Another week of freezing cold weather. Record lows in many places, what's going on? I wanna stay in my warm bed and never come out again.

Today I went to an old local shopping mall. There wasn't much there. It was actually quite depressing. The 80s music and the empty shops, a carrousel without any rider besides the old man that operates it was cleaning the seats, it reminded me a lot of the mall in Traverse City. I hate shopping with the crowds, but places like this killed my shopping mood. By the way, has anyone tried the Breyer's double churned ice-cream? The texture is similar to gelato, very smooth and dense. I'm going to make myself a brownie with Breyer's double churned vanilla ice-cream tonight. Sounds good?

Fudge! Got disconnected in the middle of blogging. Don't you hate that? So here I am have to rewrite everything.

I had a rough week last week, made a couple mistakes at work, though not life threathening, but I felt terrible about it. I could't let it go for a few days. I know we are all human and are not perfect, but I need to be super extra careful.

Peter and I have been thinking about joining the church we attend to. We met with our pastor yesterday to discuss the process. We will have few more meetings and to go through the Belgic Confession. For me, I will have to be baptized and also profess my faith first. Although I'm looking forward to it, I'm also very nervous about the baptism. I know it's a big committment, and it's going to be such a profound experience. I pray that God will give me strength and wisdom to go through it.

Recently I have taken up running. I have only been running on treadmill since it's been freezing outside. Although it's still dreadful sometimes, I somehow enjoy it, especially with some good music. Also I started writing a journal. Even though I enjoy blogging, and it's so convenient, some of my thoughts are too personal, and with me changing my blog so often, I don't want to lose some of the important ones (thoughts).

I have not stopped thinking about the movie pan's labyrinth ever since I saw it yesterday. I really enjoyed it and think it's the best movie I have seen since LOTRs. However, I can't seem to get over how depressing it was. A young lonely girl used her imagination to escape the dark cruel world she was living in. Although her fantacy might have kept her happy, I couldn't help to feel sad for her for the fact that she couldn't tell her imaginary world from the real world. Come to think of it, I never had any imaginary friends when I was little. I had great imaginations, but I never had the imaginary and the real mixed up. Maybe the real world we are living in is cruel, cold, and ugly, but we can't keep escaping it. I know my faith gives me hope, and that's not just my imagination.

We went to see Pan's Labyrinth today. We had been anticipating this one for a while. This is not a mere fantacy movie that the TV commercial may portrait it for, it's a very dark fairy tale like movie without a fairy tale ending. It left me feeling depressed. Because of its brutalness and violence, it's definitely not for children. I have not seen anything so imaginative for a long time. This movie is simply brilliant, and it's one that you would want to see it in theater.

On a lighter note, Schroeder got a new jersey and he loves it!

Just saw Children of Men tonight. It got a good storyline, but the ending wasn't satisfying to me. It's still worth to go see in the theater I think.

We taught Schroeder to sit and shake hand today, Yay!

I can't believe how much work it is to have a puppy. You have to potty train them, walk them, feed them, and walk them again.We haven't gotten the routine down yet, so Schroder still has some mishaps here and there. I wish we could put a diaper on him. They do that to monkeys, why not doggies? I took him for a walk yesterday, he's getting better with walking on leash. Someone stopped me on the sidewalk and asked what kind of dog Schroeder is. They thought he's cute. Hee~

Holy crap! It's 2007 already! I can't believe how fast this past year went by. Of course I say that every year ever since I turned 21, don't know why. I decided not to make any resolution this year. I'm just gonna put everything in God's hands. I spent today making truffles, taking down Christmas tree and decorations, and cleaning up the place a bit. The truffles were very easy to make, just a little messy, chocolate covered fingers, yum. They turned out quiet good, except I put a little too much cocoa powder on the outside. They were my gift to Peter. I'm glad he enjoyed them. Also, we finally got some snow on the last day of 2006.

On a different subject, Schroeder may have worms, AHH... We saw something suspicious yesterday. Needless to say, it was pretty gross. I'm going to have to take him to the vet soon. Poor doggie.

I watched A Christmas Story for the first time this Christmas. I recognized the scene where the kid was kicked by Santa down the slide, but never saw the whole movie. Now I see why this is a classic. I think it has just made my favorite movies list.

It's been a very busy week. I don't even know where to begin. It started with the passing of a beloved family member. We will miss him terribly, though we rejoice that he has finally left this ungodly world and went to be with his Lord. The memorial service and funeral could not have gone any better. The funeral was in Kansas, so we stayed down there until today. We got to have the Armstrong Christmas again. Almost everyone was there. We enjoyed it very much. I know I probably have mentioned before, but I am so blessed to have such great family. Life is so unpredictable and only God knows. It still amazes me how I have come half way around the world and to become part of this family. This week, we have become a lot closer I think. I feel like I have finally opened up myself this past week. It's not easy I must say. I have always had a difficult time having a close relationship with others, ever since I have left home and come to America. Maybe it's because of feeling out of place or being distrustful of others. I know I have a tendency to build up a wall. I don't like people to be able to read me, and I try not to show my emotions mostly by appearing to be cold and cynical. I can be a piece of work sometimes. Gosh! Enough about me already. I know this is not what Christmas is all about, but I can't help to get excited about our Christmas gifts this year. I (and Peter) got a Kitchen Aid stand mixer from mom, a very nice serving bowl from Mark, and free puppy from aunt Mary! His name is Schroeder. He's sleeping in his crate next to my feet right now hee =)

We had lunch with our pastor and his family yesterday. It was good food and great time. We always enjoy spending with them. Also baked some thumb print cookies last night. I used chocolate instead of jam. I love the coconut flakes on the outside. I only baked half batch and saved the other half for my work. Here's a picture of them when I made it last time. Umm...

I got Nintendo DS on my Christmas wishlist this year. I wanna play that brain age game. I was also looking at the PSP system, but I like Nintendo DS games better.

Recently I'm into oil diffusers. They are pretty to look at and smell great. Unlike candles, they don't leave any burn marks and safer. I want this Anthousa blossom trio bouquet set. They are kinda pricey though. I found this other diffusers from Target, and I think they are pretty nice too.

I know my last post probably has offened some people, so I deleted it. I was exhausted from work and needed to vent. I didn't mean it to be hurtful, but I know it did hurt some people's feelings. It wasn't meant to be as hateful as it seemed. Although I was only stating the facts, it was porbably too cruel for the general public. I apologize to the people I offened. One thing I learned is never blog when you are tired.

Oh yay, finally got enough sleep last night. There's no excuse for me to be a bitch today then.

I applied for a part-time job at a department store just for fun. I figured since I only work 3 days a week and love to shop, why not work for it. I can get discount and some extra money. I got a call back yesterday but the HR person isn't there today. Will try again tomorrow.

Looking serious with my work glasses.


Just being lazy lying around the house.


Peter waiting for more sushi to come.

This is our Christmas tree this year. We only have the small one because we threw the big one away almost two years ago when we moved from Traverse City to here. It was a good tree. I always enjoy decorating Christmas trees. It's more frustrating though when you have a cat. Orlando already broke quite a few ornaments. I wanna kill that cat, but it's okay cuz I'm not gonna let a stupid cat ruin my Christmas spirit. Serenity now!!!

Sometimes when a friendship is broken, it's hard to repair. I know we should be more forgiving, but we all know it's not that easy. So even if we can forgive, things are not going to be the same. I'd like to forgive this friend of mine for 15 years. What she did wasn't really a crime, but it's not something I can easily forget. Anyway, I have been thinking about talking to her again, but I don't think that's possible for as long as I still have the hard feelings. I know 15 years is a long time, but if the nature of our friendship is not the same anymore, then what's the point?

On a side note, I quitted YMCA and jointed a new gym called Anytime Fitness. Now Peter and I can go workout anytime we want. We have been going after work. That's the thing about working out in the middle of the night, you get to use the whole gym all by yourself. I can't believe I have been going to the gym for almost a year now. I'm quite happy with the result. Not only my clothes are getting looser, I'm not as nearly dead as I used to be when I walk the stairs.

While browsing online for Christmas trees for one of my friends today, I saw some upside down Christmas trees. I didn't know there were such things. I think they look ridiculous. Do people actually buy that? If you have one, then you must be crazy. Some of our neighbors put up Christmas decorations already. I love driving through different streets looking at the decorations people put up. I'm not sure what we are going to do yet, but I know I will have great time doing it. Last year we didn't get the chance to decorate our house. We were too busy cleaning up this place and waxing the hardwood floor. This will be the first Christmas we spend in our very first house. I'm excited. This is my favorite time of the year. I love the spirit.

My Thanksgiving meal was a success. Now I'm stuffed and sleepy.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Most of you probably spent the day with your family and friends eating and drinking. Lucky me, I had to work and had meat lasagna at the hospital cafeteria for dinner, woo-hoo! I hate being at that place on holidays, but that's the way it is. At least Peter was also working. We will have Christmas off this year together. Because we missed Thanksgiving, and we have a free turkey from work sitting in the fridge, we decided to make Thanksgiving dinner for Peter's family tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that. Not so much of the eating, but seeing my family enjoy the food that I cook. At least I hope they will enjoy it.

Tomorrow's menu:
Roasted turkey with homemade gravy
Green bean casserole
Mashed potato
homemade stuffing (Crap! Forgot to get the bread cubes, will get some later tonight.)
Pumkin pie (by Peter's mom)
Dinner rolls (by Peter's mom)