My "Angeline"

I was at a store and saw this adorable angel sitting on a shelf with a bunch of sale items. She has such a cute smile that I have to take her home even with her missing foot.

So, I fixed her up with some wire and cardboard, and crochet two little boots for her new feet. Her favorite pose now will be standing right next to my lamp.

Evan and Jeannie laughed at me for trying to fix Angeline's foot. They and their dad said my angel looks creepy, but I totally disagree! This angel is to bring joy and blessings to our home.

Aren't we all imperfect in someway? Shouldn't we deserve a chance or more when we make a "boo boo" in life? It's easy to love when life is good, but what if it's going against us? Can we still love unconditionally???

I still believe... LOVE CONQUERS EVERYTHING, and it's the ONLY thing that will make us whole. (A life lesson I am trying to learn!)

Garage Door

Jeannie and Evan had a good laugh after I told them what happened last night.

Our electric garage door has not been working for while, and Mr. Kwan decided to give it a try. It was past midnight when we came home, so he might had it fixed before 1:00am. Everything was fine until...

I heard the garage door opened in the middle of the night (it must be past 2:00am). I was wild awake, frightened, and yelled to my husband of someone getting into our garage. Poor Johnny was trying to figure out what's going on as I rushed to the kitchen and got my knife ready for defense. We walked down the stairs, opened the door to the garage door and found no one.

"What? No one?" I thought. Did I sound disappointed? Crazy me.... Johnny and I had a good laugh at my irrational act and wonder how many brain cells I killed. It's so not fair that I was in total panic while he was insanely calm during the whole time. :D

Apparently, the wire was loose and it lost contact to the main switch. My hubby quickly went back to sleep after fixing the door.

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the Cheungs, the Chengs and the Martins in Maryland. As usual, we had a wonderful time with good food and funny jokes! The Cheungs were great hosts and the kids had so much fun that they asked if we could leave them there. :) They were very disappointed of us leaving early (Jady and I were still sick and we definitely need some rest).

 

The highlights of the trip has to be the talent show. I was truly impressed with the kids sharing their talent with us.

 

Piano: Aaron, Liz , Laurriza and Skylar
Clarinet: Christopher
Jokes: Christien
Sing: Katie
Recorder: Avery
Gymnastic: Sydney
Violin: Evan
Guitar: Jeannie
Telling color: Jady

They were an amazing group. Not to mention the "Oldest" kid... Dr. Alan Cheung showed off his break dance with the magician moves. That was hilarious!!!! :) Should have took a picture of him!

We also exchange white elephant gifts with a $5 limit, and a visit to one of the famous street with lights sponsored by the city in downtown Maryland. FUN, FUN, FUN...........

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Kids' Birthday Cards

My friends from the card making group are going to laugh at this....

After spending 2-3 hours working on Jady and Jeannie's birthday cards, I pay special respect to people who earn a living with their creative minds. It truly is not easy to come up with a design, and the most frustrating part is that I was not happy with the original cards I made and spent an additional hour redoing a different one for the kids.

The originals:



End Result: I added the kids' pictures on their cards to make it more personal!



Now, it's a card you will never find in the store!

"Jeannie's card needs a border".... got to shake this off my head and sit on my hands coz I am NOT redoing it again! :p

Wood Sign

I learned to make wood sign from the RS craft day two years ago and felt in love with these handmade crafts. So, I decided to make a few for our friends (the Cheungs, the Chengs, the Martins, and the Chois) as Christmas gifts this year. I wish I had kept one to myself. :)

Evan's Concert & Jady's Birthday!!!

It was Evan's Winter Concert last Friday (Dec 19) at Hillside Elementary. Johnny and I had a chance to see how Evan does with his second year in the school orchestra. We were happy to see him on the stage and thought he did fairly well until he told us at the end that he actually messed up in a few places.... Never mind, son! No one notice it. :)

Happy Birthday, Jady!!!

Our two-year-old has been sick for the past two days... as well as mom. So, we only have a small birthday party for her birthday (Dec 21, Sunday). We finally caught her smile in one of the many pictures!











Jeannie baked this yummy, delicious vanilla cake for her little sister. She accepted mom's challege of making a special cake for Jady (cake without frosting, sweets and ice-cream). Why is that a challenge? Because our Ms. Jeannie Kwan had a sweet tooth! :)

Mr. Evan lost his wallet a little while ago, so he did not have money to buy Jady a gift. I felt bad for our poor guy but he has to learn to receive warnings from us. Yet, another hard lesson to learn. :)

Nothing fancy!!! Johnny and I bought Jady a little traveling size magic doodle erasable board. We hope this toy will keep our two year old busy while we travel or keeps her quiet at the chapel.

***Jeannie reminded me that I've forgot to make a card for Jady... Good call, Jean... Will take your order! :)

A Two-Year-Old Response

Evan and I was trying to shovel the snow before dad comes home one evening. We were just about done as I turned around and saw my little helper checking into the beach basket (located in the garage) for her tiny, little shovel. Her mischievous smile tells me... "Anything helps, mom!" :)

This is what happen when I asked my soon to be two-year-old (her birthday is on 12/21) for tissue... way to go, babe! :)

Our Latest Attempt!

One night after dinner... Johnny and I tried out this recipe our friend, Phoebe sent us. They turned out soooo good and yummy that I am sure many of my friends and my kids future family would love it! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Ground meat (pork, beef or turkey) 3 lbs

Soy sauce 4 TBSP

Fish sauce 3 TBSP

Sugar 1 1/4 cups

Cooking wine 3 TBSP

Oyster sauce 3 TBSP

1. Marinate the meat for at least half an hour

2. Use a spoon to spread the meat on the parchment paper (very thin layer).

3. Let it air dry overnight

4. Bake at 300 F for 25 mins. Cut the meat into small pieces (about 1 inch x 2 inches).

5. Turn over and bake for another 10 minutes

No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the Dr. and the Dr. said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."
~The Learning Station~



There must be nothing good enough to play in the house.... we found our monkey swinging on the monkey bar while Jeannie watched with amusement! This is a futon bunk bed we put in Jady's room. I sure am happy about not calling for a Dr. :D

Bird House

I totally forgot about this little bird house Evan made back in Nov. The church had an excellent scout program for boys ages eight through nineteen. This is one of the projects the troop was working on for about a month with the help of two dedicated scout leaders, Ken M. and Dede V. They are SUPER! Evan has enjoyed his time there and looked forward to learn new skills every week.

My son was a little concerned about the hole being too small for the birds and refused to put seeds inside the bird house. So... he ended up "decorating" - glueing seasame craker treat.... (yes, don't know where he came up with the idea) on top of the bird house. To my suprise, the "treats" were totally gone in just a couple of days!

Caught Snoozzzzzzzing...

We had to be at the church an hour early this morning since I was to help the choir practice for next week's Sunday performance. My little brain must be "asleep" when I promised the chorister to help.... I totally forgot about Johnny's weekly meeting at 6:30am. Neither one of us will be available to commute back and forth to pick up the kids and help them get ready to church by 9:00am, so I took the kids with me.

This is what I saw from the mirror when I checked on them halfway to the chapel.... I couldn't help to take a picture of them with my cell phone. They are just soooooo CUTE! Thank goodness that they are not caught sleeping at the church! :)

Eleven More Days Before Christmas!

This week has sure gone by fast. We only have 11 more days before Christmas.

I've always enjoy Christmas; but this year is a little different. Christmas is the biggest holiday in the US with people packed in the stores shopping for gifts, but I have not seen it happened this year. I was driving to a craft store last week, but was sad to find out so MANY stores/businesses are closing down. It's sad to see people losing their job and families being affected by this recession. My only wish for this New Year is that everyone will have a job.

Silly Old Me/Couch

I told the Relief Society some time ago that our family had a couch to donate, but never heard back from them. So, I decided to post this ad. on craiglist's.com

Clean, beautiful couch - $60 (PA)
Date: 2008-12-08, 4:56PM EST
Our family just bought a new sectional couch and we are looking for a home for this clean, beautiful couch. We live in a smoke free, pet free home. Dimension: W83"xD35"xH30" Please call 610-XXX-XXXX any question! Cash and carry!
Location: PA


I still can't believe we've sold our couch. Two people called between 5 - 6 to make an appointment, and one actually showed up for the pick up. I thought it will take awhile to sell it but to my surprise, the couch was gone by 8:30pm the same day ! It was a success and a quick trade.

To be honest, I had some mixed feelings about the selling of this couch. It's the first brand new couch we've bought. I remembered Evan was just borned, and our family moved to Dallas, TX upon graduation from Texas Tech U. Johnny started a new job, and we were living in a two bedroom apartment up on the third floor. There was no elevator in the apartment complex, and the guys told us that they should have charged us extra for the delivery. :) It's a nice couch that served our family for the past 9 years, and survived from four big moves. It's retiring today from it's "glorious" service because we need a bigger couch for our growing family - Salute to "you"!

The guy and his family felt in love with it. Well... we got it for about $400, and there is no stain, smell and tears! The couple was willing to pay in full without further negotiation. We are all happy.

Be the Best of Yourself!

Evan came home last Tuesday announcing proudly about his advancement to Jr. teenis three. He was so happy about his job well done and asked me to frame his evaluation/advancement paper from his couch.

On the other hand, Jeannie started her try-out for basketball since Monday. It was a three day long process and I am just proud that she sustained to the end. Everyday since Monday, she had been staying at school until fivish, came home, had dinner, worked on her homework and stayed late for test if there was any. Of course, seminary at 6:00am the next morning. It would take some determination to do that.

The first two days gone by, and she was very pleased with her performance. She even told me once that she made two shots out of three while the rest of the candidates either made one or total missed. Just as we thought Jeannie would make it to the team, the disappointing news came in the email Wed. night after we came back from caroling (YM/YW church activity), that my daughter was not selected.

I was doing the dishes when Jeannie told me the news. My first instant was why, then almost the same time... How would my child feel? Would she be able to handle the disappointment and try again the next time? I was very concerned about this because she had the same disappointment wtih the badminton tournament at the beginning of the school year. So we talked and I asked Jeannie if she had tried her best? Her replied was "yes". I asked again if she enjoyed the try-out? She gave me the same response... "Yes". "That's all it matters!" I said. She still has hard feelings about the decision, but had learned to respect the choices made by the coaches.

The growing process is not always rosy, but we can choose to think positive and learn from each experience. We can either be harsh and deminished ourselves, or be a warrior and battle until the end. In fact, one of the most valuable lessons in life is to learn to fail. That's when we recongnize our potential, make strong or weak.

Our potential is unlimited as predetermined by the Lord. He wants us to be happy, reach our full potential, and be helpful to others. He doesn't worry about us failing, all it matters is whether we try our best. It's just one simple concept!

Thanksgiving Day

Trying to catch up about my last week in Nov...


Our family went to a trip in Virgina to meet with the Martins, the Cheungs, the Chois and Christine's friends, the Cornwells (might have spelled it wrong, just know their names are Shannon, Brendan, Collin, and Miles). We all had a great time catching up with each other, and enjoying the yummy delicious Thanksgiving feast. The kids spent most of the time playing Wii in the basement, and the grown up were able to enjoy ourselves with a hot pot dinner on Friday night. I felt like gaining five pounds coming home. :)


Highlights of the trip:


Shannon, Christine's friend who not only a good cook, but also an excellent photographer. She joined us on Thanksgiving, and bought with her ham, mashed potatoes and some pumpkin bread. Oh my world, her food was delicious with the perfect taste and texture, and all made from scratch! I love the ham sauce and Shannon was generous enough to share her secret recipe with us. It was actually a recipe her dad accidentally made up with baby food! :) The ingredients: 1 can apricot, 1 can peach, two cans pineapple and brown sugar. Blend everything in the blender and simmer until thicken. We ate all day that day.

Then on Black Friday... My dear friends, Tracy and Christine dragged me to go shopping with them.... well, not dragged... I went just becuase Jeannie and the kids (Aaron, Liz and Lourissa) decided to go. So, we planned on leaving the house at 5:00am but for some reason, Christine's alram was off so we started two hours late. These poor ladies spent hours the night before looking at the ad. for the things they wanted to get, but to find out most of the items(except Christine's GPS) were gone by the time got there. It did not affect me much since there was nothing I wanted to get anyway.

The shopping was extremely LONG and I got dizzy when we were at Kohl's (our second stop). Then, the "real" shopping started when the kids hit the mall... they very much stopped at every single teenage stores! It seemed like we were in line for hours before we got to the next one. Will I do it again next year? May be... if Ms. Kwan wants to and "my battery" was charged the night before. Thank goodness it's only once a year thing! :)

Anyway, we were done shopping at 11:30am and the dads joined us at CiCi's Pizza. After that, we went back to the Martin's house. Shannon came back from her shopping and was nice enough to take family portraits for us and the Cheungs. I am sooooo looking forward to frame those pictures.

Then, we had hot pot dinner and headed home about 9:30pm. We all had a really good time!


***(Added on Dec 16) Oh, I almost forgot about my sweet husband throwing me a surprise belated birthday party with all the friends and kids. There's nothing more I need to ask for! :)

Dental Visit

Nov 25: Dental Visit

Going to the dentist reminds me of getting a test back from my school teacher, and believe me or not their comments can be quite similar...

Dental hygienist (Lisa) : Any problems with your teeth (homework)?
Me: No! Not at all... no bleeding gums, no pain, no concern.
Lisa: How often did you floss (study)?
Me: Every few days or so. What? Did I do something wrong?
Lisa: (Checking on the X-ray - "test")....... Oh dear! I will have to discuss further with Dr. Rush.
Me: How do I do? (Please don't send my parents in!!!)
Lisa: You've gingivitis! (failed in xxx subject)
Dr. Rush: I need to refer you to a periodonist (tutor), and in the meanwhile, you need to floss (study) every day.
Me: Will do... (Oh great, I am in BIG trouble!!!)

So, What have I done to deserve a "E" on my test? Brushing twice a day is obviously not enough, and the only trick that could save you from another trip to the dentist is to "floss, floss, and flosssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!

Money Saving Tips

With the downturn of the US economy, I found this link useful for people who want to save and invest.

Here is the link to the website:

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/02/06/little-steps-100-great-tips-for-saving-money-for-those-just-getting-started/

I agree on most of the tips except #65.

"65. Cut your own hair. I can cut mine myself with a pair of clippers, for example. I just cut it really short every once in a while and don’t worry about it too much. Just put a garbage bag over the bathroom sink, bust out the clippers and scissors, and get it done. Two or three cuts will pay for the clippers, and then you’re basically getting free haircuts. With a bit of practice, you can make it look good, too."

Practicing on someone's hair is definitely easier than practicing on your own unless you plan on wearing a hat for the rest of the month! I had a friend who tried to cut his own hair once, but to end up shaving himself bald. :)

Practice made perfect... I just cut Jady's hair today.

to be continued... Nov 22, 2008

We left home about 10:15am and joined the youth to the NY temple. Ms. Jady Kwan was not sure about staying in her carseat, so her brother "subscribed" her with a "laugh medicine" - (Evan invented that name), and the crying stop simultaneously. Well, we had some quiet time for about 20 mins or so. Not bad! :)





We arrived at the NY temple on time, and all the youth, sixteen of them were able to do the baptism. It was more than a memorable session for me since I have names put in the temple. This picture was taken right after the baptism.
(details recored in personal journal)

Then, we headed to Flushing, NY... had a dinner at the East Buffet and finished our day with Chinese grocery shopping. It was a wonderful day I have to say!!!

The kids were quiet on the way back. Johnny and I had some time to refresh our memory on my last birthday visiting Nip's family. Nip was a good friend of ours who passed away three weeks ago of cancer. We missed him a lot, but it's comforting to know that he is safely back in Heaven.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Happy birthday to me!!! Thanks all for the birthday wishes! I will take them to my heart!

To start out the day...

Other than "Happy Birthday" and a kiss, Johnny rolled over to my side and said, "Well, it's nice that you still have three years to go before you hit the big 40!" I must be half asleep at that time, yet thought to myself, "Boy, this guy must miss being in his 30s". So, I tried to be sensitive and reminded him of the famous Cantonese saying, "Men are a piece of flower in their 40s"! Guess what's his reply? "It should be a piece of gourd (yat look kwah)!" ***For my American friends, "gourd" implies old and clumpsy. We couldn't stop laughing... this guy just cracks me up!

Here's a picture of my birthday present. I used to have a small cabinet to store my cardmaking stuff but my family enjoy piling school papers, bills and statments on top of it, and I got overwhelmed everytime I tried to clean up the mess. Well, I shouldn't blame on them totally... I have been accumulating junks over the years and I really need a place to put them away. To solve the problem, I had Johnny bought me a wardrobe to store more junks. ;) haha... don't you love my reasoning skills?!

to be continued....

Time to Get Organized!!!

A few pictures we took back in Oct:

Oct 11, 2008: Johnny's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!!!! Haha, we had not forgotten about your birthday. This picture was taken after our dinner at the King Buffet. We were too full to eat anything afterwards.... may be a small little "piece" of cake! :)

My hubby has turned 40; so, I made him a card. Not bad, hah...

On the same day, we went to YMCA to paint pumpkins. It's Jady's first time painting. See how proud and happy she was!!

left to right: Johnny's pumpkin, Jady's and Pauline's

Don't recall when I made this for dinner. What is it? My famous roast pork.

Here's the conversation at the dinner table:

Hubby: It looks good... (after his first bite) hum... could use a little more salt.

Evan: Mom, the skin is not crunchy like the one we taste in Hong Kong... it's like... (trying to think of a word)

Jeannie: RUBBER!

Me: Thanks for all your "encouraging" words! Your comments are valuable for my future improvement!!! :P

Oct 25, 2008 (Sat): The mess

We were out at a farm on a Sat afternoon, came back and saw this:

Our neighbor's tree fell off and blocked our driveway. According to Anders Nasman, the neighbor across the street from us. The tree fell down just 5 mins before we were home. He was working in the garage at that time. Thanks to the Lord for preserving our lives!!!

Oct 31, 2008: Halloween Time

Ever wonder how Indiana JOHN looks like? Johnny's co-worker got this outfit and asked him to wear it on Halloween, and so he did! Something is missing....

Danah.... here are our superheros:

Batman Evan

Smart Dr. Kwan &

Chinese baby doll, Jady

Me??? Of course, the lovely mom who passed out candies. :)

Blogging

Ok, this is all new to me. I have enjoyed reading my friends' blogs so much that I am ready to start my own. Sorry guys... for the sake of my children, I have to blog in my poor English.