sweetisu

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Most humble and best perspective

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Teresa

A repost from Archana. I really love the quotes wanted to share them with you.

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

It’s mid May already???

These last few weeks have went by in a blur. Work is going very very good! Will elaborate more on that some other time. All the hard work and sleepless nights may not be completely worth it (I LOVE my sleep…), but wow, we’re getting places!! I love it.

Tomorrow’s the last day of preschool for the kids. Tonight we have a little program for Sebastian’s class. I think he’s going to do well performing, unlike last year’s “graduation” event.

Summer is supposed to be here by now, but the weather keeps going up and down like a friggin yo-yo.

Hope you’re all doing great! Did you have a nice Mother’s Day?

My Mother’s Day was spent in the Mega Mall and then driving many hours with 2 preschoolers in tow. They aren’t even 5 years old and yet the back-and-forth screaming matches are full fledged. I dread to think what the teenage-years will bring.

Signing off for now,
Queen of Disjointed and Bullet-point Blogging

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Easy peasy meals

I’m sorry I made everyone worry! As a thank you, I give you an eyeful to feast on. Healthy eats and quick bites.

Click on images to enlarge.

Spinach salad.

Mix spinach, cubed apples and cubed strawberries together with salad dressing. Sprinkle with pine nuts, procchiuto (how the F is that spelled!), and cheese.

Fried rice

Scramble a few eggs, put aside into a bowl. Brown whatever leftover meat you have, add peas, carrots, and whatever veggies you want in there (broccoli tastes very good, also onions but I don’t do onions). Add cooked rice and the scrambled eggs, mix well. Add salt, pepper, a tad of soy sauce, and a couple drops of sesame seed oil.

Eating these dishes at the same meal does not result in the greatest satisfaction.

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Nothing to write home about

but look! It’s above 40F!!! In fact, it’s in the 60’s. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee.

Current weather: sunny & windy, 67F. Hallelujah!

Current time: 4:30p.m.

Mood: perplexed.

Times I’ve second guessed myself today: more than a handful.

Hours slept last night: ~3.5

Taxes: sent.

Friday, April 11th, 2008

One of those Must Do’s of life

It’s the last weekend before taxes are due. (For those of you who are reading from outside of the US, April 15th is when taxes are due each year)

Guess what I will be doing these few days?? Sometimes procrastination isn’t the best thing to do.

Are yours done yet?

Friday, April 11th, 2008

Rain, you can go away now

It rained all night last night, and all day today. Numerous really loud thunders rocked the house.

All this rain is great for the grass and trees. I expect spring is finally around the corner. Let’s hope so.

BTW, where (and how!) did the phrase “raining cats & dogs” come from anyway??

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Sick

I was exhausted from today. Saturday’s my day to take care of the kids, alone. Usually I’m pretty good and can last another few hours to do some work after the kids go to bed. But tonight I felt very tired. They are both sick, Fiona more so than Seb, and she lied on me / hung onto me for majority of the day. At one point I even called the clinic to see what we can do to ease her discomfort - she’s feverish, no appetite, limpy, lethargic, and not the active toddler that we see everyday.

My throat hurts like a *.*.

Summer please come already. I hate this hot, cold, hot, cold weather inducing all kinds of things happening to our bodies.

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Big Dreams

I’m happy to share the little (and big) things along the way with you here on my blog, and am even happier that you want to read more! So hop on over to Today’s Mama to read my Dream Big feature.

Do come back and tell me what you think!

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

Happy Easter

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

It’ll grow back

On a whim last weekend, I took the kids with me to a nearby hair cutting place.

6 inches were chopped off - my hair, not the kids’.

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Meme catch up

This came from Marla, and Average Jane and Neena, and.. I think that’s about it. Better late than never! So here goes,

Basically I write 7 things about myself. And tag you guys to do it too. Feel free to be tagged and make your own list.

1. I must be the one driving, otherwise I get carsick easily.

2. I usually prefer silence to music (unless I’m in the car - see above - I’m the driver, especially long distance). Hubby is the exact opposite and wants music anywhere and everywhere.

3. When my hair is long, I’ll want to chop it off. When it’s short, I’ll want it long. Right now. I drive myself silly.

4. On my left hand, my head line (or brain line) and heart line intersects and makes a straight fold. In another words, if I put my hand faced up and pull all 4 fingers towards me, there’s a nice straight trench across the entirety of my palm. I’m not into palm reading, but find this interesting and I have a few family members who have the same thing.

5. I am the same weight as I was before any pregnancies and babies (+/- 2 lbs), but my shirt and pant sizes both have gone up at least 2 sizes. What’s up with that???!!!

6. Food is my good friend. Good food is my BFF.

7. I’m not as articulate in person as I would like to be. Oh I can talk, (boy can I talk, my friend Laura is about the only one who can out-talk me) just not as articulate as I would like.

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

My heart skipped a beat

I came upon an article about a missing young father / husband in the Seattle, Washington area, and my heart skipped a beat. I as a stranger felt a huge tug at my heart, I can’t imagine what it must feel for the wife and mother, and their young children. I hope they find him safe and sound very soon. It’s been almost a month. My heart goes out to the family and friends.

Monday, March 10th, 2008

I don’t wanna miss a thing

Anyone who knows me well knows I’m not really into trendy music or listen to that many songs. But this song by Aerosmith is one of my all-time favorite songs. My knees go weak and my heart melt whenever I hear it. It makes me think of Hubby and the kids. It makes me think of my parents who live thousands of miles away, and I especially miss my mom.

Another song I love is the Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden.

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Culture Shock - Part II

Go read Part I first. Go! Part I can be found here:

So I was talking about things that shocks, intrigues, scares, when one arrives from the other side of the globe into the heartland of good ‘ol USA. Here’s part II for your reading pleasure.

* Flushing toilets, electricity, stoves/ovens, toaster, and any other ‘modern necessities’. If you’ve ever been to a 3rd world country, you’ll know what I mean by the toilet thing. The village I grew up and lived in for 10+ years did not have reliable electricity (meaning, electricity was available for perhaps 4 or 6 hours in a 24-hr day, and that’s usually at night when everyone’s asleep), so even if we could afford it, electronic gadgets or fridges or microwaves would be useless anyway. We had kerosene and oil lamps. We cooked using straws/hay/sticks/wood under a brick&mud-combination cook top. When I was 10.5 or so, I went to the City half an hour away to live with my grandmother. She had some modern conveniences in her condo but still lacking compared to the typical standards here in the US.

* Indoor pets. We could hardly manage to keep ourselves fed, therefore pets, especially indoor pets who share beds and living spaces with their owners were a very foreign concept.

* Lotions. Lotions were meant for rich and privileged people. Or at least average middle income folks.

* Soft mattresses (and a whole slew of other ‘common’ items within the civilized world such as carpet or hardwood floor or lamps or showers/baths). See above explanation. Also, showers/baths were not to be had as there’s no indoor plumbing in our tiny brick house - only sponge baths in the winter and outdoor “rinsing” in the summertime.

* Television. As said above, there were basically no electricity. My parents finally got a hand-me-down black&white TV from some richer family when I was about 10.5 yrs old. So after coming here, I was glued to the TV after school everyday until 4 o’clock, when I would have to go work at my grandparents’ business. I watched lots and lots of cartoons. Hey, at least I learned some English through it!

* Weather. I have never ever experienced anything colder than 4C (that would be 39.2F) in my whole entire first 12.5 years of life. We came to Iowa, in December. There were knee high snowfalls and colder-than-a-freezer type of temperatures, combined with bone-chilling winds… NOT pretty. I did not like it at all. It was so cold, so white and glaring everywhere (the sun reflecting off the snow), I got very dizzy and hurled while standing and waiting for the school bus the first week of school and had to stay home for the day. After nearly 20 years, I’m still not used to the cold weather.

I guess some things never change.

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

A brief one

Some of the things on my (work) desk:

* PowerBook G4 (which nearly died recently)

* 29 pens and highlighters

* Box of business card

* Bottles of lotion

* Bottle of water

* Dead TI-85 (anyone know how to fix one?)

* Papers, papers, papers galore!

* Catalogs galore!

* Mini Stapler