I Don't Know

Sorry I haven't updated for a few days. I have been having the most wonderful time turning 34!

I can attest to the fact that when it is your birthday and people ask you, "What do you want?" "I don't know" is not the best answer because then you really won't get anything. Seriously! I don't know what I want. I am content with life and with what I have, I truly don't know what I want for my birthday. Aside from world peace, long and happy life, I can't come up with a thing I want.

I managed to get quite a few things on my birthday for someone who doesn't know. When forced to come up with something, I answered that I'd rather have chocolate cake with Boston creme in the middle served with Vanilla ice cream. I want to eat it in bed watching Gilmore Girls. That's exactly what I got. My husband made a special trip to the grocery store for me when I finally said late in the day. He's the best husband ever!

It is now official. I am very boring. I am happy to be boring.

What I really wanted for my birthday is to finish watching Gilmore Girls so I am all caught up. I have finished seasons 1-3. Considering that there's over 15 hours of shows per season, we can safely guess where my nose have been glued to these past few weeks. Sometimes, having this obsessive personality can be a pain. A normal person would probably watch this show to the tune of 1 DVD a week. I managed to cram in the third season in 3 days. Enough said.

We have managed to walked 12+ miles since Saturday. All of us! DS4 and DS3 were on strollers, but still, twelve miles together is wonderful. After we've been to our Lake trail skating, or biking, stopped by a different mall to walk, we have decided that being in our regular mile-long mall is the best Mall to be walking.

My daughter's taking a TAG (Talented and Gifted) test this Saturday and a birthday party later on in the day. On Wednesday, I have a date to meet with my favorite cousin at the airport. She's going home for good, because she couldn't bring all of her family with her in the states.

Books Read in 2007

**Books Finished in 2006**

Ratings:
1 = I don't recommend
2 = barely finished it, my OCD told me to
3 = good while you're reading it
4 = compelling, must finished
5 = have to finish now, and it's a keeper

* = Audio
17. The Miracles of Santo Fico - Dennis Smith/4*
16. Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffeneger/5*
15. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield/4
14. The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell/4
13. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery/4*
12. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini/5*
11. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer/4
10. Cross Bones - Kathy Reichs/3*
9. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer/5
8. Hot Ice - Nora Roberts/3*
7. Sweetwater Creek - Anne Rivers Siddons/3*
6. The Vampire Who Loves Me - Teresa Madeiros/1
5. Lucky - Alice Sebold/4
4. Deadly Love - Brenda Joyce/3
3. Pleasure for Pleasure - Eloisa James/5
2. The Boy Next Door - Meggin Cabot/4
1. Bone Cold - Erica Spindler/3

Movies Seen at Home, 2007

¤ 2006 complete list

20. The Village
19. Gilmore Girls Season 5
18. Zathura
17. Gilmore Girls Season 4
16. The Turning of the Screw - Collin Firth
15. The Prestige - Hugh Jackman
14. Illusionist - Edward Norton
13. Gilmore Girls Season 3
12. Gilmore Girls Season 2
11. Gilmore Girls Season 1
10. Nora Roberts Angel Falls
9. Nora Roverts Montana Sky
8. A History of Violence - Viggo Mortensen
7. Empire Falls - Ed Harris
6. The White Countess - Ralph Fiennes
5. The Goodbye Girl - Jeff Daniels
4. Kung Pow - Steve Oedekerk
3. March of the Penguin - documentary
2. Matador - Pierce Brosnan
1. Friends with Money - Jennifer Aniston

Movies at the Theater, 2007

7. Frank Miller's 300 - Gerard Butler

6. Music and Lyrics - Hugh Grant

I can really see the charms of Hugh Grant in this movie. When everyone was all agog over Four Weddings and a Funeral, I couldn't see it. It might have to do with me not seeing the movie in its entirety, but no matter. I have decided to go all out and chase all of his all movie. He's appealing!

5. The Breach - Chris Cooper

Great suspense movie, character driven. I think. The events were straightforward. The first movie in which DH and I smuggled Chipotle dinner. Both were great!

4. Letters from Iwo Jima - Ken Watanabe

This one took me by surprise. It is subtitled movie, unless you're speaking Japanese. Clint Eastwood does a great job seeing the war through the Japanese eyes. Very touching, and brutal at times too. A must see! I must say that I fell asleep the first 30 minutes of it because I had several nights of short sleep due to catching up on Gilmore Girls.

3. The Pursuit of Happyness - Will Smith

It's Will Smith. That says it all for me. He's great actor, and he picks great script. I shed a tear or two. We saw this at a dinner theater. For the first time, we were eating real meal in a movie theater. Wow!

2. Smokin' Aces - Ben Affleck

I am still confused how this movie missed being great with tons of great cast. Somebody, explain it to me!

1. Mel Gibson's Apocalypto - Rudy Youngblood

I love it! It's Mel Gibson, so it's gory. It's intense. A must see!

Serendipity

Serendipity is when you're having fun looking at Saturday Photo Hunt pictures and finding out that there might be an opportunity to make money while blogging.

I was at this link: http://feverishthoughts.com/2007/02/17/antique-roses/#comment-16008
when I found out about PayPerPost. It's a fantastic idea. Why not try it?

Tricia's picture of her antique rose is below. It's beautiful! I love roses; I even have a few tea roses. However, antique rose rules because of it's wonderful aroma. It's truly serendipitous when one imagines a rose and finds out that there might be money to blogging.

Wordless Wednesday #10

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Photo Hunt #19 - Soft

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My daughter updated her podcast. She's doing weird news. You can listen to it by playing the selections on the podcast player on the right side. Choose the 2nd on down. The first one is her favorite Pokemon, which I am quite clueless. I like the news of the weird. Or is it weird news?

My baby is eleven months old. He loves to grab grown up food and eat it. He loves to dance. You can tell he's dancing as his butt shakes up and down to the beat. I am very sure his "Higa" is hello, and "Hag" is hi.

Oh, I'll be 34 in two days. Thing about birthdays after 30 is I try to keep a low profile because it's kind of embarrassing to be this old and still having birthday party. I like to have party for my kids, but I'd rather be having a quiet time doing things I love on my birthday.

Congrats to my Sweet Girl, she's on A Honor Roll! DS1 also has A average. They're both doing so well in school, we are proud of their efforts. Hurray for my darlings! Or should that be DH and I?

This is my DS1. The clay figure he's holding up? It was wonderful! Except it was soft, and DS3 amputated it.

I've Been Reviewed

I wanted to put up this picture, even though it will probably make my blog load that much slower.

This is my first review. I pimped myself to them, so click on the picture above to read the review. I didn't do too badly. I think. What do you think?

On the other hand, my darling husband had a dream. It's about our old neighborhood*, and how he'd found out one of our sexy neighbors was a prostitute/call-girl or as Lightning Bugs Butt would say, "sex worker."

He said they bumped into each other, and he got curious about how much does a "sex worker" make. She said it is 70$ an hour. He had heard about call-girls costing thousands of dollars a night. When he heard this, he thought, "That's reasonable!"

What do you think of that? Should I go hunt up our old neighborhood to see if we have "sex worker" out there?


*We lived there for a short time over 13 years ago.

Thursday Thirteen #17 - Happy Birthday, Papa!

Random things about my father. This is sad, Thursday thirteen will be no more. This is it. The End.

1. On Friday, my father is going to be 60 years old.

2. Happy birthday, Papa!

3. My birthday is 3 days after his. So, happy birthday to me on Monday!

4. Papa was 26 when I was born. Here he is with my mother.

5. He's the youngest of 12 siblings, I think. I haven't really met all of my aunts and Uncle on his side of the family.

6. I'm glad to have a father, he was always fair to me when I was a child.

7. Thank you, Papa for the talk about sting rays and men.

8. My husband made me promise not to tell the stingray and men conversation with our only daughter.

9. I am his eldest daughter. I guess that would make me his favorite. :P

10. Thank you for all the Toblerones, Papa. It's still my favorite chocolate.

12. Thank you for the Barbie dolls, long before it's "cool" to have a Barbie anything.

13. Thank you for being fair when it comes to punishment. I still can't figure out why I have to choose between 1, 3 and 5. Of course, I'll always choose 1 if I really have to choose.

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Wordless Wednesday #9

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What if Hillary Won?

It would be like living with your bossy, know-it-all mother-in-law from hell. I don't know what that feels like really. My MIL leaves me pretty much alone, except for a few times that she tarnish with the same brush my husband and my asshole of a non-FIL.

It would be nice to have a "woman" president for the US, but perhaps Hilary might not be an ideal choice. What family values does she bring? The biggest message would be to stay with your husband who fucks around because he has money and power. That fidelity is not that important, fame is.

Maybe we can look on it as a plus. Divorce rate might actually go down, and some divorce lawyers will go out of job.

On the other hand, what's to stop husbands from pulling a Clinton? If our role-model can do it; why not the ordinary people? Aren't those in power supposed to be a representative of the people?

On the other hand, what does fidelity and being married have to do with the presidency? Maybe Hilary will be the first divorce, woman president of the US. That's like two "firsts" at once. Could you blame her for dumping Bill after he'd humiliated her so publicly?

More importantly, what had she accomplish on her own without riding on her husband's coattails? Was I asking the wrong question here?

Random Points

§ While we were walking at the mall today, I noticed a lot of signs in some clothing store. Baby Sale and at another Kids + Baby Sale. I almost called my SIL who's waiting to adopt. Unfortunately, when I looked the store have run out of babies or kids. I didn't see a single child there. There were a lot of clothing though. The signs were a tad misleading.

§ We walked our 6 miles plus. DS2 did a wonderful job walking that long. He was mad and frustrated and even shed a tear or two. He wanted to quit so badly. Into our 3rd mile, DS4 wanted to be cuddled. We bought some cotton candy and pop corn. On the way home, I stopped by Sams and grabbed some pizza, pretzel, water and a few other stuff.

§ It's very helpful to have my Maya Wrap on our walks. I put my cranky baby in it and I still have a hand free to push his stroller. He's tight and snug against my chest and off to sleep he goes. If you put the maya wrap just right, your shoulders would never feel the weight of 20 pounds for 90 minutes or more. It's the single, most amazing wrap I have tried. I bought quite a few and this one works best. I have this for over 5 years now, and it has been used with 3 babies already. I used this one when I traveled to the Philippines after DS2 to attend my sister's wedding. This pattern on the left is the fabric I have. It's something "Jamaica," according to a friend who publishes a Quilting Arts Magazine. I wish I could remember precisely what she called it.

§ Have you seen the new Ford commercial? It's the one with a car driving on a ledge. What were they thinking? I mean, really. I would like to know whom that particular ad is targeted to. Beavis and Butthead? I don't know what message the other people are getting, all I hear is "Look at Ford, it's an accident waiting to happen!"

§ I was sitting at a food court the other day enjoying my Cajun chicken when a horrible smell assailed my nose. I had to check myself to make sure I didn't land on my bathroom with a dirty diaper about to be dealt with. The stink was that bad. I looked around me and saw an overweight family of four. I did not think they'd go to the mall with a dirty butt, unless all of them are suffering from nose malfunction. I was confused where the smell could be coming from. I discreetly sniff myself thinking I might have some dirty-diaper badge on my clothing, but it's not. I smell of Victoria Secrets spa collection. I finally started checked out what this family was eating.

Sbarro Pizza. Is it just me or the powdered mozzarella smells like poop unless you're prepared to picture it on a pizza first. It's one of those aromas which are not endearing at all when it ambushed you like that.

§ I was getting new prescription glasses because the old one was making me sea-sick. It's like being pregnant without a baby. The only thing is, I'm speculating on that morning-sickness. I never had it. What I got during pregnancies is all-day-sleepiness. There was a slight change in my prescription. My doctor thinks I shouldn't have felt it. I did, and now I am 300 dollars poorer.

However, I got a new pair of Tommy H glasses and an almost life-story of my beautiful Brazilian sales person. It's funny how some story just pours out of a person if you lend an ear while fitting frames. Hers was a tale of love and lost, and sacrifices made for career's sake. She's 35 now and wanting a child and husband who can buy a house. I'm sitting here trying to think if I have some free time to match-make for her. Preferably someone with a job, she felt strongly about someone with a job, and an income which can afford a house.

My Photo Hunt #18 - Antique

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Antique is usually defined as item that is over 100 years old, but around 80s, it's been defined as anything made before the outbreak of the second world war, pre-1940s.

I don't pay attention to these things. I wouldn't know an antique if it walks up to me and ask me to sit. So, going along the second, modernistic definition of antique, I give you the picture below.

This is the eldest of my mother's 6 sisters. It's really sad, but I am not sure what year she's born. I don't have a digital picture of my grandpa who's born in 1912. My Granpa might have been 22* years old when my Auntie Desideria was born. Here she is with her first-born's daughter, Darling. She is not an antique, she's my neice. No disrespect intended here. My Auntie Ceding is just the oldest person I have on digital picture at the moment.




*I realized my mother is sleeping here tonight, so I went and woke her up to ask when my aunt was born. She wasn't quite asleep, my baby woke her up, so I asked. Gad! What kind of child would wake up her mother for a photo hunt post information?!

Thursday Thirteen #16 - Minestrone

This week, I'm going to share with you my favorite and easy Minestrone recipe. My kids love it, and I love it. It tastes great, and for least amount of effort. Just the type of dish I like to make lately.

It has 13 ingredients, plus the cheese. If you don't have Northern beans, you can replace it with some white beans, and for kidney beans, another reddish-looking beans.

1. 1 cup thinly sliced celery, about 1 small stalk
2. 1 cup sliced zucchini, about 1 small
3. 1 cup shredded cabbage
4. 1/2 cup chopped onion, about 1 medium
5. 1/2 cup uncooked elbow macaroni, or broken up spaghetti
6. 1 1/4 cup water
7. 2 tsp vegetable bouillon granules
8. 1 tsp Italian seasoning
9. 1 clove garlic, crushed
10. 1 can (28 oz) whole tomatoes, undrained
11. 1 can (15 oz) Great Northern beans, undrained
12. 1 can (8 oz) kidney beans, undrained
13. 1 can (8 oz) whole kernel corn, undrained

and grated Parmesan cheese

Heat all ingredients except cheese to boiling in Dutch oven, breaking up tomatoes; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until macaroni is tender. Serve with cheese.

6 servings
305 cal/serving
3 g fat/serving

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Wordless Wednesday Vol. 8

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On Sizes and Mr. Heinz

DS3 is learning sizes. We usually show him two objects and ask him which is bigger or smaller. Usually he knows. He pays close attention when we're talking ice cream or chocolates. Today, he came to me with some coins, and climb on my lap to show me. I took the opportunity to do a little learning.

Me: Ohh, you have money!
DS3: I have quarters.
Me: This is a penny (pointing to the 1 cent) and this is a nickel (pointing to 5 cents)!
DS3: I have coins.
Me: Yes you do! Which is bigger? This nickel or this penny? (I'm thinking he can learn sizes)
DS3: These are money!
Me: Yes, this is money. Which is bigger? This 5 cents or this 1 cent?
DS3: Quarters!

There you have our most elucidating conversation.

***
I was trying out Mr. Heinz Green Beans jar of food. I sometimes would taste my baby's food just to see what he's eating. I would sniff it to make sure it taste ok. This particular flavor was smoked. I thought how sweet of Mr. Heinz to add smokey flavor to the jar. I tasted it, and yuckity-yack! This one is burnt. I am thinking this batch was scorch and they made it into baby's first food anyway.

That's wasn't well done of Mr. Heinz, one of the most trusted First Baby Food the world over. This green beans smells burned, and tasted just as horrible! What were they thinking? That babies can't complain? Well, I can. I don't want to feed my baby burned anything.

My Photo Hunt #17 - Broken

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This is what a family-sized bag of potato chips look like after my baby is done playing with it.

What is IT Called Again?

One writer called it a very disappointing age for a child. They go from being a ruler of all things, where a single noise is scrutinized and analyzed and delivered to the best of interpretation to a disappointing boundaries and discipline issues at every turn. I am talking about terrible twos.

I never really paid it much attention. Even though my daughter, my first-born can scream with the best of them, repeatedly jumped out of her crib at age 6-7 months so she was promoted to a real bed at such an age, even though she can climb the highest shelves or counter, I don't remember her as obnoxious as my third darling son, DS3.

She's 15 months old when DS1 was born. I remember she immediately stopped talking and only communicated with me in the same manner as a newborn, and she started crawling even though she'd been walking since 8 months.

I don't recall her pushing and roughing up her little brother around. Maybe it is true what they said. Same-sex, close-gapped children tend to be best of friends and worst of enemies. My two little sisters, who are darling angels apart, go into fight mood within minutes of being in the same room. They can get into fight in a snap and make up just as fast.

My brother and I hardly ever fight. We get along well, compared to our two little sisters. The ironies of it are their names. They're Happy and Love. I was Girlie. I have issues with being Girlie with my little sisters are "Happy" and "Love." Was it to much to ask to have a nickname which matches? Why wasn't I called patience, joy, or ecstasy?

Ok, back to my DS3. He's tall and slightly built, but he's so loud. He can yodel with the best of them. I am thinking of signing him up for cadet or ROTC because he's got the voice box for it. Last night he had a fit because I brought him home after a visit from Lola's house before he was ready. When he's unhappy, I think my SIL can hear him all the way from Oklahoma. It is really hard to tell because my ears are ringing so loud with his unhappiness.

He also seems to think that DS4, the baby, is punching Bob. He'd be walking along and the baby practicing his walk when DS3 will just reach over and tip him. Isn't there a sport somewhere about cow-tipping? If I didn't know any better, I'd think he's practicing for the Olympics on tipping.

There's a lot of flying train accidents too when my back is turned. DS4 is sporting lots of bruises about that. I hesitate to overtly punish him because that would be paying attention to his misbehavior. My husband and I try to give him lots of compliments when he's being nice to the baby.

I also noticed that as smart at repeating as he is, he pretty much ignore anybody who tries to make him repeat about "being gentle to baby." He'll reply with "I want milk, please." Not even chocolate currency works on that one.

It's not as bad as Itchy and Scratchy, but I would really like to try something new on this one before it becomes a real issue.

I don't know how many readers I have out there who have children, or knows children, or even if you don't have children, have something to say about terrible twos, please, feel free to share anything. Anything is better than nothing at this rate.

Thursday Thirteen #15

Random thirteen things about Gilmore Girls, Season 1.

1. I love the show!

2. At first I was turned off with the irreverence of Rory for her mother.

3. When I give it a second chance, I am hooked!

4. I think Tristin is cute!

5. I love Sookie!

6. Dean is cute! But only on the show. On the interview portion of the DVDs, he doesn't look anywhere near cute!

8. Superman showed up in the episode playing a strange man in a Bangles concert.

9. I would totally veg out one CD per Saturday night and watch all episodes in that CD. Some Sunday morning, I was barely human sustaining on 30 minutes of sleep before my kids woke up.

10. The dialogue...oh the dialogue is to die for! The delivery? Brilliant!

11. Is Jackson gay?

12. Luke is cute with his unrequited love.

13. Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham are beautiful!

Like I said, it's random. I have a huge headache, and I am pouting because my eyes are too much achy to watch the next season right away. I think it's time to make a trip to the eye doctor.


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Wordless Wednesday Vol. 7

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Push or Encourage?

Last Sunday, my first two kids took a Music Theory Exam along with 700+ other kids. Their piano teacher, Ms. Nancy, encourage them to take it so they could be the same level in their music as well as their school grade. It's a great idea. I do think my kids plays better piano than I can now. They're only ages 9 and 8.

Leaving my 5 and 2 years old with my husband, I herded the other three to a nearby university to take the test. We left early to have plenty of time to find the place. It wasn't too bad. Google map and a phone call to a few people confirmed my destination the week before.

What really surprised me when I arrive was the sheer number of Asian family milling around the lobby. I kid you not. It was like an Asian parents convention. About 80 percent of the early arrivals were Asian. Asians every where. I am surprised, and at the same time, not.

It's been known that an Asian parents will push their kids more than the others. It's the stereotype anyway. I said stereotype because I and other Asian parents I know are not THAT bad in pushing their kids.

I don't push. I encourage. There's a big difference you know. I would never spank my child just because they don't want to have an 'A' average. I take away fun things like shopping for the 7th set of Pokemon cards, and they might also missed the newest Disney movie release...but I believe it's not the same thing.

My husband and I think of it as a reward system. The kid who maintains an A average, and does their homework on a timely manner gets a lot of "incentive" as opposed to the kid who never does anything on time. I try not to say anything negative. What's the point in that.

DH and I are also softies. Which means that my kids who doesn't care for homework very much gets rewarded sometimes because our softy parent hearts cannot stand the disappointed look. I hope my kids are not on to us.

I'm still learning every day how to encourage without being pushy. It's a fine balance to walk on.

My Photo Hunt #16 - Gross

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Here We Are Again

Do you remember that love song from 80's? I think Peter Cetera sung it. I love his songs. He's the album I reached for if I wanted to be dramatic in love. I have the lyrics below, just in case you know the tune and wants to sing along. I'm like that. I hear a line, and a song goes in my head. It's annoying sometimes, because I really wanted to talk about the book which arrive today. Actually, I received two books. I thought the first seller cancelled, and I decided I have enough of waiting, and bought another one. It turned out the first seller didn't cancel, and now I have two of the same books.

As a side note, my friend in New Zealand, Tart, tried to send me this book twice with chocolates! It never arrive. Turned out she had to declare the chocolates or the book is dead mail. I wonder if NZ post office burned my book along with my chocolates? They could have at least sent the chocolates over! That was over a year ago. What a waste of good book that was...and I am not even going to start on the chocolate. I was pregnant with DS4 then and I really wanted that New Zealand chocolates. Being a good and perceptive person that she is, she sent me some. I could have cried. I didn't get either.

The Summer Garden by Paullina Simons is the book I am talking about. It's not publish in the states at all. It takes extra effort to get it. The first in the series is The Bronze Horseman, then Tatiana and Alexander. These are long books, but they are really great books. You get history, you get romance, you get fantastic sex, you get angst, and just about everything in between. It will make your heart race, it will make you mad, it will also make you sigh with love.

My friends over at The Book Bitches are nuts for this book. One more than the other, I think. Actually, that's saying it mildly. She's insane about this book. In a good way, I think. She's the reason why I went all out and ordered this book overseas because I can't find it on my usual hunts. I almost paid 50 bucks for it from Australia. Whew.

So, if you ever feel like going on a grand adventure, witness and get involve in an epic tale of love and war and treachery, you can't find anything better than this series of books.

I do believe this songs goes with the series too! Now, stack up on chocolates, tissues, and find a most comforatable spot and start reading.

After All by Peter Cetera

Well, here we are again;
I guess it must be fate.
We've tried it on our own,
But deep inside we've known
We'd be back to set things straight.

I still remember when
Your kiss was so brand new.
Every memory repeats,
Every step I take retreats,
Every journey always brings me back to you.

CHORUS
After All the stops and starts,
We keep coming back to these two hearts,
Two angels who've been rescued from the fall.
After All that we've been through,
It all comes down to me and you.
I guess it's meant to be,
Forever you and me, After All.

When love is truly right
(This time it's truly right.)
It lives from year to year.
It changes as it goes,
Oh, and on the way it grows,
But it never disappears,

CHORUS

Always just beyond my touch,
You know I needed you so much.
After All, what else is livin' for?
CHORUS