2 kids or more?

I was thinking out loud about this subject. Some of you might be not agree to what I said here. But this is my blog and I can say whatever I want right :D

Anyway, I was looking at some people who has big family.. more than 2 kids.. Sometime I'm amazed how the mom can do it without any helper from nanny or driver (in US).

I was thinking and debating whether I want the third child or not. After thinking for months now, I decided I think 2 is enough. Why? Because I want to give the best for them, make sure they have all the best from both parents.

Like for example, Carissa.. our first child.. she has all the best possibilities that she could get. Great early childhood education, great attention from both of us, I think we can afford 2 kids with great education. I don't think we can afford more than 2. I don't want our 3rd and 4th to have lousy education and attention from us IF we have the third and fourth.

I just want to give them the best of everything....

Home Sweet Home

Hi All! :)

I know it's been a while since I updated this blog. So the new news is, Erica & the boys already moved out last weekend. So now we have the house to ourselves again.

After they moved, we will still keep the basement bed down there for guest. I bought a new bedding from Target. It was on sale for only $55! Great deal.


Also, we are preparing the baby room right now. Tomorrow my mother in law will come to repaint the room :). So excited!

Today I cleaned the laundry room.. it's been a while since I cleaned it. It's nice and spacious again :D

I will take picture the before and after of the baby room :). I'm so excited about the baby room :D The color would be blueish white with soft sage green on the bottom half.

Dream Kitchen Upgrade

No idea why but suddenly I have the urge to upgrade my kitchen. It's pretty brand new, but we didn't custom build it. We're the second owner, anyway I was playing with the kitchen builder from Lowes.com site and got addicted. This is the exact size of our kitchen. As you see I don't have that many space to work with.

BUT i think adding a peninsula would be a great idea, so Icha can help me cook :) and eat while I'm cooking. No idea when are we gonna be able to do this.. but I bet if we can replaced the countertop to black granite and stainless steels appliances and sink. Our house value will increase.

Hmmm.... isn't it look nice tho??!! come on... :D I wish that I could win a lottery right now :D

Cendol!!!

Such a hard work just to make this authentic Indonesian Dessert called Cendol.

Based on wikipedia, cendol is:
Cendol [pronounced 'chen-doll'] is a traditional dessert originating from Jakarta, Indonesia[citation needed], but is also popular in Singapore, Malaysia[1], and Southern Thailand (where it is called lortchorng singapore ลอดช่องสิงคโปร์). The dessert's basic ingredients consist of coconut milk, starch noodles with green food coloring (usually sourced from the pandan leaf), and palm sugar.

It took me about 1/2 hr to just make this lil wormy jellies!!! hahahahaha. So proud of myself :D

New Desk!! Finally!!

I was looking for a decent computer desk forever! before we used the spare kitchen table that we had since I was in college as a computer table in out kitchen. But it's rounded dining table, so it's not that pretty.

1 Month ago, I saw an ads at Target this black anywhere desk table for $75. But they always out of stock, everywhere! so finally I got the rain check coupon, and bought it today :). It's easy to ensamble and looks so pretty!! :) LOVE IT!!!

Allrecipes.com

Here's another tips for you fellow blogger out there.

I realized how sometimes we went grocery shopping without any meals plan for the week, we ended up buying stuff that we don't use and became a waste of money!

So I use Allrecipes.com to actually create menu for the week, and once you're done putting together 10 or 12 meals for the week, and then you can click "print shopping list" button. Allrecipes.com automatically generate the shopping list for you! it's amazing!

Believe it or not, this way you only spend about 50-60 bucks per week for 2 meals per day. For 6 people is really cheap.

For tonight I made Mexican Chicken and it is so good! here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 (3 pound) chicken - cooked, deboned and cut into bite size pieces
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
• 8 (6 inch) corn tortillas
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl combine the chicken, onion, garlic, 2 tablespoons chili powder and salt. Add the tomatoes with chiles and the Cheddar cheese. Mix well. (I stir-fry it instead of just mixing them)
   
3. Line a 9x13 inch baking dish with corn tortillas. Pour in the chicken mixture. Pour soup over all and spread. Sprinkle with additional chili powder for topping. Bake for 40 minutes or until bubbly. Let cool and serve with dollops of sour cream.

Men... you can't live with them, can't live without them

Sometimes I wonder why we love our husband so much but yet we neat picking them to the T. When they do good stuff for us, we think "oo yeah he's nice... BUT wish he will do it more often". Or they do help us with clean up or dishes.. but YET we still think he does it once in a blue moon.

I just don't get it why we do that? maybe not all women like me, but c'mone girls.. admit it!

Sometimes I do prefer do it myself because I have certain stuff with certain way to do it. But at the same time you want them to help out more. *sigh*

So hard... everyone said men are the simplest creature. Yes they are, but I don't like telling people what to do. I always think it's suppose to be a common sense.. if laundry hamper is full it means take it downstairs and do your laundry. Nope.. guy prefer to see a full hamper and overflow to the floor and wait till they're out of boxer or socks. Then they will ask "Honey, I ran out of white socks" and maybe he was just informing me, but all I heard is "WOMAN! do laundry!"

*sigh* Do you know the dishwasher is next to the sink in the kitchen? REALLY??!?!! yes!!! they design it that way, so once you have done rinse the dishes.. you can put it in the dishwasher right away! OH MY... hormone.. I'm blaming all of these to hormone.

I love my husband to death... *sigh* why women has to be so critical. Sometimes I wonder why can I be just like men... where I don't need to care about the dishes piles up and it can wait. Or they can navigate to a messy room without having any intention to pick up the mess.

Okay I'm done ranting... I bet Carson will be mad at me when he read this post.

My First Mowing Job

 

 

Tired of waiting for Carson to spare some of his time to mow.. I decided to give t a try. It looks so easy when Carson does it.. So I got the lawn mower out, tried to turn it on.. twice.. didn't work.. this time I press the red thingy and pull the string. It works! yay.. so I start pushing.. gosh.. it's heavy!!!

1 round... and I was thinking.. it's hot and there's no way I can do this.. but I'm that kinda person who doesn't like to stop working half way done. So with 2 breaks I finally finished the back yard.

Now went to the front yard.. at least our front yard is much smaller than the back! thank God for that! There you go.. my first time mowing our lawn :) not too bad huh!

SF Trip

Last weekend, I went to SF with my brother to attend one of our friends wedding.

The trip was great, the wedding was awesome... overall it was fun.

But there are some ridiculously crazy about big city. I think it's just because I live in a small town too long. But I don't regret it.

Here are some facts that I thought it's ridiculous:
- Toll fee to enter SF is $4.
- they only have 2 main bridge to go outside SF
- parking meter cost $1.25/hr (while ames only cost 25 cents for 1 hrs and 15 mins)
- Speed limit say 50mph but people drive 80-90 mph
- You have to pay for parking at the hotel even though you stay at the hotel

Okay I have to get carissa from her class.. I will tell more story later. :)

My new family :)

The boys finally moved in with us!! :) okay let me give you the background story behind all this.

Carson's sister and her two boys lived in Waterloo, Iowa. The town is not a really good place to raise a family, too many crimes going on and honestly the Ames school system is WAYY much better than waterloo. PLUS Carson loves these 2 boys so much that he wants them to go to school in Ames so he can help them with their education and sports.

At first I said YES the very first time Carson asked my opinion about them moving in with us. I grew up with my dad always took people into our house. So for me to take a family (our family) to our house is not a problem at all. We even took a stranger before (Vone :D hahahah) for 3 months.

So anyway, now the boys take over our basement (but I still have my sewing room) and Erica will sleep in the guest bedroom. So we all good.

I thought living with boys will drive me nuts, but Blayke (13) and Marcus (10) actually did pretty good at picking up after themselves and they do help alot with entertaining Carissa. Cooking for an extra 2 mouths also not a problem since I used to have my catering business feeding over 10 people at once.

So my life doesn't change that much since there's no big chance for me beside picking them up from camp and make sure Marcus takes his medication. Blayke is 13.. he's good to go man.. :D hahaha

BUT Carissa schedule a lil bit messed up at the moment, because she's just TOO excited about seeing the boys and always wants to play with them all the time.

Carson became very busy too entertaining the boys and take them to practice wrestling or go doing sports stuff so I can still have my "me" time.. which is very nice of him. Love you sweet heart!! :)

so far so good I should say.. :) and I DO love to see people eat what I cook!! :) hehehehe

Ooooo what a pretty dress...

especially for only 80 bucks.... hmmpff... I asked Carson whether I can get the dress.. he said, "Sure, you can wear it while you're cooking and cleaning the house" PFFTT!!!!!!

Another Kidney Infection

Few years back, I think in 2005 I got a kidney infection. It wasn't fun at all. Then Yesterday I have been having the same symptoms.. my prev. dr. already warned me, usually people that already got kidney infection once, most likely will get it again.

So I had a strong feeling that I am having another kidney infection. It's bad... the shivering.. the chill.. the teeth grinding.. it's bad...

I decided to go see a dr. this afternoon and they took some blood test for white cell counts and my urine test.

The dr. walked in to the room and told me, yeap you have a kidney infection... oh my :(

now i'm nauseous.. and can't eat at all today :( *sigh*

Menu Review

Monday we had:
Lemon Orzo Primavera
Southern as You Can Get Collard Greens

My review:

Lemon Orzo was delicious! even Carissa loves it! She said "What's this? YUMMY YUM YUM"
I think Carson loves it too.. he even went for second plate. No left over on this dish.

Southern as you can collard greens... I replaced the ham hocks with bacon :)
I personally love it! I know carson not a green person.. and he was okay...

LOTS of left over, but it's gone by lunch today :) I ate them all :D. Yummy yum yum!!

New Glasses!!!

Do I look smarter??!! :D

Menu for Next Week (April 27 - May 2)

Monday:


Lemon Orzo Primavera
Southern as You Can Get Collard Greens

Tuesday:
Pan Fried Spinach
Salmon Fillets with Creamy Dill

Wednesday:
Gram's Chicken Pot Pie

Thursday:
3-Cheese Mostaccioli Bolognese
Sesame Chicken with Honey Sauce

Friday:
Amish Casserole
Teriyaki Chicken for the Busy Cook

Saturday:
Chicken Chimichangas with Green Sauce
Ann's Sister's Meatloaf Recipe

Blessing Charm

It's really terrible thinking about going to church is like a blessing charm for me. I know it's terrible thinking about it like that. But this is always happen... financial blessing came when I gave 10% of what I made in a month to the church. I mean i know 10% out of what I make is like nothing considering I don't really have a full time job.

Again.. I was worry yesterday, and even already transferred some of my money from my saving to my checking acct. Just in case my checking acct will be over draft.

Anyway, yesterday one of my HS friends actually asked me to design a logo and package label for her new line of bath & body products. I'm not really sure how much should I charge for it.

Then... today someone actually offered me a project-based job. So I will get paid per web layout based. Isn't it awesome??!! But I still have to wait for the next email... it's so funny how this person thinks that they didn't ask for me to work for them just because they can't afford me... am I that expensive??!!! LOL

God is great!! He is awesome as always!!! :)

Solid Systems Safe my mac!

So my mac has been thru a lot.. Carson got it as my bday/christmas present in 2005. Since then this iMac is the only computer I can work on.

First my hard drive failed on me, so I managed to replace it without going to a repair place. Then suddenly my Mac became narcoleptic... it fell asleep by itself sooo many times. I tried so many different stuff and it still did the same thing.

So I gave up... then I looked for a computer repair place in town, and I stumbled upon Solid Systems, Inc. First I was hesitate.. since they don't have an office in Ames, but they operate at a residency area. Which is pretty scary at first.. but after I met the guy who ran the place I was okay... but still I'm kinda worry.. since that mac is my baby you know! :P but in the other hand... IF they stole my mac... I can get a new MAC! woohoo ... hihihih *so evil*

Anyway, he called me the same day and told me he still hasn't found the problem. Sane thing the next day. So his assumption was... it must be something wrong in our electric circuit.

I picked up my mac the next day and put it in our bedroom upstairs. It never died since....

So anyway, I really recomend Solid System, they operate in Ames and Iowa City. AND the best part is.. the diagnose fee is FREE!!! so they saved me $80! if I went to other place in town.

Am I Terrible or what??!!!

I keep on moving and moving and moving..

I need to delete ALL of my old blog... but at the same time... I want to keep them for fun :D hehehehe

Anyway, I was in the mood of new blog... fresh new blog... look at the template design!! isn't it cute!!! Got it from http://btemplates.com

Hihihihihihihihii at least now u can post comment :D