School is back in session soon !  H&M is offering some cool discount to outfit your little ones !

20% off all kids purchase (newborn to 14+)
Click on this link for print out version of coupon

The store prefers a print out copy but I've shown them picture of the coupon on my phone and they gave me the discount.  I told them not everyone has a printer !  so try telling them that and see if they let you use the coupon ! 

 

 

While at it, treat yourself to a 30% off 1 item !!!  H&M got some nice, cute items for fall this year !  Have fun shopping !!!

 

Click here for print out version of this coupon or you can just PRINT THE PICTURE

 

NO printer ?  Snap an image of the coupon with your phone !  Make sure your picture has the 30% off and the part that said "*Offers valid August 22 - 25, 2013....."

 

I heart craigslist !  I've found many awesome deals and sold many of my no-longer-needed items on this site.  I think it's important to recycle, not just newspaper and plastic, but recycle in the form of buying used item, keeping it out of the landfill !  If you got things you no longer want, before dumping them, try to sell or offer them for free on craigslist first.

A while back I found a console table for $80.  It was solid wood and super heavy.  It took us and 2 other gentlemen to carry it to our car !  We hauled it home on our SUV and got my bro. to help us taking it into our garage.

It sat there for weeks.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Then one day my husband said to me, "I've been sanding it here and there, it looks like it's a lot of work.  I don't know when I can get to it.  Please don't take home junk !!!  we have so much stuff in our garage already".  Eeekk, I forgot that I  bought it !  I went down to take a look at it, saw the streaks of sanding, and thought, man, this is too big of a project.  I shared it with C and we both decided to use it as storage in our garage.

Then one sunny Monday, (we sure got lots of sunny days lately !) C got a day off so we dragged the table out of our garage, attempting to clean it up one last time.  He spent 5 hours or so sanding off just the top, front and sides.  It looks promising so C quickly ran to Rona and grab walnut wood stain.  It's now early evening so I asked my mom looked after the kids so I can help C stain this baby.  If we don't finish it today, I know it will be a long time until we get to it again !!!

We spent the next 4 hours staining the table !!!  It took 4 coats to darken it.  After each coat we have to wait for it to dry a bit before we continue on with the next one.  When done, we shared a victory smile while our arms were super tired, they're about to fall off.  

After the stain dried, we noticed some stain dripped but not very noticeable on first look !  overall, it turned out even better than how I envisioned it.  We enjoyed working on this so much we don't mind doing something similar again !  Cheers to our next project !

We went and picked some 20 pounds of blueberries at GS farm out in Richmond.  Within days, between my mom, hubby, Bee and I, we consumed over 15 lbs of them.  Realizing that I will be out of them soon, I scheduled another u-pick date.   But before I can grab my bucket, my brother showed up on my porch and gave me 18 pounds of huge blueberries.  Then my sister in law came over and gave me about 7 pounds !!!  I was in blueberry heaven !!!  With so much of these precious rubies on hand, I wanted to do something else with them other than just inhaling them fresh :-)

I messaged up the one person I know who's crazy about food and loves to bake !  Jimmy Ho !!!  He sent me on my way to:  Betty's Morning Coffee Blueberry Muffins Recipe !  The recipe asks for simple ingredients and very easy to follow.  If you got some blueberries to spare you must try this !

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8OoD11F_6o

In this video, Betty demonstrates how to make her sweetly divine Morning Coffee Blueberry Muffins. They are just the right texture and flavor--not too sweet, because the fresh blueberries take care of that!

Ingredients:

1 egg, well beaten  < I substitute with 1/2 mashed ripe banana
1/2 cup sugar  < I use about 1/3 of a cup of organic sugar since my blueberries are really sweet
1/2 cup vegetable oil (canola)  < I use coconut oil
3/4 cup milk (2/3 cup in the video, but 3/4 cup will be better.)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups self-rising flour  < I use 1 & 2/3 flour and 1/2 cup of quick oats
1 cup fresh blueberries, washed and dried with paper towels
cooking oil spray  < I use paper muffin liner

** To make self-rising flour:  For 1 cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients, except blueberries. Gently fold in 1 cup fresh blueberries. Spoon into muffin tins that have been sprayed with cooking oil, until 3/4-full. Bake at 400 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. When done, a toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean. Note: If you prefer not to spray the muffin tins, place a paper baking cup liner for each muffin. These are really great muffins--enjoyable for everyday, but elegant enough for company!

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I went nuts over these muffins !!!  They're soooooooooo good !  I ate 8 of them in one seating :-D  I figure since I used all healthy ingredients in the making of them, it should be OK  ;-P  Bee doesn't like her muffin dripping in blueberry gooey goodness so I made her some plain ones.  They were just as good !!!  Thank you Betty !  whoever you are !

Bee passed her swimming lesson today !  I'm so proud of her !  Her teacher wrote:

"Great work !  You've become so comfortable with putting your face in the water and you have great stretched out arms and legs !  Keep swimming !"

After swimming class we had lunch, made some awesome muffins, ate them, then went out to the yard for some fun in the sun.  Bee was excited to find her shadow again.  She danced with it for a while then I got her to chase my shadow around.  When we're tired from running around, we took turns on the swing.  It was nice going back and forth, feeling the breeze, but Lovebug shouldn't be in the sun too long so we all went inside and built a fort with pillows :-)  Happy day !

 

As I lay watching our 2 daughters sleep, I can't help but feel a sense of worry.  I don't know if I would be the same if they were boys but I have girls and from what I know, society put a lots of pressure on girl.  I want to instill confident, self worth/value, and compassion in them.  There's only so much hubby and I can do as parents, their friends, the people they meet, and the world around them will also be contributing in shaping who they are.  Right now they are my babies, but in time, they will be growing and developing in women with their own mind.  By then I no longer can protect them, shield them under my arms, blocking their ears from harsh words like "you're fat" or "you're skinny". 

I'm a mom, I will always be their mom, no matter how old they get.  My heart and mind always be thinking of them, aching for them and worrying about them.  I turned to the Lord in time like this.  For I know I'm limited, I can only do so much, I can't tell my daughters what path to take but the good Lord will.  I want His Words to be carved in their heart so no matter where they are in life, what situation they got themselves in, when they alone, feel I can't understand them, they know they can count on Him to comfort and deliver them.  I pray they will come to love Jesus as much as their daddy and mommy.  I will not force them to follow Him.  When it comes to faith, it has to be genuine in order to have genuine relationship, to fully experiencing God.  I hope we will be a good example for them, be good ambassadors for Jesus, that they too will ask Jesus in their heart.  It's all that I desired for them.

 

we managed to sneek out for a little longer than an hour for dinner, just the 2 of us ! yay !

Lovebug is teething so our plan was just to have a picnic in our garden, celebrating our 10th.  But hours leading to dinner time, she was behaving so well and calm, my mom said she can take her and Bee for a few hours !!! yay !!! we decided to brave it and go out for dinner.  It was nice having full attention to each other, enjoying our warm meal (we're been eating cold ones for a while :-), poking fun at each other, and killing a bee that won't leave our food alone.  We turned off the world around us for a short while, to focus on us, no talk about our kids :-)  that's the thing with being parents, we wear our parents hat so often, always put our kids first that we sometime forget about ourselves.  And a time alone like this is just what we need to remind each other that we were husband and wife first, before we were parents.  We're a team and always will be !!! 

After dinner, we went for a short walk, talked about the past, the coming days, our plans, laugh over silly things, ... It was a relaxing chill evening.

Cheers to an ordinary beautiful day and to many more ordinary awesome days to come.

 

My Love,

Well, as you are starting to read this you must be thinking, "Gee...this is something different" (hehehe). A letter from C? No way? since when? Yes it's true, from my heart. Can you believe it? 10 years or shall I say 19 years together? 10 years seems like a long time if you think about all the amazing accomplishments we have gone through and experienced. Mostly ups not very many downs I can think of in my mind. Just to recap on a few, 3 homes from Condo-Townhouse-House, multiple change of work offices, a few promotions like the big one I just got, a new church family (somewhat) and last but not least 2 beautiful daughters. What a ride we've been through. Looking at all these amazing changes, did you notice something that hasn't changed? Yes, we're still together! How awesome is that? To be continued.......

Part 2

Okay, now I can continue typing as we are sitting here with K at the dentist room (9:30am), what a brave 3 year old girl. Strong just like her father and brave like her mother.

Well it's been a decade but it's just the beginning of a new one, a new adventure together. You've been an awesome wife and mother, giving birth to two girls is amazing and I will never be able to sympathize with your experience. Also for putting up with my annoying accents, songs, laziness at times, dumb jokes, just to name a few, and I'm not naming everything just to keep this marriage in shape (hehehe). I appreciate everything you have done and endured, and there has been no day where I take you for granted even though I do not express it often. I have to admit, there is nothing in the world I can buy you to show you how much I appreciate you and love you. This is the reason I have a difficult time buying you a special gift, not just for a sake of a gift, but something that is sentimental and of value. Diamonds and gold or all the material things in this world will not express how much you mean to me.  After all, you are priceless! To be continued........

Part 3

On my way home and now I can continue my letter now! Honey, thank you for all the years of joy and happiness.  Your presence in my life is such a blessing and without you I would not have been able to focus on my career and success. You bring so much to my life, second to God of course ! Like I said, 10 years is just the beginning and we have a long time to make things better. I continue to look forward to our upcoming achievements and the success that will come with it, especially watching our 2 girls grow up and we can have each other back to our selves only. I love you with all my heart and I hope you enjoyed reading my little letter. After all the last time I wrote you anything was when we were dating!

Take a last look at this cover and remember our first date at this park!

This is truly a memory.......I LOVE YOU!

XOXOXO


When I saw the picture of the park, I started to cry.  It was where we went on our first date.  We were in our teens, and didn't want our first date to be at the mall or at an arcade.  I remember it was Saturday, a sunny warm summer Saturday.  We met at Surrey Central skytrain then rode it down to Main station.  C was wearing blue/green and white polo with baggy jeans.  I forgot what I was wearing :-(  We got off the station and walked to china town to pick up some bakery and snacks, lots of it.  After walking around checking out stuff, we went to look for a park near by (there was no google then :-) and this "park", Thornton, next to Main Street station, was the closest thing to it.  Green trees lined pathway with benches.  Perfect spot for a picnic and to talk.  We didn't stay long because I got a tummy ache from the hawthorn flakes C fed me (he loves them, my first time eating it) :-(

This letter alone was a perfect gift, I told C.  It's meaningful and holds more value than any of thing.  I've been re-reading it over and over again.  Yes, I remember our first date, the butterflies in my tummy, the warm sun, the smiles on C's face, the awkwardness of us, yup, I remember them all ! Funny how a simple picture can dig in and evoke, bring into life, so many old feelings and images. I also remember how awesome my boyfriend was and still is. 

He is some kind of wonderful !!!