Wednesday, August 25, 2010

First day of school!!!! 2010

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My babies are back at school! I'm so proud! Sixth grade...last year of elementary school...(cringe) She is growing up so fast.  Second grade for the younger.  They are back with teachers from 2008 much adored teachers who have moved onto new grade levels.  We are thrilled...scared...excited...tired. Honestly who wakes up at seven a.m.  Unheard of! 

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Here are my lovely ladies coming out of their lovely classrooms! Are they excited? Bogged down with too much homework? who knows! Happy new school year! Let's make it fantastic! Go Tigers!

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Rewarded for surviving summer and the first day of school and the one hot summer day all summer long!

A lovely dinner among friends

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There is nothing better than a nice dinner between friends at ones favorite restaurant.  A new friend moved to the area and we both needed a night out. So I left the kids with my darling, loving, sweet husband and ran to my haven...Raleigh's I love it here. It is in one of my favorites cities...the atmosphere, the ambiance is all I can ask for after a long day.  They delivered...
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the salad belonged to my dinner companion and the pastrami sandwich with a side of Cajun fries was mine. Delicious. It took all that was in me to not order old reliable...The garden salad but I stayed strong and had a delicious sandwich.

I then forced her to stroll around the campus telling her silly stories she couldn't possibly care about...I am afraid the night wound up being more for me. Sorry dear friend.

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Here is a blury pictures of us lovely ladies in front of my beloved Campanile. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into a lovely evening from last week.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Bacon and Avacado scones or biscuits?

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So I am curious when do scones stop being scones and become biscuits?
I love baking! It makes me happy. See the difference from my earlier post?
Happy me =) 
I have The Dutch Baker's Daughter to thank for these
I figured I love scones and I love bacon...wait did you say avacado? I am so there

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so I went to the store and got some butter just so I could make these scones
I couldn't be more thrilled...I think they are more biscuits than scones but they are fabulous
The beautiful shade of green the lovely smell of bacon they are a taste sensation!

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for this last photo I took it outside because my kitchen is embarrassing and has terrible light see earlier pictures...They have a great flavor none of which is very over powering just fabulous! Thank you for sharing your recipe Dutch Baker's Daughter I love it!

Health Insurance

What a heated topic for me! GRRRRR It is so infuriating. The insurance I use for my children decides to change their insurance every two years are so forcing me to switch doctors offices and have to redo everything all over again.  Why? What good does it do? So I can get to know every single pediatrician in the whole state? I am getting pretty close.  I was just telling my beloved husband the other day how much I adore doctors office we currently go to. And how sad I would be if I had to change and then the insurance company gave me the finger. I do not appreciate them giving me the finger....OK they didn't really give me the finger but you get the idea.  What do I do? All because I have low income medical insurance for the kids we get tossed around gee thanks it's not my kids fault.  I don't know what to do I am mad as a wet hen and no one to complain to! So you have to hear it.  Sorry.  
Well I tried to find a picture of a wet hen to show you how mad I am but I didn't want to steal someone elses picture so I drew one but my scanner refuses to scan! and then I tried to draw one online to post here but I can't so now I am even madder than a wet hen and you get no picture!!!!
P.S. The red ink is to show how mad I am! ;)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Bathroom!!! be made new!

Quick note I seem to blog in spurts hahaha
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First off let me say how embarrassed I am by these photos! Yuck. So the bathroom was a disastor when we got it. Did I make it worse you bet I did. Men hide the DIY channels and the HGTV channels from your wife it will only cost you money!
So first off these pictures do not show the awful wallpaper that me and my daughters tore off the wall.  We solicited help from other friends too thanks MK and Georgia
My father in law works as a bus driver so he had a few weeks off during the summer and decided to help redo the bathroom. He is VERY handy and likes to do stuff like this.
So he took us to home depot to pick out some tiles...we liked the nice earth tone ones so here we are.
He came over every day and demolished the old bathroom. 
It was awesome he used a chain saw at one point a crowbar that is almost as tall as me and other fun things.
We had fun surprises like no insulation....everything was nailed in...the tub tiles were on top of two pieces of sheetrock and cemented and nailed into the wall!!! These were heavy and annoying to get down. But he prevailed. I was on clean up so as not to mess anything up!
Anyway we got everything out and began to start over. He put in insulation and then covered the holes then he started putting in the tiles and the pretty glass tiles us girls wanted from the DIY and HGTV channels...and then he put the floor down and we shopped for a toilet 
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we didn't get either of these! Thanks for your help Audrey!
Anyway here are the new pictures!
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Thank you so much my dear father in law! But now the rest of my house looks lame...and this is the girls bathroom....bummer

summer of nuptuals

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Wedding number 1 my dear friend Cindy from home group
the whole family was invited to this wedding...
which was in Southern California. So we also visited some of my family
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my mothers oldest sister and her kids and their spouses!
A very beautiful wedding very centered on God and there were boba drinks at the reception YUM
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wedding number 2 is a friend I went to high school with
(but didn't meet her until my younger brother became great friends with her brother)
Corrine is amazing and loads of fun to be around
the kids stayed behind on this one creating a lovely date night for the hubby and myself 
(rare with a toddler)
This wedding was in Gilroy on a golf course
the food was amazing with a chocolate fountain and a funfetti wedding cake
Wedding number 3 was my husbands cousin Jose
Jose's wedding was a favorite for so many reasons...
1. his name is Jose Cheng (my Chinese husbands cousin!!!)
2. the entire wedding was in Spanish. Mr and Mrs Cheng's wedding was in Spanish (which was fun for the people on our side who speak Chinese and English)
3. Mexican food! Always a winner in my book!
This wedding was in the elbow crook of Davis...too hot!
picture taken by Wkwong
The whole family was invited for this one
Don't forget that Jose and Lupita had their chinese banquet too so that was another sort of a wedding for us we counted as half...so far 3 1/2 weddings are you keeping track?
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wedding number 4.5
This is technically my best friends sister! We are also great friends with the parents of these two fantastic girls we were very blessed to be included in this beautiful wedding
This wedding was held in Tiburon. There was an amazing view of the Golden Gate bridge behind the couple as they said their vows
This wedding they allowed us to bring our kids
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we had a lovely time...see 
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sorry those were too good to pass up
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wedding number 5.5
another friend of mine. we were in the same home group at church
Christine is lovely in so many ways
Hubby and I went without the kids to Shingle springs (yeah I don't know where it is either)
It was at a beautiful Vinyard
They were married by a friend of theirs who looks an awful lot like Chris Eigeman 
it was a beautiful ceremony with an awesome reception
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they had a breakfast buffet that was dream like! The chcoclate croissants I am still dreaming of!
Instead of a wedding cake they had ice cream sundaes that you could build in your own way! It was sooo good!
It also had the sweetest father daughter dance I have ever seen as her dad sweetly cried and kissed his beautiful daughter throughout the whole song the poor pregnant photographer didn't stand a chance!

So to recap we had a lovely lovely time thank you to all you who shared your blessed wedding day with us we wish you a wonderful happy life together!
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Naan

Delicious
I love naan. That delicious seemingly flat bread
It had long been reserved for when I went out for Indian food...
Until one day my sweet loving husband made me some curry
he made green curry which made me think if he can make curry I can make naan....
now I realize that Naan is Indian (seemingly) flat bread not Thai bread....
but I believe all curries should be created equally and eaten with rice and naan
so I took out the husbands book Artisan bread and made the dough
I was too late for the first batch of curry so we went to buy more curry ingredients
we came back with red curry it was hot delicious and perfect for my naan needs
I went authentic and stopped by my neighborhood Indian grocery and bought a jar of Ghee for that extra special delicious naan flavor
I made my yummy naan and everyone ate it the kids without any curry
I was so proud of me for making my own naan...it was easy and I highly recommend it!
here is proof pieces missing by eager munchkins around the house.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Quiet time

I am having one of those incredibly rare moments in the life of a full time mom...
the baby is asleep, the cat is asleep, the older two are happily, quietly playing in their room
This is so rare I'm not sure what to do with myself.
I am first of all on an actual computer not my phone reaching out to the outside world and listening to what I want to listen to not radio Disney. (no offense radio Disney nothing but love for you but some days we need a little John Mayer or a little Norah Jones.) 
I try hard not to play those artists in front of the kids so they can be my artists. I let them listen to Glee and they sing it so much I can't stand to listen to it.  So Mr. Mayer take me away to the land of happy. To the land of playing the guitar that is leaning against the dresser collecting dust.  
If I could actually get this serenity more often I would...what? Do laundry? Vacuum? Bake? I did most of that already even though I could use to do some more.  I would love to learn to play the guitar. Do you know how to play?  (I warned you in the title of this blog that my brain is messy) I want to be able to sit and strum some silly songs.... troubadourish I think. Sing about grass between my toes for my own amusement.  But alas I have no clue...I can't get my fingers to reach or push hard enough.
If I could find this serenity time on a regular basis I would....do some exercise....I do love it so but I just can't figure out how to squeeze it in with three kids.  The older ones wont walk with me very far and they laugh when I do videos...(I'm sensitive so no laughing to my face) and the baby jumps on me when I try to do crunches...not very helpful.  I love food and I like to watch tv about food.  I am told that Adam Richmond runs five miles a day to stay in shape from his over indulging TV show.  I hate to run but if it will work I better find a way to do it.
I have come up with nothing to do with this time. I think I will surf the web for Halloween costumes I need a hat for my costume and the babies costume...yup nothing is getting accomplished in this time of serenity. Sing to me Mr. Mayer!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Click, click

Silly summer schedule...my sleep schedule is all messed up...granted I haven't been feeling well so I have squeezed in naps, but now here I lay frustrated as can be because sleep refuses to come. My ten year old occasionally has this problem she is usually reduced to tears when we tell her to relax and close her eyes sleep will come. But man it is four o'clock in the morning and sleep is refusing to come. I'm tired...I would rub my eyes if they didn't hurt so much from this silly sinus infection. So here I am thinking, listening, not sleeping. What am I thinking? Hmmm well how I can squeeze in exercise to a day filled with three kids who thus far have been against every attempt for me to exercise. How I could talk myself into running five miles a day when I hate running to the car. I think Shyam I still awake? Everyone else is sleeping. Why not me? What did I do wrong? I've tried surfing the web and listeningto music...but everything I look at is dumb and every song is annoying. It sounds to me like I need to go to sleep ...oh botherwhy won't sleep come?

Thanks for letting me rant...I'm tired and hope to fall asleep before the kids wake up. I hope you slept well. Good night oh sandman I'm over here.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Summer is here

Summer is here...
swim classes have commenced...


some of us have moved up to the big pool
which causes anxiety, excitement, and all kinds of wonderful feelings
she is doing wonderful we are very proud


 also in summer is dance recitals
Sara had her very first one in which she appeared in two dances
which caused anxiety, excitement, and all kinds of wonderful feelings
She did wonderful we were very proud


Some of us are too little for swim class and dance class so we sit on the side and wave
she does well we are proud of her too
she has feelings of joy, anger, frustration and other mixed feelings

All in all we are dealing with summer and all it has to bring...
so bring it summer we are going just a little stir crazy at home