Grail story as a starting point. Since there are many versions of the legend to draw on, these four authors chose one version and therefore their stories are linked across time and history. It's been interesting to see how each author incorporates the basic Grail "facts" they've agreed upon into their storyline. For example, one story is set in the Middle Ages, another in the present day, yet both are connected despite the vast differences in setting and time periods.

One of the novellas, set in WWII, is by my absolute favorite romance writer Mary Jo Putney. Ms. Putney's One Perfect Rose was the book that got me hooked on the romance genre in the first place, 11 years ago! So anything by MJP is always an extra special read for me.

Image from Word Wenches blog

Fashion With a Conscience

2010-02-02T23:48:00.001-06:00

Blogging came to a complete standstill almost a week ago! I had several major projects and issues going on and then went out of town Friday through Sunday. My blogs were very neglected, I'm sad to say. But now I'm back.

Today's Retail Love is more about a retail fashion trend than a particular product. It's an idea that I've never fully thought about until I happened upon a Vogue UK blog written by Livia Firth, wife of my Secret Boyfriend Colin Firth. (Secret only because my obsession is one-sided of course; Colin is oblivious to my intense admiration.) I should hate Mrs. Firth, but really, I think I like her as much as I like her husband! As some of you may know, Colin Firth has been nominated for a slew of acting awards for his turn in A Single Man. Livia Firth's blog, The Green Carpet Challenge, is about her desire to dress with a conscience, to only wear environmentally sustainable, repurposed, recycled, vintage or organic materials for the many red carpet events she'll attend between January and March. This includes the accessories, such as the shoes and jewelry. So basically, she will do the complete anti-thesis of every other Hollywood female during awards season, which is to have multiple gowns designed just for them with accessories to match. And the biggest part of her challenge? To still look as completely stylish and elegant as the rest of the ladies on the red carpet, not a small feat in Hollywood!

Beautiful Livia Firth at the Golden Globes in a repurposed wedding dress (not her own)! Who would have thought?!

Livia Firth's commitment to eco-friendly fashion is genuine: she is the co-owner, with her husband, of Eco-Age in London, which in their words "offers inspiration, ideas and specific domestic solutions for all those who want to lead a greener and more energy efficient life." On fashion, Eco-Age's founders "feel passionately about clever design that keeps both environmental and social justice in mind while proving that fashion can have a destiny other than landfill (which is our enemy). But, in common with many fashion lovers we are all disenchanted with fast, cheap fashion and consider its impact to be not just off-putting but downright unacceptable." Ha! Take that, Walmart.

So her blog has made me think twice about the half-dozen $4 t-shirts I just bought for Thalia, no doubt made from cheap fabrics destined for the landfill once they start falling apart. And the not-so-cheap jeans I bought her that were certainly sewn together in an overseas factory by someone nearly Thalia's age and paid the tiniest fraction of its retail price. *sigh.* Can I afford to develop a fashion conscience?!

What would it be like to live in a world where you bought clothes designed and made by people who were like you and lived, not in another country far away, but possibly in your own region or state? Alabama Chanin, a company featured on Livia's blog, is an interesting example of how much it might cost to dress in environmentally responsible clothing made in your own country. The company employs stay-at-home Moms who sew the clothing in their own homes and are paid decently for their work. The fabrics used are made from Alabama cotton. The designs are limited edition or one-of-a-kind. Not mass produced for your local discount store, but made just for you (almost)! A t-shirt, hand-made, is $75. Does knowing that a Mom, perhaps someone with kids my age, created that t-shirt make the price seem more reasonable? I don't know, maybe.

$75 Alabama Chanin t-shirt: "100% Organic Cotton with 100% Recycled Cotton backing. All of our products are Fair Trade and Made in the USA."

Food for thought, the next time I go shopping. While my closet will never be full of awards-night gowns, perhaps it's time I started paying more attention to the where/what/who of my wardrobe?

Book in Progress: The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder

2010-01-28T00:52:00.000-06:00

I am halfway through Rebecca Wells' 2009 novel, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder. The title itself is a mouthful. I have read her Ya Ya trilogy ((Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere, and Ya-Yas in Bloom) and after loving one, disliking one and feeling somewhere in between on the last, I wasn't sure if I wanted to read her newest book.

However, am really enjoying the characters in this book. I like the way Wells writes from the point of view of a child, as she did in the Ya Ya books. Since I haven't finished the book yet, I can't give my complete impression of the book, but already in the past 7 days I have twice found myself poring over its pages and crying my eyes out over it at a restaurant during lunch. (A guilty pleasure--lunch and book somewhere else.) The good kind of tears. A good kind of book so far.

Image from HarperCollins.com

Cooking Powered by the Sun

2010-01-26T21:52:00.000-06:00

Solar Hot Pot by Solar Houshold Energy

The other day, Thalia told me that her class had a special guest-- a parent who owns a solar oven that she and her family built themselves. They cooked homemade granola in the solar oven, which the kids thought was pretty cool. Well I thought the idea was pretty cool too.

Yesterday I researched solar ovens online, knowing very little about them. I already knew that you could craft one out of a pizza box and some foil, a great Girl Scout project idea or something to do with your kids when they're bored. But I didn't know anything about solar ovens that are for sale for camping or everyday use. I was curious.

This is what I learned: Solar ovens, which are almost unbelievably simple in their design, are definitely under-appreciated for what they can do. Yes, they cook food and boil water with nothing but the rays of the sun, year round, which are totally and completely free. But beyond that, I never thought about how solar ovens could be used in places where fuel needed to cook a meal costs more than the food itself. It never occurred to me that a solar pot could make the difference between drinkable water and contaminated water that causes disease. Even more significant, the fuel sources used in many countries give off extremely toxic smoke, which contributes to global warming. In countries where wood is the primary source of fuel, deserts exist where trees once grew. Over half of the world's population rely on wood, animal dung and crop residue as fuel to cook their food. A solar oven can change much of that.

I was thrilled to know that the profit from solar ovens sold in North America and other "developed" countries fund many more that are sent to countries that can desperately use them. It was heartwarming to read a personal testimonial from a Haitian woman about the different foods she could cook in her new oven. Haitians needed these ovens before due to deforestation, and now, post-earthquake, with practically no resources or infrastructure, they can use them more than ever.

So what started out as search for photos of these ovens and some recipes ended up as a completely eye-opening experience for me. I will never underestimate our sun's power again.

FoodieLicious: Tyler Florence's Galumpkis

2010-01-25T17:54:00.000-06:00

Pic from FoodNetwork.com

I did not grow up eating stuffed cabbage rolls. Distinctly non-Asian and not "American" enough either. Our meals were either uber-Filipino or really mediocre American kiddie foods. Like Pancit or Hot Dogs. Kare-Kare or Hamburger Helper. Cabbage rolls were too "ethnic."

I first discovered a recipe for cabbage rolls in 1998 when I bought a slow cooker recipe book to go along with our recently received Crock-Pot. We registered for it ($10 at Target!) for our wedding. Stuffed Cabbage Rolls is one of those recipes that sounds gross when you say it out loud but seems more intriguing when you read the list of ingredients. And complicated too; you have to actually roll up the filling in leaves of cabbage. But I was up to the challenge! I made them at night, and slow-cooked them for hours. They were delish when they were finally done! And as with many slow-cooked foods, they looked kind of pale. I mean, the main ingredient was cabbage!

Fast forward about seven years, and I was watching my then-favorite Food Network show and caring for an infant at home. Tyler Florence's Food 911 featured an Eastern European version of stuffed cabbage rolls called galumpkis. The other recipe I had made was more of a German style with sauerkraut in it. Tyler's recipe had a sweet and sour tomato sauce. Also, his recipe is baked in the oven, not slow-cooked. Again, very intriguing. Again, lots of work. But totally worth it.

I am in the mood for Cabbage Rolls again, although the moment will probably pass before I get to HEB Central Market for the ingredients! Here is the recipe for anyone who wants to try it. It's comfort food that I never grew up with but wish that I had!

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (Galumpkis)
From Tyler Florence's Food 911 on the Food Network

Yield: about 1 dozen

Sweet and Sour Tomato Sauce:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 1/2 quarts crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cabbage Rolls:
1 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Splash dry red wine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups steamed white rice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 large heads green cabbage, about 3 pounds each

To make the sauce:
Coat a 3-quart saucepan with the oil and place over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and sugar; simmer, until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.
Place a skillet over medium heat and coat with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in the tomato paste, a splash of wine, parsley, and 1/2 cup of the prepared sweet and sour tomato sauce, mix to incorporate and then take it off the heat. Combine the ground meat in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, the cooked rice, and the sauteed onion mixture. Toss the filling together with your hands to combine, season with a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Remove the large, damaged outer leaves from the cabbages and set aside. Cut out the cores of the cabbages with a sharp knife and carefully pull off all the rest of the leaves, keeping them whole and as undamaged as possible, (get rid of all the small leaves and use them for coleslaw or whatever.) Blanch the cabbage leaves in the pot of boiling water for 5 minutes, or until pliable. Run the leaves under cool water then lay them out so you can assess just how many blankets you have to wrap up the filling. Next, carefully cut out the center vein from the leaves so they will be easier to roll up. Take the reserved big outer leaves and lay them on the bottom of a casserole pan, let part of the leaves hang out the sides of the pan. This insulation will prevent the cabbage rolls from burning on the bottom when baked. Use all the good looking leaves to make the cabbage rolls. Put about 1/2 cup of the meat filling in the center of the cabbage and starting at what was the stem-end, fold the sides in and roll up the cabbage to enclose the filling. Place the cabbage rolls side by side in rows, seam-side down, in a casserole pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pour the remaining sweet and sour tomato sauce over the cabbage rolls. Fold the hanging leaves over the top to enclose and keep the moisture in. Drizzle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Bake for 1 hour until the meat is cooked.

My Notes: In the TV show, he uses a larger, leafy green cabbage that I think is called Savoy. Much easier to roll because they're so much bigger. Also, I think the 1 1/4 cup of EVOO might be a typo on the Food Network's website; I use however much oil I think I need, which is always much less.

Creative Writing 101: The Small Stuff

2010-01-22T23:52:00.000-06:00

"Don't sweat the small stuff" means...

nothing to me! Ha! Because in my world, it's all small stuff. I think one of my biggest strengths is my ability to focus on the tiniest of details in all things. Whether or not they matter. I can't not do so; it's who I am!

I married someone who is the opposite of me, whose strength lies in seeing the big picture. We're a good team that way.

My strength is also a curse sometimes. I can get really bogged down in pointless minutiae. I expect perfection when I shouldn't. So, yes, I really shouldn't sweat the small stuff at times. But it's a challenge to do so!

Blog prompt from Imagination Prompt Generator

52 Blessings: Health

2010-01-21T23:53:00.002-06:00

I've come to the conclusion that "good health" is all relative. I found out last week that I'll be having a double surgery in a few weeks' time. Minor, low risk procedures for the most part, but still requiring the necessary pre-op prep, a trip to the hospital and an overnight stay. Today, at my third visit to a doctor in a week, my ob/gyn told me I would likely need additional surgery in the next 5 years or so as well. Then he told me I was "very healthy." I found that last comment amusing and full of irony.

Healthy. Am I? I notice every little ache and pain that I experience. I notice if it's something that comes and goes regularly or if it's something out of the blue. I notice the way I feel when something seems off, not quite right. Moreover, I've been diagnosed with at least four different chronic conditions/syndromes in the past 4 years. Some are managed ok with meds, some are not. The pains, the little twinges, the changes in my body that I can't control are always there in the background. Honestly, I wouldn't have called myself "very" healthy.

But really, am I? I am healthy enough to hop out of bed each morning. I can drive myself in my car wherever I need to go. I can work out (if I choose). I don't have food allergies and can eat anything (although I shouldn't). I can (for now) decorate cakes with intricate detail and designs. My mind is sharp enough to allow me to do (most) of the things I need to do on a daily basis, things that my family and others count on me to do. I can enjoy the little things in life that make it meaningful. I'm alive!

So yes, I am counting my health, even as it is now, as one of my many blessings. One that I have not been thankful enough for. God has surely blessed me with the health I have for a reason. And I am grateful.

Image from shawnhuff.info

Pink Retro & Some Good Books

2010-01-20T21:47:00.006-06:00

I didn't blog yesterday because I didn't feel like it. I think I'm battling the winter blues, although ironically it no longer feels like winter outside. Just inside myself.

So onward to yesterday's topic, Retail Love, and today's as well.

Yubz Retro Handset for Mobile Phones
Photo from Yubz.com

This cute handset has been on my secret wishlist for several months now. It's adorable and useful! I hate using my cell phone all the time but wouldn't mind it as much if I had this retro handset. In pink. I love that it can rest on your shoulder just like old-school phones did. The only thing is they don't seem to sell it for my particular cell phone (yet). Although I've sent a few emails politely requesting that they add an adapter for mine! Meanwhile, I'll just continue to covet one until I get a new phone or they add my current one.

The Book Nook (is that too cutesy and dumb-sounding?)

So what's on my nightstand these nights (and days)? I started Nora Roberts' Key Trilogy during the summer, got really into books 1 and 2, and then real life got in the way. I didn't pick up book 3 until last week, and I'm remembering now what I liked about this particular series.

The Key Trilogy by Nora Roberts
Photo from Google Images

I've only been reading Nora Roberts for about two years, despite the fact that she always has a new bestseller out as well as rereleases of dozens and dozens more of her older titles. She writes romances as Nora Roberts, her real name, and murder mysteries as J.D. Robb. With the exception of her MacGregor series, which I somehow ended up reading while in London 10 years ago, I purposely avoided reading her books since for the better part of eight years because I just couldn't believe that anyone who could churn out new novels that quickly would be any good. Ha! Her books are generally great, and she excels at creating believable characters who you want to know more about. I particularly enjoy her trilogies and series, where the characters recur and you really get to know them quite well over several novels.

Although I am a few chapters shy of finishing the Key Trilogy, what I liked most about it are the quirky female protagonists (Malory, Dana and Zoe) in each book, the female bonding among them across the series, and the fact that magic, sorcery and otherworldly souls are intricately involved in the storylines. And the males, as always in good romances, are exactly the kinds of males you dream of but at the same time are also regular "guys" with their typical endearing foibles. Another thing about this particular trilogy is that you don't necessarily know how Roberts will take you to the preordained happily ever after that all romance novels must have. I like that element of suspense. So excuse me while I go finish my book!

FoodieLicious: 1980s Jello Blocks

2010-01-18T23:28:00.001-06:00

Today's recipe features a taste of my childhood. Jello Squares or Finger Jello is what I think we called them, but not entirely sure. In any case, these were the staple finger-food dessert that my Mom made for several years for potlucks, summer get-togethers, birthday celebrations and classroom parties. Unlike regular Jello, the Blocks were extremely firm and would hold their shape forever and could be picked up and eaten by hand. I loved when she would make several flavors of Jello Blocks at once and serve them as a rainbow, a shimmering, scrumptious display in the eyes of a child.

About nine months ago, I was feeling nostalgic for Jello Blocks and looked up the recipe online. They are also called Knox Blox, which refers to to the ingredient that makes them extra-firm. I'm pretty sure this is the recipe my Mom used as well. Kraft Foods touts a 'Jello Jigglers' recipe, but it's not the same thing--too jiggly.

Knox Blox Finger Jello
from Cooks.com

3 pkg. Knox gelatin
4 sm. (3 oz.) boxes Jello (any flavor)
4 c. boiling water

Put Jello and Knox gelatin into a bowl. Add water and stir until
dissolved. Pour into 9x13 inch pan. Cool in refrigerator. When firm, cut into squares.

Jello disappeared from my life when my teenage tastes changed. It resurfaced into my life during college with the simple recipe of Jello + Water + Vodka + tiny plastic salsa containers from Taco Cabana = Jello Shots! And since college, Jello gelatin has been pretty much off the radar. I think I was last served Jello at the hospital when I delivered my youngest child. Interestingly enough, I haven't seen Finger Jello at any kids' parties in the last 8 years either.

Jello Blocks popped into my head today when Thalia, Carys and I were at Luby's. The girls were eating their super-jiggly Jello cubes desserts, and I mentioned how much I loved Jello when I was a kid. I told them I had an even better recipe that they would love too. We're going to make Jello Blocks soon, and Carys has already requested Peach.

Oh Jello, how I've missed you and I didn't even know it!

Image is of Jello Jigglers because I couldn't find a good one of Finger Jello! From Kraft Foods' website

Creative Writing 101: Ten Favorite Scents

2010-01-17T21:48:00.004-06:00

Stunning gardenia

I blew off my creative writing prompt on Friday night because I was too tired to even turn on the computer! So here is my creative writing bit, prompted by Imagination Prompt Generator:

My 10 favorite scents or smells (in no particular order):

tropical fruity scents, especially on candles
cinnabons
garlic
freshly laundered sheets and towels
coffee
roses
honeysuckle
gardenias
new batch of fudge at the fudge factory
spring air

Whew! That was easy until I got to #9, and then I ran out of favorites! But I do love spring.

Image from homepage.mac.com/shelobmarian/plants/flowers.html

52 Blessings: Food

2010-01-14T23:31:00.010-06:00

Thursdays will now feature 52 Blessings, every week for 52 weeks! I am borrowing the idea from Tracy Kosofsky's Resistance is Futile blog. Last year she scrapped a '52 Blessings' mini-album highlighting one of her blessings each week. I loved the idea last year, but just didn't have time for it, so this year I'm making time. The blessings won't be in any particular order, not in order of importance for sure as every blessing is important!

My blessing for this week: Food. There are two absolutely full refrigerators in my house right now. How lucky I am to have fresh, healthy and affordable food available to me whenever I want. And to have so many food choices each day. Yesterday I complained to myself that there was so much food in the fridge that I couldn't fit it all in; how fortunate I am to be grumbling about something as wonderful as that.

Image from www.sxc.hu

Book Nook: Tinsel

2010-01-13T23:18:00.000-06:00

Image from www.hankstuever.com

About a month ago, I requested that the San Antonio Public Library purchase a copy of Hank Stuever's new book Tinsel because I wanted to read it. I could have bought it myself, but wasn't sure if it was the kind of book I'd want to read and reread over and over again. (It isn't.) The nice librarians at the SAPL must have liked my suggestion because in just a few weeks they contacted me to let me know my book was ready to be picked up and borrowed!

It's a bit difficult to tell you what Tinsel is about. Tinsel is a book that seems to touch on everything in modern society. Ostensibly, it's about Christmas in America in the 21st century. Specifically, it focuses on Christmas in Frisco, Texas, in the years right before the current recession. Frisco is in some ways is like every other suburb of a major American city and other ways distinctly different. It's about suburbia, mega-churches, "keeping up with the Joneses," consumerism, "made in China," families, genuineness and finding meaning in a holiday that celebrates an event that may or may not have happened exactly as we have been taught to believe it did.

I loved the book. I would recommend it to anyone because it's about so many things, not just Christmas. Just as Christmas itself is never solely about the birth of baby Jesus. I learned so much.

I learned so many new things about shopping and the retail sector, some of which I wish I didn't know. I learned that even as we're herded into lines that snake around big box stores in the wee hours of Black Friday, there is joy and humor to be found among those who are there. We may be programmed, and not so subtly, to be there, but we can still enjoy it.

I learned that Americans invest so much emotional work and energy into "believing" at Christmastime. Believing that a miracle will happen for someone who needs one. Believing that Santa is real, or at least making him real for their children, even if they don't want to believe anymore. Believing that decorating for Christmas serves a higher purpose. Believing that all their spending and giving will make them feel better about themselves and others.

I learned that I'm glad that I don't live in Frisco. That surprised me. One word that kept popping up in my head as I read Stuever's descriptions of Frisco was 'sterile.' I may grumble about where I live now, but I don't know if I could handle the shiny newness and perfection of a community that grew up so quickly in the middle of nothing and nowhere. There's obviously some of that in any new community, but it seems even more intensified in Stuever's Frisco.

I laughed and even cried through Tinsel. There's just enough snark here and there to make you laugh out loud. (And Stuever does a masterful job of not turning his book into a total snark-fest given some of the stuff he witnessed for three years in a row.) There is also sadness, the kind that calls for a Christmas-sized miracle to make better.

I hope Stuever tackles something else about modern American life in his next book. I'll never think about Christmas the same way again and I'm glad for it.

FoodieLicious: Tyler Florence's Mac & Cheese

2010-01-12T17:29:00.004-06:00

The blog schedule is doing me in already, only 2 days into the new blog year! I posted today's topic yesterday and forgot all about Monday's food bit. *sigh* Is this a bad sign?!

Anyway, here is yesterday's topic today:

Tyler Florence's Mamma's Mac and Cheese
from the Food Network's Food 911

1 pound elbow macaroni
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups plus 1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar

Cook the macaroni in boiling water for about 10 minutes until tender but still firm. Drain well and set aside.
In a deep skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour to make a roux and cook, stirring, to remove any lumps. Pour in the milk and cook until the mixture is thick and smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in 2 cups Cheddar and continue to cook until melted. Add the cooked macaroni and stir. Transfer the mixture to a 2-quart casserole dish. Bake in a preheated 350-degree F oven for 20 minutes. Remove the casserole from oven, top with remaining 1/2-cup cheese. Bake for an additional 5 minutes until hot and bubbly.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

My notes: I like to use garlic salt in place of regular salt. I also add a squirt of yellow mustard for "color." For a twist, I sometimes substitute half of the cheddar with another good melting cheese.

Thalia's drawing of her favorite food

This is my kids' favorite comfort food that I make. It's a kid-friendly mac & cheese, unlike other recipes I have that call for cayenne pepper and other "exotic" ingredients. I have served it countless times ever since I got the recipe in 2004 at birthday parties, holiday celebrations and potlucks. Even the adults like it!

I also heart Tyler Florence! (Although I've noticed he's not as cute as he was in the Food 911 episodes due to the extra weight he's packed on since then. Occupational hazard, I'm sure.) Nevertheless, he's a great cook.

Hope someone else tries and loves this one too!

Post-Holiday Shopaholic

2010-01-11T23:21:00.004-06:00

I have a large Rubbermaid tub, okay several, filled with gifts that I buy throughout the year for Christmas and other important holidays. I would estimate that a large percentage of these gifts are purchased in the days immediately following a major holiday. No one loves a good after-Christmas sale as much as I do!

I used to shop post-holiday with very much enthusiasm but very little strategy, and would sometimes regret these purchases about 11 months later. I once got so caught up in the "everything's 75% off!!!" hysteria at Target after Christmas that I filled up two carts with stuff--Christmas cards, ornaments, wrapping paper, bows, gift baskets of coffee and tea, tree-shaped soaps, gift tins, Santa socks, etc. I pretty much bought out the store, except that I didn't need quite that many decorations or gifts. I eventually did use or "gift" most of the great stuff I bought that day, although it took a few years of gift-planning and giving to just the right person who would appreciate them.

Nowadays, my birthday, Christmas and other holiday shopping is much more streamlined and well thought out compared to those early years. I keep a spread-sheet where I record everything I buy to give to others as soon as I bring them home. This (almost) eliminates the "Oh, I already bought her a gift!" surprise months later. I buy birthday gifts throughout the year, whether or not a friend's birthday is coming up, if something just reminds me of her and it's on sale. (Then I buy her another gift with the extra money I saved!) I wrap 90% of our Christmas gifts by Veteran's Day (just some random date I picked out about 10 years ago and have stuck to it) and label them so I know who they're for. I also wrap birthday gifts two to three months in advance; this always cheers me up if I'm blue, to know that I'm planning for someone's special day.

Here are two successful shopping strategies that I've used in the past few years, now that I have school-aged kids and their friends are also past the toddler years:

1) Holiday Gifts for Kids-- I no longer buy toys to give our close kid friends like I used to. Too confusing to remember who had what or what I'd already given the year before! And getting more and more expensive as our friends' families expanded in size as ours did as well. My big idea: Christmas books for the kids. I love Christmas books, as I've already mentioned, and love even more giving them to other families. And the best part is they always go on sale at bookstores nationwide and online after Christmas! A few days after Christmas last month, Carys and I had so much fun selecting several books each for the kids on our Christmas list. Board books for the chubby hands little ones who are just discovering words, holiday puzzle books and Mad-Libs for the beginning readers, and really cool chapter books set at Christmastime for the older kiddos. And since they are all on sale when I buy them, I just buy more of them to give! Books, by the way, are not cheap. A mere paperback for kids can set you back up to $10. So books on sale are always a good thing. The only sad thing was having to pack them away in the Rubbermaid box until November!

2) Teacher Gifts--This may not be much of an issue for those whose kids go to very small schools or have few teachers. However, my kids go to an elementary school with upwards of 1,100 kids. Lots of kids = lots of teachers! When you factor in the number of rotation teachers (art, gym, music, etc.) and specialists in addition to their homeroom teachers, that's alot of teachers. Each of my children are taught by 10 teachers or specialists. When I was growing up, my brother and I always gave gifts to our teachers at Christmas. I loved picking out the boxes of Whitman's Sampler or French pastille candy tins for my teachers. I did this through high school! Even the teachers I didn't like. (That whole Asians-respecting-elders thing.)

Thalia and Carys love giving to their teachers as well. Each year, we start weeks ahead and make hand-made Christmas cards for each teacher. This year was quite a challenge for Carys, going from three pre-school teachers from last year to this year's 10! Card-fatigue set in quickly! Thalia decided to make scrapbooked cards for her teachers using my scrapbooking supplies such as buttons, ribbons, glitter, pop-ups, etc. They looked great! (She gets it from me.)

On my end, I am in charge of selecting gifts for the 9 rotation/specialist teachers and 2 homeroom teachers without breaking the bank! And I like the girls to be part of the process, so they go with me in search of fabulous treats at fabulous prices. Our go-to store: Michael's. Hooray for the $1 bins at Michael's! For the past four years after Christmas, we've found awesome office supplies to give as gifts to the teachers. Some years they've been holiday themed (ie. Mary Engelbreit Christmas) and some years not (last year's colorful flower motif). We've found decorative binder clips, post-it notes, notepads, magnets and purse-size tissue packs, all of which a teacher friend has confirmed they can all use more of! And since they're 50 cents instead of $1 each we buy several of each and mix and match for each teacher, creating a useful gift with zero calories. I like to think that months later, when they're reaching for a binder clip in their desk, they think of our family!

Creative Writing 101

2010-01-08T14:24:00.005-06:00

One thing I want to accomplish TODAY is...

to finish putting away Christmas at my house, or at least get a little closer! We have two Christmas trees, the "fancy" tree in the music room, and the "family" tree in the living room. And between the two trees between 250-300 ornaments perhaps? Each ornament is wrapped in bubble wrap or tissue paper and put away in larger ornament boxes or individually boxed when necessary. That takes TIME.

In addition, Christmas explodes into almost every room of our house, including the bathrooms, so everything must be rounded up again and packed away. At the beginning of the holiday season, I pack away our "everyday" decor, such as picture frames, vases, candles, etc. and replace them with their Christmas counterparts. It's nice to have a break from the everyday stuff around the house but a pain to have to pack/repack!

The Christmas linens and kitchen and hand towels are thankfully already washed and ready to repack, as are the girls' holiday toys and books. Christmas cards are already taken down from the card holder, although I left up all the photos from friends and relatives--too cute to put away! Dylan already took down the outdoor decor a week ago, so it's just Christmas-y inside the house. I've already packed up too the after-Christmas sale items I've been stockpiling for the past week and a half!

Putting away Christmas is always a little bit sad for me. Decorating for Christmas is like creating a whole new work of art in your house, and then taking it all down destroys your lovely creation . . . until next Christmas.

Today's blog prompt from Imagination Prompt Generator! Thank goodness it was an easy one! (Image from Imagination Prompt Generator website)

Getting It Together

2010-01-07T21:43:00.004-06:00

Happy 2010! Yesterday was Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas and the end of a long holiday season, so I feel like new year is starting over (for me at least) today. My holiday decorations are half-way put away, so Christmas lingers on a few more days at my house.

I've long thought that this meandering, floundering blog of mine lacked some organization and direction. Just as children supposedly crave order and structure, so does my blog-child. So I'm giving it what it wants/needs: a schedule! Just like my own kids. hahaha

For those of you who by chance visit regularly, here's the lineup of what to expect:

Mondays: Foodie Fun
Tuesdays: Product Reviews (a.k.a. Shopping) or alternately, Penny Pinches
Wednesday: Book Nook
Thursdays: 52 Blessings
Fridays: Creative Writing 101

Ambitious? Yes. Obviously this requires that I blog every day during the week. I've tried this before, with mixed results, as a result of blog challenges or blog prompts. The road to you-know-where is paved with good intentions such as these, but at least it will be fun trying!

So, starting tomorrow, my blog goes all organized! Even if no one actually reads the posts, I'll feel like I've accomplished something: the illusion of order in some aspect of my life.

So Gifted or So-So Gifted?

2009-12-30T22:30:00.010-06:00

One of my favorite blogs that I try to visit daily asked readers this week what their "best" and "so-so-est" gifts were this holiday season. Easy! I love to play along.

Best Gift: Biopsy & MRI results confirming that I do NOT have cervical cancer, received 2 days before Xmas, after 9 days of waiting.

I went to my ob/gyn on Monday, December 14, for my annual exam. You know, the one with the slightly awkward, slightly uncomfortable pap test and boob check, that has always been boringly normal for me. Until this year. Just to keep things appropriately vague and not gross anyone out, myself included, there was a unusually large polyp growing in an extremely delicate area, where everything is usually microscopic. Silent scream. I will leave out the doctor's actual initial comments, which were kind of funny, and the details of the biopsy. Most significant statements: "This is not good" and "possibly cancer."

After a half-hour's worth of pity-partying in the parking lot of Costco, I got on with my life and vowed (ie. promised my friends) not to look anything up at all on the Internet. Like I needed to scare the &%$#@ out of myself even more. Patting myself on the back that I did indeed manage not to obsess or research any possible scenarios. Honestly, I was too damn busy being a mom-wife-volunteer in the throes of the holiday season. Thank God for that. There were cupcakes to be baked, gifts to be wrapped, cookies to be decorated, Christmas cards to be addressed, library books to be shelved, school parties to plan, and holiday entertaining to be enjoyed, in addition to laundry, cooking, Costco-shopping, chauffeuring, Girl Scouting, etc. of course. Oh, and my car was still in the shop that whole time.

Fast forward to being sent for several more tests the following week and having to wait over a week overall for the results. Cancer? Surgery? What is it?! On December 23, I received my early Christmas gift: no cancer! The polyp, while very large, was benign and not connected to anything even more frightening inside my uterus. No surgery or treatments. So thankful! (There is, however, the slight matter of "something" that appears to be attached to my appendix, but that is another story for another day.) So indeed, my best Christmas gift wasn't under the tree at all this year, and I couldn't be more grateful.

So-so-est Gift: Donna Dewberry One Stroke Painting Kit with store receipt inside dated 1/10/2002 from my MIL.

Now that I've told you all about my best gift, wanna know what else I got? How about a just-shy-of-eight-years-old drying up painting kit? Does everyone know who Donna Dewberry is? She's well-known in the crafting world for her painting techniques that look like this:

Yeah, you use these techniques on just about anything once you learn it, such as teacups, flower pots, drawer knobs, etc. Unfortunately, I think the look is a bit 'little-old-granny-ish' for my taste. And the 8 year old paints weren't going to be very useful either. Good thing the 8 year old receipt was inside the box because I'm sure they'll waive the 30-day return just for me, right? By the way, this was my "main" gift from my MIL this year, but in no way the worst I've received from her. Sad? Funny? Just all part of the joy of Christmas. :)

If you're reading this, what were your best and so-so-est gifts this Christmas?

Hello, Pretty Kitty

2009-12-10T11:19:00.008-06:00

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This is an alert from the Emergency Retail Sale Broadcast System. The dedicated shoppers of your area in voluntary cooperation with the retail stores, both brick-and-mortar and online, have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency sale or newly released hot item.
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Ooooh, just found out about these pretty kitty jewels released in honor of Hello Kitty's 35th anniversary! Interesting to note that she is almost as ~~old~~ young as I am!) If you'd read previous posts on my family blog, you might know how much I adore Hello Kitty from my Asian-girl childhood.

Zales is offering a rather wide selection of jewelry and bling-y accessories such as ear buds and iPhone cases from Simmons Jewelry Co. Basically, these are scaled down versions of Kimora Lee Simmons' more exclusive designs from a few years ago. I have always adored her Hello Kitty line, although it was always out of my price range, so this is a nice treat. Hello Kitty bling for the masses.

A few of my favorite blingy things
(Images from Zales.com

And even better is the storewide 10% discount (through 12/13) and free shipping for $149+ orders. I heart Hello Kitty.

The Princess and the Frog? Mais Oui, Cher!

2009-12-10T02:14:00.006-06:00

Image from the San Antonio Current website

This past weekend, I experienced another "first" in my not-so-young life: I attended a press screening for a major film! And then I wrote a review of it!

I was asked last month to review Disney's The Princess and the Frog for the San Antonio Current. This was my second assignment, and my first ever film review. (October's assignment, you'll recall, was my first ever book review.)

I was overly excited about going to a press screening and an added bonus getting to take Thalia along with me. She really looked forward to it, although commented that no one else she had mentioned it to at school thought it was particularly cool! (ahhh . . . left jaded by Disney at the age of 8).

The theater was packed for the screening, which was a combined press screening and sneak preview for the local Radio Disney station. Ever since teaser stills and trailers of The Princess and the Frog first appeared online earlier this year, everyone and their dog has had something to say about it. Animation fans. African-Americans. Feminists. Louisianians. However, I didn't watch it with any of those people. Instead, Thalia and sat in the packed theater with other parents and girls waiting eagerly to meet the newest Disney Princess on screen.

For my humble opinion on this new film, check out my review online at the Current's website.

Decadence

2009-12-07T13:15:00.010-06:00

Well, that daily blog-prompting thing didn't last long with my too-full schedule over Thanksgiving! And now we are knee-deep into Christmas planning and celebrating. I'll revisit the daily blog themes later!

Speaking of holiday planning, Dylan and I did something so decadent last night--we hired a babysitter to put the kids to bed so we could do some Christmas shopping! Although I have actually been 99% finished with my gift shopping and wrapping since early November, I tend to do my best shopping for myself in the few weeks leading up to Christmas. hahaha The only thing that gets in the way of that, however, is having two kids in tow!

A few weeks ago, I received an invitation to a special after-hours holiday shopping event at our Nordstrom. I had been invited once before, three years ago, and it was a lovely shopping experience--sipping white wine, listening to live musicians' holiday tunes, munching on strips of sugared bacon (more on that later) and truffles, while browsing new stuff at my leisure.

Brown Sugared Bacon--Sybaritic Decadence
(Pic from Google Images)

So when I got my invite, I knew I was definitely going back to Nordstrom. And I wanted Dylan to come along because although he is not a shopper, he would really enjoy this. And he was really curious about going.

The event last night did not disappoint. I go to Nordstrom frequently, but it was quite dressed up for the event, with tuxedoed waiters proffering wine, cocktails and yummy h'or dourves while a sharp jazz quartet entertained us all. There were lots of people there, so it was quite festive.

The thing I remembered most about the event three years ago was these awesome brown sugared bacon strips. People were going nuts over them. And they served them again last night! I was so happy. But alas, I only had one strip, when I could have easily eaten a dozen. They were that good. No worries though, as we also had great regular and tempura sushi and other great little bites.

I had several items on my "list" that I wanted to look for, and I amazingly found all of them! Dylan was just happy to eat, drink and carry my purchases and my wine glass as he followed me around the store--what a sweetie.

Some cool finds:

Ivory wrap desperately needed to keep warm at cold office holiday party

Adult-size slippers that are still ok for an 8-yr old girl

I love Nordstrom. They don't try to shove items down your throat when you say you're not interested. They don't follow you around the store. They don't have a gazillion items for sale, just a choice selection that makes the process easier. They have a wonderful cafe inside that my kids love. And they still respect the holidays--all of them:

Photo taken at Nordstrom 2 days before Thanksgiving, which is thankfully still a real holiday for some and not just a speed-bump on the way to Xmas . . .

We shopped some other stores besides Nordstrom as well and finished the evening off with dessert at Sonic! We would have gone for holiday lattes at Starbucks except that all four of the Starbucks around us were closed before 10 pm. Strange but ok, as my retro Coke Float was a perfect end to our shopping date.

My Perfect Autumn Day

2009-11-23T10:08:00.008-06:00

This week's blog prompts are courtesy of the Imagination Prompt Generator, because Digital Scrapbook Place's daily blog prompts were too boring! (No offense, and what a great idea, but in general, I couldn't get excited about them.)

Today's Imagination Prompt:
Describe the perfect autumn day and what activities you enjoy.

The perfect autumn day, in theory, would involve some real autumn weather. Regrettably, we've had not enough of those kinds of days here in South Texas this autumn season. We have had temperatures in the 80s, ginormous mosquitos, and no excuses to wear our autumn finery. *sigh*

Another component of my perfect autumn day would be not having to be somewhere in particular at a certain time. Just free time to explore the changes in nature (again, in theory) and in my community: take in the leaves that have changed color and fallen from the trees, breathe in the cooler air, admire God's handiwork once again.

My perfect autumn day wouldn't be complete without some autumn food! Just this week I was craving a caramel apple, which I haven't seen anywhere lately. That's odd to me. I like sweet potatoes in the fall; they just seem to match the season in more ways than one. As does cranberry pork roast with apples. Hmm, I'm hungry for autumn!

T.G.I.F.

2009-11-20T23:20:00.001-06:00

DSP Blog Prompt of the Day - Its Friday and what do you usually do on a Friday to gear up for the weekend?

It depends on whether or not the weekend is "full" or not. As a cake decorator, the majority of my orders are for weekend events, so Friday nights are often crunch time for me. Not at all laid back or lazy! If there's an event the next day that my kids are involved in (ie. Girl Scouts or parties), then I start planning for them on Friday, especially if they are early Saturday morning. I have to psych myself up for getting up early on a Saturday if I have to be somewhere first thing. If we are going on a weekend trip early Saturday morning, then Fridays, especially the evenings, are crazy busy getting everything and everyone packed and ready to go.

It's a rare treat for me to do nothing on a Friday night and even rarer to go out on a date night with my hubby on those nights too. But Fridays are still the best days of the week, in my opinion! No homework and no school lunches to pack for the next day!

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle

2009-11-19T22:02:00.006-06:00

Image from Google Images

DSP Blog Prompt of the Day - It's America Recycles Day. How do you recycle are your home?

We recycle constantly at our house. So much so that my husband wishes we recycled a little bit less! We have two bins in the kitchen, a paper bin in the office, and a large bin in the garage. Everything and anything that can be recycled and collected by Waste Management goes into the bins, except for paper which goes to our elementary school so they can make money from our recycling efforts. I also make an effort to make sure that nothing gets thrown into the recycling bins that shouldn't be there, as that defeats the whole purpose, and not everything can be recycled by Waste Management. When we lived in apartments, before we bought a house 12 years ago, I still insisted that we do our part by hauling our recycling to a drop-off place or someone else's house!

We also take old, recyclable materials (shoe boxes, coffee cans, egg cartons, toilet paper tubes, etc.) to Thalia and Carys's old preschool for the kiddos to use for art projects and creative play. In five years, we've probably hauled hundreds of little plastic and paper "gems" that we can't bear to throw out just yet!

Once a month, on a Saturday or Sunday, we take clothing, furniture, small appliances, toys etc. that have seen better days but are still usable or useful to Goodwill, Salvation Army or Medina Children's Home. In addition, barely worn clothing and almost-new toys go to children's resale boutiques here in town; my favorite is Once Upon a Child. It's oddly satisfying get (some) money back for my kids' stuff! Books, CDs and DVDs that we've grown tired of or outgrown find new life at Half-Price Books, where we can choose new (used) stuff to read and enjoy.

More recently, we've discovered Craigslist as a way to get rid of stuff that is in great condition but no longer needed. And it's really nice to meet the people who buy your couch/crib/TV in person! We don't even care how much (or little) we make on the transactions; we're just happy that our stuff goes to a new home that needs it. Last year, our couch that we'd had since the month after we moved in together in 1996 finally found a new life in the apartment of a college student on a budget! It was the comfiest couch we've ever own.

So, yeah, recycling and reusing in some way are really part of our everyday life. It keeps us from wasting even more than we already do, and helps us keep on top of things in our home!

Disney Faves

2009-11-18T00:58:00.006-06:00

DSP Blog Prompt of the Day: Today is Mickey Mouse's Birthday. Do you have a favorite Disney character?

Oh, how I love today's question! Of course I have a favorite Disney character! Well, actually that isn't true. I have many favorite Disney characters, some beloved from my childhood and some new ones too.

I think the very first Disney animated movie I saw at a movie theater was The Rescuers, so those characters (Bernard, Miss Bianca and Penny) have a special place in my heart. I also saw Bedknobs and Broomsticks, re-released, as a very young child as well. I adore Bedknobs as a film, but none of the characters stand out as faves.

I also loved Mary Poppins. I still do. And Hayley Mills as the twins in the original Parent Trap. And Peter Pan, who I first saw in film as a high school senior when Peter Pan was re-released.

Our Daily Bread

2009-11-17T16:51:00.005-06:00

Chocolate Babka (Photo from Google Images)

DSP Blog Prompt of the Day: Today is Homemade Bread Day. Do you have a great recipe for bread to share or do you prefer to buy it already made at the store?

I don't make bread from scratch--ever. I have an aversion working with yeast. However, I do like to bake cake-like, non-yeast breads. But for 'regular' bread? That's what the grocery store and bakery are for!

I also am not a huge bread fan. I think it's my Asian upbringing, with rice being the staple at each meal. I did not eat bread every day growing up like other kids. I never even tasted wheat bread until I was a freshman in college! My husband loves bread and carby foods, as do my kids. I don't even really like stuffing at Thanksgiving, but will make it for my hubby. The only stuffing recipe I really like is, not surprisingly, made with wild rice!

Dylan and I eat stone-ground whole wheat bread, a little harder to find than regular wheat bread. The kids did too, until they discovered white bread, kind of by accident. Now they won't eat wheat bread unless forced to. So we have Iron Kids white bread as well. And some pita bread-looking things for lunches and croissants for breakfast. Lots of bread at our house.

My favorite non-yeast breads: Pumpkin Bread, Banana Bread. My favorite yeast breads to buy: Chocolate Babka, Challah, King's Hawaiian Bread (a taste of my childhood), Cheese Bread.

Now I'm very hungry for bread.

Button Day

2009-11-16T23:58:00.005-06:00

DSP Blog Prompt of the Day: Today is Button Day. Do you prefer buttons or zippers or none at all?

Hmm . . . buttons. I never think about buttons, until they disappear and then I'm cursing them! For my own clothing, zippers make life easier and don't get lost. I detest sewing buttons back on. I'll wait months and months and months before I'll fix up a blouse or shirt that's lost a button! One particular outfit that belonged to Thalia's American Girl Bitty Baby sat in my "to fix" pile for 5 years before I finally sewed the button back on!

Image from Knitty Cent's Flickr stream

Buttons and zippers are equally problematic for little kids; Carys has a hard time getting her zipper parts together on her jacket. So do I when I'm helping her. Little kids' clothing have few buttons, mostly snaps. Her teacher sent home a note on Friday saying that she's having to zip or button up too many coats as well tie too many shoelaces. Apparently, this is something we need to work on at home!

I do like buttons on their own though! They can turn a blah piece of clothing into something better instantly. I used to love to look at all the different buttons on cards at the fabric store when I was a little girl. Especially the shaped buttons, like school buses or hearts or rainbows. I buy these now for my Girl Scouts to use for our craft projects!

Image from www.elizabethstar.blogspot.com

Blog Prompts

2009-11-15T17:57:00.006-06:00

Well, my NaBloPoMo dreams bit the dust last weekend, very early into November, when I went out of town and was too busy/lazy to pre-post a few days' worth of blogging. And I was trying to do this times 4 blogs, so it was a lofty goal. I managed to blog daily in November on 2 of my 3 blogs last year. Oh well, there's always next November!

In any case, I have a new plan to jump start my daily blogging: Digital Scrapbook Place's Daily Scrap Blog Prompt Challenge! Each day there is a topic to write and/or scrap about, which is just what I need to get motivated.

Some of you may remember that I tried to start my own monthly scrapping/journaling club that theoretically would have done the same for its members, only it too bit the dust due to my sad neglect. The Once-A-Month Memory Club, I believe it was called. It was a good idea, but not for me to be in charge of!

So I hope to blog daily here about whatever DSP's clever folks come up with. Wish me luck.

Love Letters

2009-11-05T23:39:00.002-06:00

It's not our anniversary or even half-anniversary or anything, but for some reason my thoughts were meandering the other day and something made me think of the food at our wedding. Dylan and I were married on May 9, 1998 in Austin. We hired a lovely European woman named Frauke Baylor, who was just the most generous and caring soul you could ever want to cater your wedding reception. Her small but wonderful catering company, Blue Trout Catering, was so unique in their presentation of the small bites and sips, and the flavors were fabulous.

Flash forward several years into the future to 2007. A friend had requested caterer recommendations for her upcoming nuptials, and I looked up Frauke's company online hoping to find a website. (In 1998, not one of our caterer, photograper, DJ, florist or traveling minister had an Internet presence.) Was I ever shocked to see our own wedding on Blue Trout Catering's website! I literally stumbled onto our own wedding pic from 9 yrs before on a page appropriately titled 'Love Letters':

Our wedding reception, Umlauf Sculpture Garden,
May 9, 2009
Image from BlueTroutCatering.com. Photography by Anne Butler Photography.

I was so pleased to discover that Frauke's company was still thriving in Austin and to be featured on her site! I sent her an email that day thanking her for the wonderful food she created for us that day. I even told her that my cousin had mentioned to me at her own wedding, six years after ours, that she planned her wedding reception menu around what she remembered of ours!

Embellish-ment

2009-11-04T23:47:00.002-06:00

Starting today, I'm wearing yet another "hat." In addition to the many chapeaux I wear as wife, Mom, volunteer, cake designer, etc., I can now add a brand new one: lady-whose-writing-has-appeared-in-print. The San Antonio Current, our award-winning local alternative gem of a news weekly, has printed my first book review.

This all fell into my fat lap by pure chance. And I have Facebook to thank in part for how it all came about. My writerly friend, Sarah, who is the Associate Editor of the Current's Arts section, mentioned in a FB post several months ago that there was a "paranormal vampire romance novel" she had to review. I'm a closet romance novel hoarder myself, so I had to open my big mouth and ask if I could borrow it. And then Sarah had this crazy idea that I should review it! So that's kind of how it happened in a nutshell. Thanks, Sarah and Facebook!

But really, I didn't think I could write a book review. I love to read, but this was something waaay out of my comfort zone. I write emails and short notes and occasional blog posts, with little attention paid to syntax or grammar or how interesting/boring my writing really is. In conversations, my vocabulary has become reduced to the same dozen words that small children easily understand. However, after some encouragement from Sarah over awesome crunchy spring rolls at Viet Nam Restaurant, I finally hoisted up my big girl panties and got to reading and writing. And surprisingly, I enjoyed the writing process.

I won't say any more about the book except that the title is Embellish and it was written by a San Antonio author, R.L. Sloan, because everything else is in my review. And here is the result of my labors (click on the lovely book cover):

Embellish by R.L. Sloan (image from SACurrent.com)

I Heart Stella & Dot

2009-11-03T23:46:00.016-06:00

I went to my first Stella & Dot Trunk Show last week at a friend's house. I first heard about the company several months ago from a Facebook ad of all things (yeah, the targeted ads really do work). I was definitely curious, as it's a direct sale company, and if you don't already know, I am drawn like a moth to the flame when it comes to direct sales! And their product, fashion jewelry, seemed nice and trendy enough, from what I could tell.

So the Trunk Show isn't what I expected. There's no sales pitch or presentation to sit through, like at other jewelry shows. I've hosted a Premier Designs show or two before, and those are definitely a different experience altogether. The Stella & Dot gathering was really more about browsing, chatting, sipping wine and trying all the designs on. Waaaay more fun! I tried practically everything on and definitely stepped out of my "jewelry comfort zone."

Here is my typical, everyday jewelry wardrobe:

'Return to Tiffany' bracelet, white gold earrings, and a stainless steel watch

My daily look is pretty boring! Serviceable, subdued, conservative, lazy more than anything!

And here is what I bought from Stella & Dot:

Soiree Black Pave Bracelet that matches everything in my closet, since everything in my closet is black!

Soiree Champagne Pearl Bracelet for the upcoming company Christmas party.

Turquoise Sea Drop Earrings--I never wear colorful stuff like this, but these were such lovely stones.

Bloom Flower Ring, again something I would never usually pick out for myself!

Avery Chains & Pearl Necklace--definitely a departure for me. Will I really wear it, I wonder?!

Clearly I had a bit of a splurge! But I very, very rarely buy jewelry, so this was alot of fun. My jewelry either comes from my Mom, who adores jewelry and has made something of a hobby out of shopping for jewelry of all kinds, or the occasional gift from my hubby (hits or misses from both quarters).

I had such fun at the Trunk Show that I may even host one myself soon. And you really have to see the jewelry designs in person; several pieces I liked online or in the catalog looked completely different up close. The designs are fresh, fun, young and diverse enough to appeal to different tastes. I definitely noticed that at the show, where the range of guests' ages and tastes was quite wide and varied. I also have a very long wishlist of items I did not buy but absolutely have my eye on! I heart the pretty jewelry!

Images from TiffanyOnlineStore.co.uk and StellaDot.com

"Handmade? It Looks Like You Made It With Your Feet."

2009-11-02T23:40:00.068-06:00

Mermaid Hair Clip by hibilly on Etsy.com

Well, it was just a matter of time. Some enterprising person was going to take the "all things handmade" website Etsy to task for being a little to Etsy-ish. Too tacky. Too cutesy. Too . . . something.

I heard about Regretsy from my in-the-know writing friend, Sarah, just a few weeks ago. I don't think the site's been around very long, the earliest archived post is from about 2 months ago. The site is priceless! Regretsy picks out the "cream of the crap" (their own words) that can be found on Etsy's website. You know, like the Woolen Tampon Cozies (aka Plug Rugs). Or the custom-made Corset Jeans, the "corset" being just below your ass and all the way down your leg.

Regretsy is to Etsy what Cake Wrecks is to the mediocre-to-crappy cake decorating world. And just like with the Cake Wrecks, on Regretsy you can't not look. Yes, the "crafts" themselves are something else when you're just looking at the pics, but it's the clever snark accompanying the item photos and descriptions that make you laugh out loud.

If you've never heard of Etsy before, you can read my blog post from about a year ago, waxed on about my Etsy-love. I still do love Etsy; there are lots of wonderful stuff to be had from some seriously gifted crafters. But I love Regretsy for shining a light on the not-so-great "crafts" for sale!

Have you seen this one yet? It's made from real moose poop! It's called the Doo Doo Nugget Necklace. You simply cannot make up shit like this.

It's NaBloPoMo Time!

2009-11-01T14:05:00.001-06:00

Princess for a Day: An Invitation

2009-09-10T08:37:00.013-05:00

You are cordially invited to take part in a fairy tale Mother/Daughter event, My Princess & Me, at the elegant and historical Red Berry Mansion on the Lake on Sunday, October 11! For just a $30 donation, each little Princess will receive a professional hairstyle from top hairstylists in San Antonio, make-up application, a tea party, music, dancing and a keepsake photo with her Queen Mum – all while helping support the children of St. Peter – St. Joseph Children’s Home.

Princesses will arrive in their most royal finery with their Mothers (or Grandmothers, Aunts, Sisters, Friends). All Princesses will receive a magical treat of hair design and makeup from our very talented fairies.

And this year, my company, Sweetest Whimsy, invites all Princesses to decorate their own royal cookie treats and dine on special Princess Cake and punch with their Moms! I will provide all the sweet ingredients for each girl to let her inner sugar artist come out!

There will be time for a fairy tale photo to remember this special day. What could be more magical than seeing hundreds of girls of all ages enjoying time with their Mothers and new friends?

Of course, this Royal Event wouldn’t be complete without dancing! Princesses will gather together and dance to great music with girls from the Royal Court. Special appearances by San Antonio Fiesta 2010 Queen of the Vine, Hannah Montana and other special guests!

And the best part of all? 100% of the profits from this royal event go directly to St. Peter - St. Joseph's Children's Home! St. P-J's is a home for children who have suffered sexual and emotional abuse, neglect, poverty and broken homes, as well as a community counseling and service center for families in crisis. This event is made possible by the many companies and individuals who are providing funding, services and in-kind donations, and I am thrilled that Sweetest Whimsy is a sponsor this year! I hope everyone will join me at the Red Berry Mansion on the Lake!

Event Details:

Sunday, Oct.11th, 2009

12:00pm - 4:00pm

The Red Berry Mansion on the Lake

858 Gembler Road

San Antonio, Texas

Ticket Information: Order Your Tickets Online!

$30 donation per person ~ Your entire donation goes to help St P-J's Home

(Or call 210-408-0101 to purchase tickets)

All images from My Princess & Me website

Half-Staff

2009-07-27T00:10:00.004-05:00

Today on the drive home from Austin I noticed that all the flags in New Braunfels, and only New Braunfels, were at half-staff. I asked Dylan if he knew anything about it. He had no clue either, and we both thought it was unusual.

Tonight I googled for an answer to my question. According to the Herald-Zeitung (the New Braunfels/Comal County newspaper) website, the flags were being flown at half-staff in honor of a New Braunfels man who was killed in action in Iraq on July 19.

Today he returned home forever. And through Monday, his hometown pays tribute to a Marine who fell fighting for his country. He was 20 years old.

With a very grateful heart, I say a small prayer for him and his family tonight. Thank you, Lance Corporal Brandon T. Lara.

Doing Our Part

2009-07-21T22:39:00.016-05:00

Yesterday Thalia and I did our part to shore up the economy by shopping spree-ing through the local mall. It's Anniversary Sale week at Nordstrom, and due to the unexpected excitement of last week, missed the beginning of the sale. They aren't kidding when the say "quantities are limited" on the special sale deals. Everything I wanted from the Anniversary Sale catalog was no longer available online as of Saturday night; the sale started Friday. I am usually invited to a sale "pre-show" which always cracks me up. Items from the sale catalog are on display in a trying-on room for your perusal. But this year, I wasn't invited to view the stuff. (I probably didn't spend enough this past year to warrant an invite!)

So after a quick visit to the pediatric orthopedic physician, who said Thalia's broken bones were healing nicely, we headed for the mall for some catch-up shopping. We tore through Nordstrom and amazingly found everything we'd wanted from the catalog (some were ordered from other Nordstroms to be delivered to our door for free--I love that). Thalia got shoes for school (crossing my fingers that they'll fit), Carys got an adorable t-shirt for school (probably too big but she'll grow into it), and I got some workout clothes. Then we bought other stuff we liked! All on sale and double Nordstrom points!

Thalia's new shoes for school. Can't believe she fits women's shoes now and is only a size and a half away from me! Eeek!

Thalia was so excited about lunch at the Nordstrom cafe, always a treat. She was even more excited that they had the "old" ranch dip back. The last time we ate there, about a month ago, they had replaced their usual ranch dip with a "new" different-tasting ranch which upset her greatly. She *loves* that "old" ranch and was very happy they were serving it again. Whatever! She has also adapted quite well to having only good arm right now as she was rather adept at using her fork with her other hand at the cafe.

We were in that "shopping" mood for sure by this point, so we ventured into the mall, beyond Nordstrom. Thalia begged to go the the "Lilly" store. Lilly Pulitzer, that is. She loves that it's all pink and green and flowery. So do I. And they were having a big SALE! Fifty minutes later we emerged with several bags of stuff for ourselves and birthday and Christmas gifts for everyone else. Although I had to talk Thalia out of a Lilly tie for her Daddy. And did I mention everything was on sale? Like 50-to-75-percent-off kind of sale?! We sampled all the Lilly fragrances while the salesperson kindly wrapped all of our purchases separately in adorable pink and green boxes (of course). Thalia and I liked the 'Squeeze' scent the best. It's also the "juiciest."

Lilly Lace Cuff Bracelet, not really my style, but will be an awesome gift for someone I know who loves this kind of thing.

How cute is this coin purse?! Thalia picked out several for us to give as gifts to favorite relatives.

Thalia magnanimously offered to carry one of our Lilly bags with her good arm as we made our way to the "make-up store," also known as Sephora. The store generally freaks me out, all those cosmetics and styling products in one place. But we were actually there for Thalia. They were having a half-off sale on Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers perfumes, and my daughters absolutely love those little East-meets-West girls! We were there to use some of Thalia's birthday money on a bottle of HL perfume. And also to buy some dry shampoo for her, which is practically a necessity now that showering is no longer an option due to her non-waterproof cast.

The Harajuku Lovers: East Meets West Cuteness

The HL girls, or as Thalia and Carys call them, the "little girls", were so cute in perfume form and all smelled so fruity nice that it was almost impossible for Thalia to decide which one she wanted. I already have one bottle myself, the Li'l Angel one, which started the whole love affair at our house with these "little girls" to begin with. And since the perfumes were 50% off anyway, we bought 4 of the 5 "little girls," all except Li'l Angel. We picked out Music for Thalia, G for Carys, Love for me, and one extra (Baby). And some dry shampoo, and oddly enough there were two other people shopping for it as well.

The "Little Girls" Fragrances. We bought 'em all.

Can't wait to try this out. Might be great to take on our campout?

Now we were really loaded down with bags and boxes, so it was time to head back to the car! Thalia's good and bad arms were both hurting now, and we both needed to get out of the heat. Funny how we didn't notice how the day got hotter and hotter until we were leaving! (And we were at an outdoor mall!)

Our shopping day wasn't over yet, however. Dylan came home from work with the suggestion that we use our coveted 30% off everything Kohl's coupon in the evening. So the whole family piled in the car and went to Kohl's!

We very rarely have a 30% coupon there, by the way, usually it's 15% or 20% off at the most. So we go a little crazy there when we do get the 30% off! We'll buy things we probably wouldn't have and look at things we definitely wouldn't have. This time around, we picked up:

Girls Undies
Girls Shorts and Top--lots of them
Men's Jeans
Men's shirts
Yankee Candles
Digital Frame
Greeting Card
Girls Skirts
Drink Dispenser
Running Shoes
UT Logo Wear
Perfume
Girls Jacket
Girls Tank Tops--perfect to wear now that Thalia's cast won't fit regular sleeves
Pink Lamps

Pink Clip-On Lamp, times 2.

Goes-with-lots-of-things plaid shorts = $3.36.

High School Musical undies, 7 for $7.

Our only Kohl's shopping rule is that whatever we buy has to be on sale, and the bigger the discount, the better. I love weeding through the 80% off racks at Kohl's, and I'm a natural speed shopper so I do it quickly. They're just begging you to look when they're at that price! So the 30% discount is on top of the 80% markdown. And some of the stuff we bought were for gifts, and it's always great to be able to buy more for our friends and relatives at the same price.

Thalia and Carys adore going to Kohl's. It's practically the only true department store left that sells a bit of everything, including toys and games. They love the tiny toy section, and also weaving through the rounders and racks of clothing, as well as trying on lots and lots of pairs of shoes.

So our Monday was definitely our day to contribute to the economy! And I have to say that everyone who assisted us at each of the stores was very pleasant and helpful, something I rarely say. Only two items were purchased full price (much needed bike shorts and dry shampoo), and we can also cross gift-shopping off our to-do list for fall birthdays and even Christmas.

All photos from Google Images

For Steve & Tyra: Forever & For Always

2009-07-02T01:05:00.000-05:00

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life

which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart

i carry it in my heart

e.e. cummings

Happy 15th Anniversary! We love you!

Life-Saving Cookie Recipe

2009-06-20T18:56:00.000-05:00

Saturday, May 16 of this year was going to be one of the best days of the year for our family--Carys's 5th birthday party, a big "Disney-Princess-Ariel-Under-the-Sea" themed bash in our backyard with lots of splish-splashing water fun. I am not joking when I say that we had talked about and planned all aspects of this party for at least nine months, and my daughter absolutely had her heart set on this theme.

Well, we got the water part alright. May 16 turned out to be probably the wettest day of the entire month. In under an hour, we watched our carefully laid out backyard 'Under-the-Sea' wonderland torn apart by high winds and sheets of rain. Not dainty raindrops but sheets and sheets of rain.

So our outdoor party quickly became the "Under-the-Sea-in-my-living-room" party. With a little more than an hour left before a dozen and a half or so pre-schoolers would arrive at our house, I planned an entirely different party. (This is the part where I run around the house looking for suitable indoor activities for all these kids.) Coloring activity? Check. Foam craft activity? Check. Play-doh? Check.

Right, now I had enough stuff for them to do to last about 30 minutes if we were lucky. Hmm . . . how about decorating cookies? Great, only we had no cookies of course. Thank God I am a cake decorator and always have extra frosting in my freezer. I quickly thumbed through all of my cookie recipes, trying to find the easiest and quickest one for shaped cookies. (Not that I would be making shapes, except for "round").

The recipe I decided to make was one I hadn't actually made before, at least I don't remember doing so. It's from the Southern Living Incredible Cookies book. I'd had hit-or-miss luck with other recipes from this book, but I was pretty desperate at this point so decided to go with this one because it used few ingredients and ones that I happened to actually have on hand:

Sugar Crinkles

1 cup shortening (ie. Crisco)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp lemon extract (I used orange, it was all I had citrus-wise)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar

Beat shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar at medium speed w/ electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and flavorings, beating until blended.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to shortening mixture, beating well. Cover and chill dough. (This is where I stuck the recipe in the freezer for a quick chill.)
Shape dough into 1-inch balls, roll in 1/4 cup sugar. (I did not roll in sugar as I wanted the kids to decorate them, but have since done this step as well.) Place on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 min. or until barely golden. Cool 2 min. on baking sheets; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 5 1/2 dozen.

So, all in all, May 16 turned out to be one of the worst days of the entire year. Several guests couldn't come last minute because they were having their own "worst days" and some very hopeful bathing-suit-wearing kiddos were super-disappointed to be kept indoors. But the cookies turned out to be a hit! The kids loved decorating them with my rainbow of frosting colors, candies and sprinkles, and the parents loved eating them (plain, no frosting). I've had several ask for the recipe. Seriously, these are great cookies, and I usually dislike sugar cookies.

We couldn't wait for the day to end. It made me sad that Carys was so disappointed about her party, and to see her cry made me want to do the same. And just our luck--the day before and the day after were beautiful, sunny days! Oh well, we may have ourselves a do-over party this summer, when we're guaranteed weeks of dry hot weather with no rain in sight!

ABCs of Me (and maybe You too)

2009-06-02T17:08:00.001-05:00

Wasting time when I should be cleaning my house, cooking dinner, or something else constructive . . . received from a Facebook friend and hadn't done a "list" in a quite a while so here it is . . .

ABC's
You've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with the ABC's of YOU. At the end, choose 26 people to be tagged. You have to tag me so really you just need 25 more people. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

A - Age: 38

B - Bed size: Queen

C - Chore you hate to do: Dust

D - Dog's name: No dog

E - Essential start your day item: Coke

F - Favorite color: Pink (in general), Black (to wear)

G - Gold or Silver: Silver

H - Height: 5 '2"

I - Instruments you play: Piano

J - Job title: Mom/Cake Designer/Internet Retailer/Instructor

K - Kids: 2

L - Living arrangements: We live in a house

M - Mom's name: Ofelia

N - Nicknames: Lissa

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Stayed overnight when 3 day old baby had to go back due to jaundice, but I wasn't the sick one!

P - Pet Peeve: Public signage with bad grammar/spelling

Q - Quote from a movie: I don't have one yet

R - Right or left handed: Left

S - Siblings: 1

T - Time you wake up: I will wake up 6 hrs after going to sleep, so that's usually around 9 am if left to my own internal clock. But that never happens, so my alarm clock wakes up much earlier!

U - Underwear: optional

V - Vegetable you dislike: Brussels Sprouts

W - Ways you run late: not paying attention to the time; need to wear a watch and actually look at it

X - X-rays you've had: shoulder

Y - Yummy food you make: cakes!

Z -Zoo favorite: National Zoo, Washington DC

It's All Personal

2009-05-13T14:12:00.001-05:00

Or, Really, Really ?!*%&$#@ Mother's Day Gifts

If you're a Mom, what did you get for Mother's Day? Brunch with your family and a complimentary rose? (Or better yet, complimentary Mimosas?) A day off from cooking and other mundane mommy-chores? Or maybe even a store-bought gift? I sent my own Mom her favorite perfume and a card across the miles since we couldn't spend the day together.

I was excitedly summoned to the living room on Sunday morning by my kids for the presentation of a mysterious gift that arrived earlier that week. Hints of a wonderful "surprise" had me slightly curious, although in all honesty, I've learned over the past 8 years that lowering your expectations to the point of nothingness is really the way to go with this holiday. There were homemade cards that the girls created at school and at home, and of course, I always love and appreciate those. Thalia also made me a "rock person" at school, and even has the hot-glue gun burns to prove it! But last of all was the piece de resistance:

Don't you love it?! What do you mean, what is it? My FACE on M&Ms of course, silly goose!!! Yeah, because every Mom wants to eat her own face in chocolate, right?!

As a bonus, the M&Ms also have custom sayings on them:
Best Mom Ever!
Terrific Wife!

I was rather underwhelmed by my gift. I think Thalia picked up on that right away, because she quickly said "It was Daddy's idea." And so it was. Apparently my spouse thought it was a great gift idea. Interesting. Of course my little half-pints went along with it, what do they know? Candy for Mom? Hooray! They chose the colors, pink and platinum.

To humor them, I opened one of the three packages of customized M&Ms and let my kids eat my face. Several times in fact.

And then I got up off the couch and went back to bed for three more hours. Happy Mother's Day, y'all.

Cheap Eats

2009-05-01T13:42:00.001-05:00

I've been both amazed and repelled by all the posts and articles I've read lately about how to feed your family on next to nothing. One of my favorite blogs asked readers to comment on their favorite cheap meals. Wow! These ladies don't mess around--one Mom feeds her family of four for less than $8.50 a meal. Another made dinner for two for $7.38. Both cooked meals from scratch. Yum!

What kind of grossed me out and yet fascinated me at the same time were the "recipes" or "meals" that consisted entirely of packaged or processed foods. Some call them "pantry staples." Full disclosure: our pantry has quite a few of these staples (Uncle Ben's Wild Rice Pilaf, Cornbread Mix, etc.) so I'm not knocking them altogether. But a whole menu of canned/boxed food? Hmm. For example, the dinner made up of 1 can of corn, 1 can of black beans, and 1 can of meat or meatless chili. Heat in a pan and serve. Doctor it up with spices if necessary. Hmm. Or this one: Top Ramen cooked with only a little bit of water and add a can of Pork-n-Beans at the end. OMG.

So here is my "quick-scratch" contribution to eating in these lean times (and what we had for dinner last night):

Easy Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad

Leftover boneless, skinless chicken breast or thigh meat, shredded or sliced (1 - 2 cups or whatever you have)
1 green onion, finely chopped
1/2 head iceberg or romaine lettuce, shredded
2 ribs of celery, sliced
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/3 cup cucumber, peeled and chopped
Leftover cooked pasta (regular or whole wheat, any shape, about 2 cups or whatever you have; I have used penne, rotini and thin spaghetti)
Chow Mein Noodles (ie. La Choy)

Dressing:
4 tsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
1/8 tsp pepper

In a bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients and mix well.
Toss chicken, pasta and all vegetables together with the dressing. Add a few handfuls of chow mein noodles on top. Best if served immediately. (**If you are serving the salad much later, you can leave out the lettuce and chow mein noodles and add them right before serving to keep them crisp**).

Makes about 6 servings, can be stretched by adding more pasta and lettuce. Since I buy most of my produce at Costco, this meal is really economical. For example, 6 heads of romaine for $3! Enough celery for a month for about the same price. About $1.50 worth of carrots, green onion and cucumber combined. And I always have these particular Asian ingredients on hand anyway, so I didn't have to go out of my way for them and they seem to last forever in my fridge. Definitely a yummy cheap meal!

*Variations: You can add/omit vegetables based on what's in your fridge. For example, I think it would look/taste really great with some red bell pepper strips or mandarin oranges. You can omit the pasta if you don't like/have any. You can substitute roasted cashews or friend wonton strips instead of chow mein noodles.

Recipe adapted from a much more involved one in Every Grain of Rice by Ellen Blonder & Annabel Low

Guilty Pleasures: 16 Free Romance Reads

2009-04-24T02:23:00.000-05:00

It's rare these days when I squeal with delight. (It sounds funny just to type it.) But squeal I did when I read about Harlequin's FREE book download from the Barnes & Noble website. Make that downloads as there are 16 free books in all. Yippeeeee!

As one who was a closet romance novel reader for a few years before "coming out," I'm very proud to share this gift with everyone (all 4 of you loyal friends who might be reading this!). Be warned, the downloads are low-tech: PDF files. No Kindle or Sony Reader downloads here. Who cares? Free books!

I almost never read Harlequin books, but I'm looking forward to sampling some of the romance genres represented among the freebies. NASCAR romance, anyone?

And for any non-romance readers, B&N is also giving away nine FREE MP3 Audiobook downloads as well. An interesting mix of authors, such as Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain and Alice Munro. Something for everyone.

So get to reading already!

Image from eHarlequin.com

Family Fued

2009-04-19T01:34:00.001-05:00

So I've been tagged by Janine in yet another Facebook "list", but this time I'm willing to play along because it really did remind me of watching "Family Fued"!

YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE MY ANSWERS! Copy this note and write a new note. Then erase my answers and fill in your answers. Tag your friends and don't forget to tag me too. Remember, you can't use the same answer as the person who sent it to you. Remember, if my answers are dumb, it's because the person before me had the good ones!

1. Name something you use in the shower? Bath gel

2. Name something a football player wears under his uniform? Athletic supporter

3. Name something people hate to find on their windshield? Flyers stuck to the wipers that will NOT fly off!

4. Name something a man might buy before a date? Breath mints

5. What is another word for blemish? Zit

6. Something you cook in the microwave? Leftovers

7. Name a piece of furniture people need help moving? Piano

8. Name something a dog does that embarrasses its owner? Pees on the carpet when company arrives

9. Name a kind of test you cannot study for? blood test

10. Name something a boy scout gets a badge for? camping

11. Name a phrase with the word "home" in it? Home run

12. Name a sport where players lose teeth? Skateboarding

13. Name something a teacher can do to ruin a student's day? Assign detention

14. What is a way you can tell someone has been crying? Red eyes

15. Name something a person wears even if it has a hole in it? Underwear

16. Name something that gets smaller the more you use it? Ball of yarn

Hot Mom, Hot Kid?

2009-03-25T23:31:00.000-05:00

"I love how they dress their age.

And I don't love how that's remarkable."

~ Recent anonymous comment online about Sasha and Malia Obama

I'm back after a "Spring Break" from posting and then getting caught up at home from the Break! It takes a whole week to recover from Spring Break around here.

Anyway, my previous post was about looking older than I was 20 years ago, and today's is about even younger kids who do so as well. And I don't mean "looking older" in a dowdy, frumpy kind of way, like I did! I do mean 8 year old girls who are dressed by their parents to look like they are 16 yr old Lolitas. And this is a uniquely girl-only phenomenon. (Little boys start dressing like little men when they're a year old and continue to dress the same until they really are little old men.) If you are the parent of a girl, you know what I'm talking about unless you sew all your kid's clothing yourself and never have to go shopping for girls' clothes. And lucky YOU!

Suffice it to say that once you cross the line between infant/toddler outfits and girls 'size 6 and up' (and often even before you've crossed the line), you have to steel yourself against the slutty, tacky or merely inappropriate "Mini Me" clothes that are all they sell at many stores. If it's ever been your dream to have your kid dress exactly like you, well they certainly can! Right down to that Mommy tatoo on your arm/hip/ankle/lower back. It's a real and constant challenge to pick outfits for my almost 8 year old daughter from what's available that don't scream "tiny slut."

So for example, a bra for me, a bra for little 5 year old her:

This is a size 30AA bra that is basically sized to fit a little girl. Really little girl.

Attitude tee for me, attitude tee for 7 year old her:

Such cute graphics and not-so-cute sayings on tees.

Other actual attitude t-shirt sentiments seen on actual girls:

“Santa Loves a Hot Cookie”

"Dinner: $60. Movie: $40 dollars This shirt off: Priceless.'"

Sexy undies for me, sexy undies for 8 year old her:

Size 7-10. Won't these look great peeking out from the top of her jeans?

And don't even get me started on parents who dress their kids just plain old inappropriate for the occasion! For example, I can't tell you the number of kids I see daily, even in the winter, who are wearing flip flops to P.E. class at my daughter's school. Or tank tops on cold, wet days. Or shorts with high heel sandals all day at school when it's 42 degrees outside. Whatever.

So it's just been so nice to see photos of the First Daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama, who are 10 and 7 yrs old respectively, dressed as girls who are 10 and 7 yrs old! Wow, dressing age-appropriately, what a concept! All the body parts that need to be covered up are and nothing detracts from their smiles or from their primary mission: to just be kids.

Dressed for a very special occasion

Dressed for school

All photos from Google Images

Twenty Years Ago

2009-03-10T01:43:00.000-05:00

Totally 80s style blue floral print Multiples outfit, plus icky 80s shoes and my favorite fake Fendi bag. Visiting Stanford University, March 1989.

My absolute favorite Multiples outfit--loved, loved, loved this one! I wore this everywhere. Apparently also wore the denim jacket everywhere too! A view of the Golden Gate Bridge after just crossing it. March 1989.

The new Units/Multiples by Sandra Garratt, the original designer of the 80s fashion craze. They look almost exactly the same and the prices aren't bad either. (Photo from Sandra Garratt Design website)

I posted the first two photos on Facebook three months ago, after my friend Tyra sent me a link to a website about the founder of Units. Units, and later Multiples, were these amazing cotton/poly knit separates (excellent quality, never faded) that were "convertible"--you could mix and match the solids (later prints too), wear certain pieces in different ways (as a belt or as a tube top!) and they were one size fits all. And according to the new website, the designer is selling her Units pieces again starting this year!

I hunted up pics of me wearing my beloved Units/Multiples pieces, and found several. These were from my Spring Break trip to visit family in the San Francisco Bay area in March 1989. Although I loved these outfits so much, I realized how OLD they made me look, and not in a good way. Dowdy-looking old, not sophisticated and chic old(er)! My uncle, who drove me to Stanford the day I wore the blue outfit, told me I looked "middle-aged." I didn't think so then, but he was soooo right!

I decided to post these pics on my blog because they were taken exactly twenty years ago this week. I was 18 years old in these pics, and yesterday, I turned 38 years old. 20 YEARS. Wow. The question is, if I wore Units/Multiples now, would I look my own age (now that I am middle-aged) or would I look even older?!

Goodbye, Facebook (kind of)

2009-02-21T18:40:00.000-06:00

Photo from Google Images

It's official: I'm over Facebook. I still think it's a great time-waster and reunion place for people I've lost touch with since elementary school. But I no longer feel compelled to update my status or check FB compulsively.

I read this great blog post about why this woman left Facebook and found myself laughing at how funny and yet true it all was.

Several people I know, including my hubby, have voiced their privacy concerns about social networking sites like Facebook. Seriously, I think the idea of Internet "privacy" is overrated! I have no problem putting my information "out there" in exchange for the privilege of shopping, doing research and generally being entertained by various websites and blogs online. I'm not a famous person and likely won't be, so I doubt there is a whole lot of interest in my personal information anyway. So I'm not shying away because of privacy issues.

My real reason for taking a break from Facebook is just because I'm kind of bored with it and would like to meet people in person for a change! Or maybe just through other venues besides FB. Time spent online in general is time sucked into a huge vacuum and I can't ever get it back. Time that possibly could be spent on other things. Like hanging out with my husband and kids (who are not on FB), enjoying the all-too-short spring Texas weather, planning my upcoming vacation, etc. I'm sure I'll fill up that time with something!

I'll be checking my account now and then because now that I've reconnected with so many people I had missed for so many years, I still want to stay in touch. I've really enjoyed meeting for lunch with my found-on-Facebook friend from high school, for example. And catching up on another found-on-Facebook friend's awesome foodie blog. Facebook began as a really strange thing for me because I had to lie and say I was a college student in order to get an account a few years ago, and then everyone and their dog showed up and it got really fun, for a while, but now it's time to move on. I may have to sneak back in too for a round of Scramble or such; I think I might miss those games most of all!

A Rotic Invitation

2009-02-17T11:02:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day, 3 days late! I never thought I'd say this, but I am heartily sick of chocolate, candy, cookies, and other sweets from this past holiday. Ugh.

Last Thursday I picked up a flyer at Nordstrom's shoe department, where I treated myself to some cute pre-spring shoes in honor of Valentine's day (yes, any excuse will do). The flyer was an invitation to a shopping event at Nordstrom on Valentine's Day:

Join us for a "Rotic" Evening
What's Rotic? It's Romantic without the man!! Do you have plans? If not join the gals for a night of shopping!! Enjoy treats & a movie while shopping the latest trends!!

At first glance, I thought I was reading the word "erotic"! But instead "Romantic without the man"! I love it! As it turns out, I've had a standing "date" on Valentine's Day now for over 17 years, but if I didn't, I would have been at the Rotic event in a heartbeat. A shopping party! Seriously, who needs a man when there's shopping to be done?!

Valentine's Day is a fun holiday for kids--valentines and treats for everyone, no one gets their feelings hurt anymore. But no so for grown-ups, especially those who are still looking for their one and onlies. I'd be lying if I said I'd never been disappointed on a Valentine's Day. But then again, it's just a day.

In fact, I may be the first one in line at the next Rotic Valentine event.

25 Things: Redux

2009-02-12T11:34:00.001-06:00

Yes, they're everywhere! The 25 random things about me/you/your dog that no one wants to read anymore on Facebook and everywhere else! haha But just for those of my pals who aren't on FB, here you go:
Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. Between Kinder and 12th grade, I attended 7 different schools. And no, my father was not in the military. He just loved to move around.

2. I like eating sour cream just by itself.

3. I absolutely love to read. In 9th grade, my English teacher said something like “A person cannot consider himself well-read if he doesn’t read at least 2 books every month.” With the exception of college, when I had to read too much for all of my classes, I have consciously tried to meet and exceed her standard for the past 23 years.

4. I have 3 college degrees, all from the University of Texas at Austin. None have been particularly useful in my daily life, but I loved being a college student.

5. People who walk around with very expensive designer purses/shoes/whatever but complain to me that they can’t pay their mortgage/car/utility bills annoy me. I don’t feel sorry for them at all. I thank my parents for instilling in me a healthy sense of establishing priorities.

6. I have been a cake decorating/sugar art instructor since 1998, with a little time off in between to have some kids.

7. I was excessively shy growing up, compounded no doubt by constantly being the “new girl” at different schools, and finally found my own voice in college.

8. I have a mild fear of flying now that only developed when I was pregnant with my first child and has not gone away. Prior to that, I would hop on an airplane going anywhere like it was a city bus.

9. I discovered when I was 6 months pregnant with my first child that I love to scrapbook! My child’s earliest memories from the womb are probably of me frantically scrapbooking until 3 a.m. for the entire third trimester. I’ve also taught scrapbooking classes for Michaels.

10. I think the Internet is the greatest invention ever in my lifetime.

11. For a long time I used to love to collect random little “things” for various reasons. Over the years I’ve grown to dislike “things” around me and have to restrain myself from taking beloved “things” away from my kids. Seeing 40+ years worth of collected “things” all over (taking over) my in-laws’ house has cured me of “collecting” forever!

12. I have lived in 4 cities/towns in Texas plus Chicago and Seattle in my lifetime.

13. I wanted to have 2 girls, and God blessed me with 2 girls. I just didn’t know that they would be extremely different from one another!

14. I love to give things away, to friends and total strangers who can really use them. I also love to give birthday gifts and treats at different holidays. I get this from both of my parents, who would gladly give you the clothes off their back if you asked. I don’t care as much about receiving gifts and encourage my kids to “be a giver” by having no-gifts-please birthday parties each year. And seriously, they don’t care/haven’t noticed the difference! Other people think we are totally nuts, however.

15. I wish I could sing better. I love karaoke, and have a typical Asian karaoke setup that we almost never use.

16. I have been a Girl Scout Leader, on and off, since 2000, before I even had daughters of my own.

17. I am an INFJ.

18. I have known my husband since we were 16 years old, over half my lifetime. We’ve been married almost 11 years after dating/living together for 7 years. We complement each other because he likes to look at the big picture, whereas I am all about the tiny little details of life.

19. Motherhood is absolutely the hardest job I’ve ever had. I simultaneously love and despise it daily.

20. I was a Financial Aid Officer many years ago which pretty much made me immune to (crocodile) tears on students’ faces. They cried all the live long day.

21. I have not cleaned a bathtub or shower in my house since 2000 when my husband decided the fumes were bad for baby in utero, said he would do it himself, and hasn’t stopped since. I love this man.

22. I am an exercise hater. I only do it so I can fit into my clothes. I hear people say that exercise gives them so much energy, but it just makes me want to take a very long nap afterwards.

23. I would love to live in another country, not forever, but just a little while, with my family.

24. I recently learned that I’m part of the new “Gig Economy.” Some “gigs” from the past 9 years: custom cake designer, stationery/gifts Internet retailer, teaching classes in the evenings and weekends in different cities, supervisor/reader for an educational testing company from my laptop. All stuff that looks really odd on a resume.

25. I love to make lists.

Kitty Kouture

2009-02-06T13:40:00.000-06:00

If you've read my family blog, you might have guessed already that I heart Hello Kitty. Last month I was in the MAC store at the mall, and the salesperson mentioned that a new Hello Kitty line would be out at the beginning of February.

I had forgotten all about it until the other day, and rushed online to check it out, but they don't go on sale until next week. But I did get a sneak peek of the new line, and it's all soooooooo damn cute:

Photos from Temptalia.com

I think I'm going to want everything in this line. They even have non-cosmetic accesories, like a key clip and a bracelet too! Good think my birthday is just around the corner . . .

Just One Word

2009-02-02T12:45:00.000-06:00

Cool time-waster lifted from my friend Shannon's FB page.

USING ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think! Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers. Be sure to tag the person you received it from!

1. Where is your cell phone? car

2. Your significant other? dylan

3. Your hair? ok

4. Your mother? active

5. Your father? working

6. Your favorite thing? reading

7. Your dream last night? none

8. Your favorite drink? coke

9. Your dream/goal? happiness

10. What room are you in? office

11. Your hobby? scrapbooks

12. Your fear? regret

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? austin

14. Where were you last night? home

16. Muffins? chocolate

17. Wish list item? time

18. Where you grew up? texas

19. Last thing you did? drove

20. What are you wearing? sweatshirt

21. Your TV? digital

22. Your pets? none

23. Friends? wonderful

24. Your life? good

25. Your mood? mellow

26. Missing some one? nancy

27. Car? volkswagen

28. Something you're not wearing? bra

29. Your favorite store? nordstrom

30. Your favorite color? pink

33. When is the last time you laughed? today

34. Last time you cried? thurs

35. Who will resend this? few

36. One place that I go to over and over? costco

37. One person who emails me regularly? dallas

38. My favorite place to eat? chinese

39. Why you participated in this survey? interested

40. What are you doing tonight? teaching

Sad

2009-01-31T16:37:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite blogs to read daily has ended, and I feel so bereft. I loved it not because the blogger leads a glamorous life with exciting posts about her adventures around the world, but because she is a mom of 3 (although mostly grown) kids and loves to cook and putter around in her home. And she is a writer and I have such an affinity and admiration for those who make magic with words. She lives in one of my favorite cities in the world, in another country, and I loved all the local references to places there I have visited. I have never met this woman in my life, but feel like I know her and her family through her words and what she has shared of her life experiences. Very grateful for that as a total stranger given the privilege to know another total stranger but feel very connected.

She has decided to go "unplugged," disconnecting her Internet today and ending her blog after 16 months of posts about everything and anything. She writes:

Now I’m going to move on, unclench the tight grip this computer has over me and try to rediscover and enjoy other aspects of my life. Things that I have let fall by the wayside.

It is time for me to simplify.

That takes alot of courage and discipline! I know how much I depend on the Internet for my daily amusements and communications. But I admire her desire to simplify her life. I discovered her blog only a few months after she started it, and checking in with Meg became a natural part of my day, five minutes of chatty musings, recipes and inspiration from another Mom who'd already been through everything I am going through right now. The craziness of parenthood when the kids are small. And to know that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and the tunnel isn't as long as you think it is and someday you'll yearn for those days again as she often does.

I hope she'll leave her blog up anyway, for those days when I want the comfort of familiar words (like watching a favorite movie I've already seen a hundred times). I wish I could thank her, but she's never taken comments or emails so I just hope she realizes that there are many of us who loved visiting her peaceful, tranquil site.

"Porcelain Mary" and Other Etiquette Dilemmas

2009-01-29T17:03:00.000-06:00

Photo from Miss Conduct's blog

I love discovering new blogs that I really love. (Overuse of the word love?) I stumble upon other blogs all the time, independent or sponsored by some other entity, but rarely find one I want to revisit often. And I love when the blog has been around for a while, providing me with lots of entertaining backreading as well. Today, I happened upon Miss Conduct's Blog during some research on the subject of "etiquette" for my business blog.

Miss Conduct offers some very good advice about everyday etiquette; according to her bio, she writes a weekly advice column for the Boston Globe Magazine. People ask all sorts of questions, and I mean all sorts, and she answers them. And she has her own humorous anecdotes to relate. I have been laughing out loud for the better part of half an hour already.

I haven't backread very far yet, but here are two of my favorite "issues" so far: Popcorn at the Movies and Toilet Decor. I also like that her blog is regional (and not my own region of the country) and at the same time, universal. Good manners are never out of style anywhere, right?

I'm adding Miss Conduct to my list of faves today.

Love This

2009-01-26T00:37:00.000-06:00

I just love this pic! The NY Times chose such a charming, intimate photo for it's cover page. Can you just imagine what the First Couple were saying to each other as they walked the parade route?! I love how they're holding hands.

Youth . . . Optimism . . . Energy . . . Family . . . Hope

These are some of the words I heard used over and over again on Inauguration Day. It's going to be so nice to have a First Family with children near the same ages as mine. Everyone who has kids knows that kids help you keep it real. They connect you to the world in so many ways that you never expected before you had them.

And I so admire the Obamas for having a grandmother who lives with them, helping to raise the children. How many families in this country are struggling to find affordable, reliable child care and are yet cut off from family members who could help provide this kind of support? Because it truly takes a village to raise a child. Coming from an Asian background, it is nothing but natural to me to see a wise, helpful Grandma move in to help with kids. My own parents live over an hour away, but will come on a moment's notice if needed to help out in any way with the girls or our other every day needs. That's simply how it's done in our culture, and likely the same in traditional African American culture as well.

Icky

2009-01-22T22:51:00.000-06:00

From a blogger I follow daily and whose writing I admire, on watching Obama's inauguration:

The pastor is speaking now. He irritates me. He is sooo pompous and full of himself. I can feel huge ego emanating from him. Icky.

Thank God, he is done. Now Aretha Franklin is going to sing. Hopefully that will get the taste of that pastor out of my mouth.

YES, that is exactly how I felt watching him on Tuesday! Icky indeed. I am not into his books. I have never trusted him. Gave one of his books away when I received it as a gift (from someone I can't stand anyway).

I'm just glad Warren's bit part was at the beginning of the event rather than the end. The "rhyming reverend" Lowery gave a warm and even humorous (who says you can't smile and laugh in prayer?!) benediction to close out the event. Some have said his words were racist, but I wasn't offended (and I'm the "yellow" one). I liked him and his genuine words way more than Pastor Icky.

The Choice of a New Generation

2009-01-19T22:35:00.000-06:00

Michelle Obama, who've I written about before as my new "friend in my head," is about to receive the best 45th birthday present ever! She celebrated her real birthday two days ago, but can anyone argue that watching the husband you helped elect get sworn in as President of the United States isn't the most wonderful birthday gift?!

I am soooo excited about tomorrow and will spend as much of it in front of the TV witnessing history along with everyone else. I actually have friends who are in DC and will be part of the actual throng of well-wishers, but I'm ok with my front-row seat at home!

The voters of the United States of America did a very grown up thing last November by voting for change. Not the kind of change that looks and talks like what we already have right now, or at least for 12 or so more hours, but real change. You know it's a good thing when your friends in other countries are congratulating you and your nation for the choice we've made!

The thing about change, however, is that it always has to hurt a little bit. Or at least make us uncomfortable. I hope, when the post-inaugural euphoria dies down, that we don't give up immediately on Mr. Obama and the plans that he and his team have for us. I'm just so grateful that it's him at the helm, and hope everyone else will just get behind him for the long haul. Who knows what miracles will occur in the next four years?

New Pepsi . . .

Obama . . .

Old-school Pepsi

And now, slightly on- and off-topic: When I bought a twelve-pack of Pepsi in December because it was on sale, I noticed that the logo on the box and cans was new, in a retro-ish kind of way. Two seconds later I thought that it looked alot like the Obama campaign's logo. (Clever? Pepsi's capitalization of Obama's popularity? But if you think back (waaaaaay back), the Obama logo actually looks like the old Pepsi logo. The one you saw when you were about 4 years old on the one-liter bottles, the kind you never see anymore.)

Today, I remembered the slogan from the old Pepsi ads and commercials from the 80s. As Pepsi was then, so Obama is now: The Choice of a New Generation.

Enjoy tomorrow, y'all!

Images from Google Images

Plaid Stallions

2009-01-12T23:19:00.000-06:00

Getting sick always sucks. But being sick during the holidays really sucks. So unfair. I wish I could have a do-over for the two weeks I was "out" (and still officially not 100% yet). All the things I didn't get to do, the friends I didn't get to see. Oh well, enough complaining. My blog's been calling out to me, begging to be updated, but I've ignored it because, you guessed it, I've been feeling sick lately!

Today's post was going to be a rant about some aspect of volunteerism in the parenting sphere, but then I changed my mind because that would just depress us all. Saving that for later! haha

Instead, I guarantee that I will bring a smile to everyone's faces (who is actually reading this). Everyone, I present the blog I go to whenever I need an honest-to-goodness laugh: The Plaid Stallions. Both the blog and the website are seriously fall-out-of-your-chair and pee-in-your-pants funny if you were a child of the Seventies. If you weren't, then it might be mildly amusing or even downright confusing. But if you lived it, you will love it!

I think if I were a male with a little more time on my hands (ok, alot more time) then I could have dreamed up this website. As it is, I have been obsessed with catalogs since I was a child. Obsessed. Apparently, so was the owner of Plaid Stallions. The only difference is that he kept alot of his catalogs and keeps finding more, and I don't have any of mine because my Mom threw them away.

The website name is Plaid Stallions: Rambling and Reflections on 70s Pop Culture. Plaid Stallions, in it's own words, is "mocking the seventies a catalog page at a time." Seventies toys, fashions, housewares, Halloween costumes, etc. are all there in living catalog color and even some vintage TV commercials. The blog is a daily feast of 70s gems such as:

and this:

(For more 70s "fashion" commentary, see my earlier post about this on my other blog.)

It's not always cheesy fun though. Sometimes I just have to smile really big when I see the toys from my childhood so lovingly revered:

I LOVED THIS TOY! I still have it, my girls play with it, and the elevator still works!

Received excitedly some of this for Christmas, either 1977 or 1978, only to have my Mom give it to the neighbor's child when we moved away. Still mourning the loss 30 years later.

And some days I even feel sad (again) about the toys I desperately wanted but never could convince my Mom to buy:

Barbie Airplane, as seen briefly at a birthday party in the mid-70s and always wanted, even now!

This website and blog brings back memories of pretty much my entire 70s life-- what my parents wore, what my brother and I played with for a whole decade, what we watched on TV, the colors and textures of the world around me.

It's Never What We Think It Is

2008-12-31T17:27:00.000-06:00

On the last day of 2008, one more disappointment pertinent to this blog: one of my favorite blogs, Mrs. O, is a fake. The New York Times has found them out. Mrs. O is not simply a blog by a well-informed, well-researched fashion-obsessed fan. It's a marketing tool for a global advertising agency, BBH, written by one of its employees.

I think I might have to remove Mrs. O from my faves list. Knowing it's just another piece of the marketing puzzle makes it not so clever anymore. I feel duped. At least I hadn't gone to Target yet for the oh-so-enthusiastically reviewed Thakoon pieces!

But I still heart Mrs. Obama, if not Mrs. O.

Christmas Eve Boots

2008-12-29T03:44:00.000-06:00

Photo successfully snapped by Thalia on take #3 and actually did not cut off our heads!

Dylan and I in our Christmas Eve finery! Dylan, wearing the shirt he bought on his birthday and one of many Snoopy ties, and I in my just-bought-that-day sweater dress. Do we look our ages?! Do we look hip?! Ha!

I think my pointy-toe, high-heeled boots really made my outfit:

I just love wearing them, but not very often because you can't chase after a bunch of kids with them on! Yes, that's me taking a pic of my own boots while I'm wearing them . . . .

That evening, we went to the Children's Mass at church and then to Magic Time Machine for what is becoming a yearly tradition for us--Christmas Eve dinner with costumed character waiters! This time it was Captain Jack Sparrow, and he was the best waiter we've had yet. Very much "in character." Lots of food, bubbly potion and merriment enjoyed by all.

In the Doghouse, Or Memories of Hubby's Gifts Gone By

2008-12-25T16:56:00.001-06:00

I meant to post this days and days ago after telling my friend Amy about it. This is in memory of all the "doghouse" gifts I've received from my better half over the years. And there have been many, many of them. Oh my yes.

I was cracking up watching this video with Dylan, and then realized that I have actually been the lucky recipient of some of those gifts! Ha!

The last few seconds of the video are kind of lame, but the video on the whole is quite brilliant. Cheers!

Just a Girl Who Once Fell in Love with a Boy

2008-12-22T16:31:00.000-06:00

The Lovings of Virginia

Dylan and I have been married since 1998-- 10 whole years of (mostly) wedded bliss! When we married in May 1998, a marriage between someone like him and someone like me had been legal in this country for not quite 30 years. When I say "someone like him," I mean a Caucasian American male, and "someone like me" being an Asian American female. In the same year that my husband's parents married, 1966, it would have been quite illegal for Dylan and I to do the same in many states. Amazing and sad and true.

I was reminded of all of this today when I was reading an online tribute to famous people who died in 2009. One of those people was Mildred Loving, who passed away in May of this year. I would guess that very few people knew who she was. I learned about Mildred Loving in college while writing a paper on interracial marriages in the U.S. in the 20th century for a US history course. In 1958 Mildred Jeter, a black woman, married Richard Loving, a white man, in Washington DC, where it was legal to do so, and then drove home to Virginia, where it was not. They were in jail within a month. They avoided a one year prison sentence by agreeing to leave the state of Virginia for 25 years. And their marriage was still considered illegal in over half of the states.

In 1967, the US Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia that all anti-miscegenation rules were unconstitutional, ending the Lovings' 4 year legal battle to be able to return to the place they knew as home in Virginia. For eight years, the Lovings lived happily ever after, until Richard Loving was killed by a drunk driver. They had been married for 17 years.

Mildred preferred to stay away from the limelight for the rest of her life. She also said that "you see so many" interracial couples now, that they hardly turn heads or cause comment anymore. However, last year on the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, she issued a rare public comment on same-sex marriages:

Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the "wrong kind of person" for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about.

It's a privilege to be married to my husband, whom I chose to marry and who chose to marry me, and how fortunate we are to have been given that freedom in the first place. Today I am thankful for the Lovings and their marriage, which got us to where we are today. Mildred and Richard could have lived out the rest of their marriage under the radar, in exile from the place they called home, but chose instead to fight for the right of any woman to marry any man she loves anywhere in this country.

Dylan & Melissa

It's amazing to me as well that we have our new President-elect Obama who is himself the product of a biracial marriage (fortunately his parents lived in one of the handful of states that never enacted anti-miscegenation laws). How far our society has come to catch up with the reality of courtship and marriage, that love is color-blind, however cliche that is, and can't be reined in by rules or definitions of what is socially acceptable. Mildred Loving was, in her own words, "just a girl who once fell in love with a guy."