Come, Come, Come and Sing!

Sophie got her very first singing recital from her After School about two weeks ago.  I've been  meaning to write a post for her but was getting so busy and haven't accomplished it yet as I wish. Well, I gotta admit that procrastination plays part of it too since I was lazy to copy over the pictures and video clips from the phone to the computer so that I could upload some to my post :)

As an excited mom for my girl's first recital, I prepared to charge all batteries of my camera, my video camera, my phone and whatever device I can use to take or record her performances.  Electronic recording gadgets overloading.... :P

Everything was in order and we were off to go the venue where she would be performing her recital only to find out that my camera got the missing battery which I apparently forgot to put it back after charging.  Ahhhhh...  What's a failure!

Other than blaming to myself, there weren't much I could do :(  And the light setting was so dim and the color appearing in our video camera looked liked sepia or so.  Another under preparation or failure at my end for the gadget we hardly use these days, just because we're lazy to bring it to everywhere even though its small size.  I'm sure that we could have figured something out for the better and more vibrant color recording by it with some advanced testing and preps.  Then, I was given no choice but only stuck with camera/video camera of our iPhones.

And guess what?  Everything tried to go against me on that day.  I rushed to take a seat at the second row so that I would be able to take a good recording of her performance only to find out that I picked the wrong side.  There was a center aisle and seating arrangement rows were on each side of the aisle.  I picked the right hand side of the center aisle's middle seating of the second row.  That's the opposite far end of where Sophie would be standing on the stage.

There were a group of about 10 girls doing the performance altogether and Sophie stood at the leftmost end.  So I was barely able to see her from the place I was sitting.  I asked her to come to rightmost end so that I would get a good picture of her but she just stuck to stay at her position there as it was the position arranged by her teacher she insisted.  What can I say?

There were two other parents sitting on my left hand side who seemed to be parents of one of those 10 girls in Sophie's chorus.  They were also recording their daughter's performance so I was not in a position to get out of my seating and moved to a different seating to get a better view of her.  I didn't want to be a very annoying mom who is super-excited so she would do anything to get a good view or recording of her kids by getting in other people's way or blocking view of someone else, etc.

So, there was nothing I could do other than blaming myself once again for not planning ahead by asking Sophie where she would be standing on the stage so that I could pick a seating with a better angle of view accordingly.  Lesson learnt is to do more planning and preparation next time.  Sigh!!!

Other than those few hiccups, I was really amazed by she and her group's singing.  They did three songs: two Chinese songs and one English song.  I had to say that they did a great job.  She did learn lots of stuff during her singing class.  Most of all, she loves singing and she had fun and enjoyed her class and recital.  That's what it matters most to us.

At the end of the third song, I was clapping my hands so hard to give her a big applaud.  It was just a recital and I could have been more proud if she is to do her individual performance.  Nonetheless, the chorus they did was pretty awesome and cute and it gave me nothing other than a proud mom's ecstasy.  I used to be so anxious for getting on the stage.  Having no stage fright alone makes me so proud of her already.  Well done, girl!  Jia you, Jia you!!

    Pictures and Videos to come..... :P

Work Coma

Almost everyone has heard of food coma, right?  That's what happened to me during holiday festivals such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Too much food and thus I got a food coma :P

This year, I stayed away from Black Friday so I was able to preserve my energy.  And we gave up the idea of visiting to Grand Canyon and around.  Sit back, relax and rested so well.  That was the sort of my ideal vacation anyway. 

But guess what?  I was getting the work coma for the whole day for getting back to work after a long break.  After getting such a comfy days at home, it was such a dragging to go back to work.  With heavy eyes, dragging feet, slow hands, semi-frozen brain from holiday, I can't think of anything other than "work coma" to describe myself at work today.  Thanks God!  The work was easy on me today and I couldn't really complain of course. 

Instead of waking myself up from work coma, I'm feeling so ready for another holiday.  Oh, NO!!  Gold please helps!!!!!  Work Coma for real!!  ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz   :P

My Black Fridays' Shopping Craze

Another Black Friday had just passed.  It's the Friday following the Thanksgiving Day.  And it's the biggest holiday shopping season for shoppers here as tons of one of the best deals are being revealed. 

For my very first year in the States, I just wanted to have an idea of a Black Friday so we went out to look around.  We happened to go to BestBuy which is one of the most crowded places for Black Friday every year.  I still remembered that moment when I was able to grab the last tub of CD R/W discs which comes with about 50 discs for just $1.99 or so.  But when we headed to the cashier to make the payment, the line was about 100m long.  That was the biggest crowd or longest line I've first ever seen in the States.  And yes, we gave up buying it as it didn't worth to wait for hours to check out. 

And after that incident, I kept a distance from Black Friday and I felt it was not my cup of tea. A few more years of Black Friday quietly passed by me. 

It was until when we pulled a trigger for our brand new house.  It was when I was thinking to load our new house with new stuff, I started to flip the coin and was getting to start falling in love with Black Friday.  We got tons of good deals during then and it was a very fruitful Black Friday. 

Since then my Black Friday shopping madness had been unfolded.  Whenever it's approaching to Black Friday, I'm always excited by monitoring and digging deals.  Every year, I got a pretty long wish list or To-buy list.  While I still couldn't beat those who tent at BestBuy a day or two before sales start in the cold winter weather so that they could grab those limited quantity door busters before they are gone, I have my own judgement so I usually head out to the place where I can handle the crowd.

I still remember that dawn when I would be hunting down the deals by myself for the first time in my whole life for that early in the morning.  He needed to stay home to take care of the girls.  It was still dark outside and I was kind of scared that I would be robbed or stopped by bad guys on the way to the shopping center.  But my determination to deals hunting and my love of shopping embraced my braveness so I went out for shopping alone anyway.

To my surprise, when I got to the shopping center, it was all bright everywhere.  And when I entered the store, all shopping carts and bags were gone.  Oh, yeah!  It was so silly of me who was so scared with own thoughts or imagination that it would be really deserted just by being myself alone or with a few other people who would be waiting in the dark outside the store to get its door opened.  I learnt that when it says the door will open at 4:00am I should be there by around 3:00am so that at least I would be able to get a shopping cart :D

Just like that, Black Friday has been giving me excitement before it comes and satisfaction after it has gone.  :P

Another remarkable Black Friday was I had gone wild shopping since the mid night.  Going in and out of one shop to another and hopping from one shopping mall to another, my shopping craze just went on and on.  By the afternoon, I became no exhausted providing that no sleep was taken for Thanksgiving night.  And it took me not only Friday evening but also the whole following Saturday to make all the sleep deprivation up.  And my long weekend was simply gone just like that.  Since then I made up my mind that I would not repeat such hysteria again.

My this year's shopping resolution is not to buy anything which I would not need no matter how good the deal is.  Plus, I don't really have much desire for Black Friday shopping craze this year.  And the good thing about this year is that most of the big retailer like Walmart, Target and BestBuy started out their sale as soon as it hit 12:00am mid night of Wednesday, which was considered to be the first minute of Thanksgiving day.  Most of the deals were available online and I managed to get almost everything I needed via online.

When I saw Black Friday shopping frenzies via the evening news of this year's Black Friday, I was so glad that I didn't even have any possibility of one of those victims.  I just feel like it's just not so worth to risk your life or pick a fight or argument with someone else just to save some $$$. 

I did Saturday and Sunday shopping and it was equally fruitful as well.  I think most of the retailers are getting smarter in the sense that they keep most of Black Friday's deals ongoing so that people who do not like to beat the crowd like me also got a chance to grab some good deals.  This way they will have a higher sales volume as well.  I called it as an equally fruitful holiday shopping as I got one Coach bag, one Michael Kors bag, one Ann Taylor sweater, some stuff from Victoria Secret's and winter clothing for girls from Macys.  And most of my holiday gifts shopping were done as well.  Most of all, I'm glad that I didn't buy any junk this year.  Bingo!

And I really like Cyber Monday as well.  Online shopping is much easier and I personally prefer it a lot.  Just need to be careful to stick with reputable sites or retailers to prevent oneself from Identity Theft.  The only downside of Cyber Monday is that most of all are back to work and I couldn't get the most out of it, LOL :P  Hmmm.... How I wish that Cyber Monday should be stipulated as one of the holidays too.  Well, that's just my wish list.  May be that's what I gonna ask from Santa this year and wish that Santa will really grant my wish.  Only if I'm a few decades younger and believe in the existence of Santa like all of those kids here though :P 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

 
Thanksgiving is right here.  Sophie's Thankful Performance at her school on the other day just popped up on my mind.  There was power point slide show of answers of the question "What are you thankful for?" of each kid.  Sophie was thankful for Daddy, mommy and Michelle for the love she received.  Kids all came up with different reasons: there got one who was thankful for sky, or for their stuffed animal, or to their little puppy, and so on. 

It suddenly makes me wonder what I'm thankful for?  I've been really busy lately and tend to get so cranky and grouchy whenever I become exhausted.  A lot of times I ended up with loads of thoughts which made me upset.  It was a different me who was overlooking appreciation.

In fact, I'm thankful to Buddha for having me as a human being in this world and also for all the blessings which I've been getting.

And I'm thankful to my late parents for their endless gratitude, sacrifices and love towards me. 

I'm thankful to my husband who plays all different roles for my life, not only as a husband, but also like a dad, like a big brother, like a teacher, like a guardian, like a supportive companion.  Simply put, I'm thankful to him for being a guiding star of my life.  Without him, I could have lost several times during those life battles I've been fighting.

I'm thankful to my two wonderful adorable angles who make me learn new things every other day as a motherhood.  It's the most challenging and toughest job at times but it's also the most wonderful and rewarding role of my life.

I'm thankful to my family.  Without you, I'll be a loner.  With all of you and your love, my life is so green and I can't ask more.  Really!

I'm thankful to my job for making me feel independent and keep my life going.

I'm thankful to my relatives for giving me a hand whatever they can.

I'm thankful to my friends for all the laughter I got from them.


I'm thankful to all those good days I got for bringing the happiness to my life.  At the same time, I'm also thankful for all those bad and challenging days I got for making a better, stronger and more experienced me :)


And such and such and such...

Most of all, I'm thankful for who I am, what I am, where I am

I'm actually truthfully thankful for every single thing I have.

And last not least, I'm really thankful for this thankful and appreciation thoughts that I suddenly got which makes me feel so good and happy.

I guess I need to repeat or must not forget these wonderful thankful thoughts which can cheer me up whenever I feel down.  They do really make me optimistic.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!   Let's not forget to be thankful and appreciate what we get and whomever deserve it!!!!

Strawberrylicious

I've been so busy during past few weeks and I could not keep up with the blogging.  There got a couple of posts including Halloween post for my little ones but I could not locate it anymore after all these days have been passed. 

Holiday is right around the corner but being so busy and tiredness makes me not in the holiday mood.  Usually I'm so ready for the holiday around this time, :P

However, Thanksgiving is in the air and a series of Thanksgiving potluck are convincing me to get to the holiday mood. 

I made my favorite Cheese Cake for one of the potlucks at work today.  Oh, joy of baking!  It was the most successful cheese cake I've ever made.  So, I want to share a couple of tips for successful cheese cake from my experience:

1) Use the water bath while baking.  It really helps with not making the cake stick to the pan.
2) Follow the exact temperature the recipe is called for.  If you want to go over, don't go over a minute or two.  It really helps. 
3) Chill it over night or at least 10 hours. Another tip for not getting the cake stick to the pan.
4) And last, my Sharper Image brand new pan really helps I think.  I was putting back and forth before I pulled the trigger for it but I'm glad that I decided to get it.  It's such a keeper.  The shiny unique non-stick coating on it really helps with not making the cake stick to the pan.  Yahoo!

All in all, it was strawberrilicious and cheesylicious I guess.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

 

Aftermath of my Cheese Cake.  It was a hit :P