I'm sick again. I have gotten sick so many times since I have become pregnant. I was feeling fine all day, then while we were at Lowes picking out paint color, all of a sudden I felt very weak and achy all over. It was strange. My legs were so weak that they were about to give out. I had to get up in the middle of the night and slept on the couch because my throat was too sore when I was lying down. While I was lying semi-comfortably on the couch, I saw this news on TV talking about an outbreak of a mutated cold virus that has killed 10 people in the U.S. Being a dramatic emotional pregnant woman as I am, my first thought was that must be what I have, I'm dying. So I rolled off the couch and looked it up on the internet. Although I have some similar symptoms, I don't think that's what I have. If you are reading this, please do pray for me for an uneventful final stretch of my pregnancy. I can't believe we are almost there.

Amanda is hosting a baby shower for me. She even used one of the pictures she took to make the invite. How nice!

My friend Amanda took these pictures. I thought they were a little cheesy at first, but it's my first pregnancy, and I'd like to share this experience with my family and friends. There are more in my photo album.

So many updates, but so little energy. I have developed gestational diabetes, so I have been checking my blood sugar and counting carbs. Good thing I only have couple months left. So far I have been able to keep it under control most of the time. I let my blood sugar slip once a while, but not bad at all. I didn't gain anything, in fact I lost 1 lb since the last doctor visit. I will still have to watch it after the baby, they said most women develop type 2 diabetes few years later.

My mom is going to apply for her visa. I wish her luck, and hope that they will let her stay for at least 6 months. I will take as much as I can get.

So I failed my first glucose test, I FAILED! Now I have to go back to have the three hour test. A lot of women fail the first one and pass the second one. I hope I pass. During my last visit, the nurse practitioner said we have to watch my weight. I must have gained more than expected in the past few weeks. I feel like a big fat cow. I should probably start some light exercise like walking. I have been so inactive lately mainly because of lack of energy. Maybe some exercise will do me good and give me more energy.

Peter has done a lot of cleaning and fixing up around the house lately. I'm so grateful to have such loving and wonderful husband.

This my new go to video when I need a good laugh. So adorable and contagious.

Concerned Inventor

My personalDNA Report

It has been a miserable week. Starting Monday night, I started to notice my left big toe and the area around had swollen up pretty bad. I couldn't wiggle my big toe and it was very painful to walk on it. Actually it would be throbbing with pain even when I'm not on my feet. At first I didn't think too much of it, I thought maybe it's just pregnancy swelling or maybe it's caused by all the walking I did over the weekend. The next day I went to work limping. I was hoping it would get better on its own. In fact it got worse, so they let me be the secretary for the rest of the day. It almost killed me walking to my car after work. My colleague thought she might have to put me in a wheelchair. The next morning, it's still not better. I finally had Peter take me to the urgent care. The doctor thought it might be gout. When he pressed on the sore area, I thought I was going to kick the doctor in the face. They drew some blood to see if my uric acid level is up. The doctor told me I shouldn't go to work for at least a couple days. I felt bad because I knew without me, that would put them short at work. Besides, I don't want to use up all my sick time with my maternity leave coming up. After discussing with my supervisor, we decided I could sit in to be the secretary again. Not sure if that was a good idea, because my foot had gotten so big at that point, I couldn't even squeeze it into my shoe. I managed to get through work. When I came home couple nights ago, I went to bed with my feet elevated on couple pillows. It's supposed to help with the swelling. Few hours later, I was woken up by a severe leg cramp. It just happened to be on my left leg. My calf was hard like a rock. Usually Peter's here to massage it for me, or I can relieve it by flexing my toes and feet. There's no way I could do that this time. Not only could I not get rid of the cramp in my leg, my foot was also throbbing with pain. I was so helpless. That's why I'm still awake right now, I'm too scared to go to sleep tonight without my husband standby. Anyway, I checked my lab result at work, it was normal. That means it's not gout. I started to worry maybe it's infection. I feel much relieved now that the swelling finally went down, and the pain has subsided quite a bit. We may never know what was wrong with my foot, but I'm glad I can walk again.

I have to mention the doctor I had at the urgent care, Dr. Bremen, is without a doubt the best doctor I have ever met. Being a nurse, I have met plenty of doctors, but no one can match up to Dr. Bremen. He has such wonderful bedside manner. First of all, he came in with a big smile on his face, and he was cracking jokes the whole time. He called me and Peter by our names. He made eye contact with us, and occasionally he would put his hand on my shoulder. He must have spent at least 10 minutes in the room, that's a lengthy time in doctors' term. What was even more shocking, he called me the next day personally to tell me the lab result was normal and asked how I was doing. When he told me they were going to let me know the result, I was expecting a nurse to call me. He even told me to call him first thing next week to let him know whether my foot is better or not. Dr. Bremen used to be an ER doctor at the hospital I work, so when I mentioned him to my co-workers, they were all aware of how great he is. Even though it has been a sucky week, Dr. Bremen has made my week a lot better.

I'm an introvert. I never knew how introverts are misunderstood, until I read the article Caring For Your Introvert. I have an extrovert friend asked me in more than one occasions if I dislike talking to people and thinks that I appear to be arrogant sometimes. I suppose I can be mistaken as rude or arrogant to those that don't know me. My close friends and family know I'm nothing like that. I admit I'm slow to open up, and I hate being in a group social situation with lots of small talks. I can really relate to the author of this article. The majority of the population is extrovert, that's why the introverts are misrepresented. I don't think I'm a shy person. When I can't think of anything to say, I prefer to be quiet. I consider myself to have good social skills. As a nurse, I meet different people every day. It's up to me to make my patients feel welcomed and comfortable with my care. If I'm too shy or antisocial, I wouldn't be able to do that everyday. After work, I'd like to be me. Some people assume just because I don't talk much, I must not care. In fact, because I actually listen to others when they talk, I can get to know a person better than my extrovert friends do. I have been in so many situations where all these extrovert people keep talking, mostly about nothing, but in the end, they seem to have not heard each other at all. I often have to fill them in of what the others have said or correct them because they have misunderstood each other. I also think that introverts can read people better, because we actually take the time to observe. One of the disadvantages of being an introvert is often time people, the extroverts, assume you must be lonely and uninteresting. Introvert does not equal loneliness, nor are we anti-people. I don't need constant company to feel fulfilled. I enjoy having alone time to reflect. I also love making friends, but I think the introverts have a different friend making philosophy than the extroverts. I don't need to have tens and hundreds of people I can call friends, I just need a few people I can have close meaningful friendships with. In this case, quality is definitely more important than quantity. That doesn't mean I'm not friendly with people. I'm just not "in your face" kind of friendly. Most of us introverts are content with our trait, and we understand how the extroverts are different from us. Most extroverts seem to think the introverts should be more like them. They think maybe if we are more like them, we will be happier. No matter how uncomfortable and tiring my extrovert friends may have made me feel sometimes , I have never asked them to be less extroverted. In other words, I would not want them to change for me. Besides, there's nothing wrong with being an extrovert or an introvert. We just ask you to try to understand respect us and occasionally give us room to breath.

It's a boy! We had an ultrasound today, and we got to see the baby moving his little arms and legs. When the ultrasound tech was trying to get a good picture of the baby's face, he was covering his face with his hand. We finally got one, but he looked like an alien. Hope he doesn't come out looking like that. So glad we can finally call the baby "He", and we can start brainstorming some baby boy names. We are going to Minneapolis tomorrow. This may be our last trip before the baby comes.

今天照超聲波照到是仔呀！有小小驚喜。其實男女都無所為﹐最重要是健康。除了看性別﹐還檢查BB各個器官是否發展正常。還好﹐一切正常﹐而且醫生話BB的發展的比一些同樣週期的BB快一點﹐不過不會影響到個預產期。終於可以開始構思BB名了。

Second day into my cold, I feel miserable. Though I feel very weak, I can't sleep anymore. I have my husband to thank for this. He was sick over the weekend. He's always the first one to get sick, and I always follow. I plan on doing more sleeping and laying around today. Hopefully I can go back to work tomorrow. I have using my paid time off, because I'm trying to save up for my maternity leave.

哎呀！又病了。今次傷風又是老公害的。每次他病完就到我﹐真是同病雙連。以經病了一整天﹐開始有好轉﹐但是還是很累和四肢無力﹐還是告多天病假好了。下個星期五會照超聲波﹐檢查BB是否一切正常﹐到時還可以知道BB的性別。

今日焗了些雪藏蛋撻﹐都幾好味﹐但是一食令我忽然間好想好想飲維他檸檬茶。但是這邊無得買﹐嗚~

I went to a farewell party tonight and had a lovely time. The best part of the day though was when I went to get a pedicure. I hadn't had one for a long time. I did my own nails last couple times, to be honest, it is worth the money. When the gal massaged my pregnant feet and legs, it felt especially nice this time. I almost fell asleep. There's no way I will paint my own nails again, besides, I can hardly reach my toes now. Tomorrow we are going to the stork affair, I'm excited.

I think I have started to feel the baby moving in my belly. It's a funny feeling for sure. It feels like little bubbles popping. Peter put his hand on my tummy to see if he can feel it too, but it's still too soon for that I think. My carpel tunnel problem hasn't improved much. I'm just going to have to deal with it.

So I started a journal on my pregnancy. I think I'm going to extend it to motherhood. I was listening to Dr. Laura the other day, and one lady said she has been keeping a journal on each of her kids. Nothing fancy and deep, just small entries on the cute and not so cute things her kids do. She's going to give her kids the journals when they turn 21. I think that's a great idea. Wouldn't it be fun to read about your mom's thoughts when you drew her her first mother's day card or when you were really sick that time? So far I have been writing about the doctor's visits. We just had our third one Friday. I'm always paranoid about how the baby's doing especially when I can't feel the baby's movement yet. Hearing the heart beat was a relief for me. I think I have gained 20 lbs already. We scheduled an ultrasound for our next visit. I can't wait to see if we are having a boy or girl.

Blogging has become a difficult task for me lately. I have developed carpal tunnel syndrome. I guess this happens to a lot of pregnancy women. The numbness and tingling make it hard for me to hold things. Every morning I wake up with such pain in my hands, I even have trouble making fists. I finally got a brace last night, and it seems to help so far. Besides this, I haven been feeling okay. Of course there's the usual fatigue, but not much nausea. We heard the baby's heart beat at our last doctor visit. It was weird.

Happy July 4th everyone! We had an early celebration yesterday at the church bbq then watched the fireworks together. It was funny how some of the little kids were scared of the fireworks and some were super excited. Tonight I worked until 7 and had the rest of the night by myself. I went and got some great sushi takeout. I had so much that I don't think I want to eat any sushi for a while. This pregnancy has been good to me so far. I have only been having some nausea and fatigue. Although I hate that feeling, I know it could be worse. I hope I continue to feel good and healthy through the rest of my pregnancy.

So we really like this guy Ron Paul. He's one of the republican presidential candidates. He's a 10th-term congressman of the 14th congressional distric of Texas. He's also a retired OB doctor. He a lot of great ideas that have made him stand out from the rest of the candidates. You may not have heard a lot of him because the mainstream media tries to hide him from the public. Even the republican party wants to get him out even though he is gaining his popularity rapidly on the internet. They even tried to ban him from the last presidential debate. He is an advocate for the Constitution. They nicknamed him "Dr. No" because he votes against any bill he believes to be violating the Constitution. They tried to get him out of the debates, but again and again, different polls show he came out on top. We were excited to hear that he's coming to Des Moines to speak yesterday at a local event center, just next door to the Republican candidates forum sponsored by the Iowa Christian Alliance and Iowans for Tax Relief. Ron Paul was the only GOP candidates excluded from the event. We were glad that we got to be there. There were about 1,000 audience at the Ron Paul event compared to several hundreds that showed up at the other forum. The room was packed. So we were really confused and angry when the local news reported there was only a hand full of people. They only showed a small group of supporters that were rallying outside. They even went as far as saying that they offered free food in order to attract people to his event. Okay yeah, so all the people from different states, Illnois, California and many others, traveled across the country here just for the free burgers or pretzels. Give me a break! It's so shameful that even local news will do that. So if you want to check out Ron Paul yourself instead of letting the mainstream media tells you who to vote for, go to http://ronpaul2008.com or youtube and type in Ron Paul. You may not agree with him or even think that his ideas are too crazy for today's America, but at least he gives you something different to think about.

I had my first strong case of morning sickness today. I woke up with a terrible headache and nausea. I felt like I wasn't sick enough to call in though, so I went to work as usual. Few hours into my work, my nausea got worse, and at one point I had to rush to the bathroom thinking I was going to throw up. Luckily I didn't, but dry heaving was just as bad. There's no way I could continue to work, so I came home early. I finally told people at work about my pregnancy because I couldn't lie about why I wasn't feeling well. Besides I think it's time to tell everyone. I don't want to have to wear a sign saying "no I'm not getting fat, I'm pregnant!".

奇怪﹐當身邊的朋友和親戚都紛紛向我們祝賀﹐反而自己的親弟的反應如此冷淡。當我問他媽咪將喜事告訴他沒有﹐他只說了句“有”。真的只可這樣嗎？我知我們的關係並沒有那麼好﹐平時更話都沒兩句﹐但就算是陌生人也會說句恭喜吧﹐更何況他將會是BB的叔叔﹐真的很怪呢！

終於可以向大家宣報我有了BB的消息！今天去見過醫生﹐一切正常﹐還照了第一張超聲波。BB的性別就要等20週時才照得出。右邊是頭﹐左邊是屁股﹐還有上下兩邊的手。我還見到BB在動和心跳﹐那一刻真的快要哭出來了。

I'm happy to finally annouce that Peter and I are expecting our first baby. We just went to our first doctor visit today. Everything is going okay. We even got to see the baby heart beating and moving in my womb through ultra sound today. Not sure if you can see, but the head is on the right, and the butt of course is on the left. You can even see the two little arms next to the baby's head. Seeing the baby for the first time was unreal. There's nothing compared to it. I almost cried. Then I looked at Peter, and I saw the smile on his face. I can't believe we are going to be parents.

爸﹐父親節快樂！

I was taking care of a 90 some year old man yesterday. He was very nice and always appreciative. Even after we moved and turned him, which was really painful for him, he always thanked us and told us how nice we were to him. Today I came to work, and my co-workers told me this gentleman passed away this morning. I was a little shocked. Even given his age, he was doing not great but okay. I guess he has asked for a warm blanket, and an hour after the nurse gave him the blanket, they found him passed away in his sleep. We have seen so many patients that are just waiting to die with much suffering, so it's nice to see him die in peace and with dignity. I remember our last conversation was after waking him up for his bedtime meds, I joked and told him I wouldn't bother him again. Then he took my hand and told me I'm no bother and how nice I am. He said if they ask him about me, he would say all the good things about me. Not sure who "they" are, but I hope he's telling those in heaven nice things about me right now, hee.

I'm counting down the days until I'm retired. What a long way to go. After working a real job for almost 5 years now, I still don't have my retirement account set up. I need to talk to some smart people. I have so many things I need to get done right now. Even though I have so much time, I have so little energy to do anything. I'm too lazy to even go to a movie. I still need to apply for citizenship. I can't believe how much money and time we have spent on this.

Schroeder has finally mellowed down some. He's not as scatty as he used to be. Thank goodness. I hope he will continue to improve, otherwise I will have to fedex him to my starving cousin in China. Just kidding. He still loves to bark at strangers and things, especially our neighbor who wears wifebeater all the time. Last night, he started barking nonstop at nothing. We think he might have seen some fireflies or bunnies. What a wuss.

哎喲！好久未寫部落格了。除了因為自己懶的個性外﹐還有其他原因。其實有時也受不了自己的懶惰﹐現在手頭上實在是太多東西要辦﹐但總是提不起勁做﹐怎辦﹖為了方便日後寫部落格﹐我決定又一次將中英文版合拼﹐希望真的有幫助。

最近小狗終於開始定性﹐沒有以前那種過度活躍﹐真的拜託了﹗因為牠之前的那個無時停的情況﹐害我們差點將牠送去動物協會。不過牠還是很愛吠﹐昨晚更在後院吠個不停﹐我想牠大概是見到野兔或熒火蟲那些小動物﹐膽小狗﹗

It was my first time as a charge nurse tonight. Like always, things got a little crazy in the 1st four hours. We had one situation where we needed to transfer a patient to a critical bed but there wasn't any available. The nurse that was taking care of that patient was so overwhelmed and falling behind. There's nothing I could do about the bed situation, so I helped that nurse taking care of her other patients on top of my own group of patients. I felt so frustrated because I felt like there should be more I could do to help that nurse. But I think in the end, everything turned out okay. We were able to finally send that patient to a critical floor, and everything else were under control. It was a good experience I think. Would I do that again? Only if I have to.

On a different subject, we found Schroeder missing when we came home from work last night. Peter walked around the neighborhood but found nothing. I was devastated. I was worried what could have happened to Schroeder. I thought we had lost him forever. (Peter would love that) This morning I got a call from the animal control people. They found Schroeder. Actually when I answered the phone, the first thing they said to me was "Are you missing something?". We had to pay $50(ransom) to get Schroeder back. I guess Schroder must have gotten our of the fence and was standing at our sidewalk, when someone saw him and took him to the authority. I'm glad Schroeder is finally home.

My plan for today was going to garage sales and started my crafty projects. I have never been a crafty person, but I am creative. But my plans failed because I was too sleepy to go to garage sales, and I ended up having to work in the afternoon. I'm hoping tomorrow I can get some of that done.

I hate keeping secret. I'm keeping a huge one right now, it's killing me.

I'm more exhausted from work today than usual. I had a good assignment actually, but something has been bothering me lately that makes work more dreadful. I have been thinking about switching to a different shift for quite some time now. I have not weighed out all the pros and cons yet, but it seems to be 50/50. I also have to consider how this is going to work out with us sharing one car. I don't know what to do anymore.

Happy Mother's Day!

Just got home from KC tonight. It was nice to see the family and celebrated mother's day together. The only bad part was grandma's basement was flooded last week, and there's mold all over. Not only was it a health hazard down there, we couldn't turn on the AC because we had to keep the windows opened to air out the basement. It was 70 some degree there, and there were at least 25 of us in that house. The heat also made me really sleepy. Even though we were only gone for one night, I was so glad to be home. I guess I didn't realize how much I love being at home. We don't have a fancy house, just an old brick house that is still a work in progress, espeically the basement. We try to keep our house clean, but there are still small amount of messiness here and there that are just reflections of our personalities. After a long of work or a trip away, the familiar smell and feeling I get when I walk into the door makes me feel at ease. I am content here.

I did some changes to the site while at work. Apprently I was hardly working. I discovered Flickr toys . I love their profile widget. It's simply stylish. I recently developed a great interest in making sock animals. I always have a weakness for cute things. Ever since I saw the sock doggie episode on That's Clever! I can't stop thinking about it. I found some instructions online on how to make sock dog, monkey, and even elephant. I can't wait to get started. First I need to get myself a sewing machine. I hope I can have some pictures to show soon. I added links to some crafty sites. They are my inspiration. I want to become a crafter.

My feet hurt so bad. I worked until 3am yesterday, and I'm still recovering from it. I stayed late to help. I felt like I didn't help much because there was so much to do. Those night nurses are always running their butt off, and yet they are the least recognized. I know because I worked night for couple years. Lately, I have been feeling burnout from my job. Sometime I just want to quit my job and do something completely different. But then , I look my patients and am reminded why I do what I do. This is my calling, and I can't let my frustration get to my head. I was proud of myself tonight. There's a situation at work that upset a lot of us, and somehow I got the courage to call one of our managers and expressed my frustration. I'm so sick of people trying to be lazy when others are trying to keep their heads above water. Now I know why I'm starting to get gray hair.

The other day, I was helping one of the nurses with her new admission. It was an older gentleman patient who had been on our floor before. He's so cute. Anyway, we got to talking about my background. He asked me about my nationality. I told him I'm Chinese. Right away he asked, "Hey, what do you guys call those fat wrestlers in your country?" "Sumo wrestlers," I told him, " and they are in Japan." Then he started to talk about what those guys wear and started singing "itsy bitsy teenie weenis yellow polka dot bikini" Haha...

One of the bad things about working only 3 days a week is I have a tendancy to become really lazy. I think if I have a busier schedule, I can keep myself occupied and be more productive. I'm not self motivated when it comes to hard working. I always give my 100% once I'm at work, the problem is I hate being at work. Maybe the 12 hours shift is starting to get to me. I guess you can't have everything.

So I heard a lot of bad reviews on Spider-Man3 from other poeple too. The only people seem to enjoy it are little kids. I want to know what happened to the writer who surprisingly wrote all three Spider-Man. Did they cut his salary or piss him off? Maybe he has been watching too much Lifetime tv? Seriously, the lines in this one can't be cheesier. Now that I have written two entries about how bad Spider-Man3 sucks, don't say I didn't warn you. I only wish someone warned me before.

I'm glad I don't have to work monday because I get to watch Dancing With The Stars. I don't know why people are giving Len Goodman a hard time. He's my favorite judge. Such a classy man. I wish the judges will dance on the show. I would love to see their moves.

Boy, what a fun day for Schroeder. I took him with me while I ran some errands this afternoon. He was being a good boy. I could tell he really enjoyed the car ride. Then I took him to a nearby park. I didn't realize we have such a beautiful park here. It has a big lake in it and a dog park. I may get Schroeder a permit for the dog park. We took a long walk along the lake and the trail. Schroeder even got a little dip in the water. It's his first, so he freaked out a little. He may eventually warm up to it I hope.

Went to see Spider Man today. I have to say I was very disappointing. Even though I didn't have much expectation, I expected it to be better than the second one since the second one was better than the first. I thought it was way too long even with every 15 minutes action scenes. Half way through the movie, I found myself completely bored and not care for any of the character. Also there were many corny moments that had me rolling my eyes. I seriously enjoyed watching the previews more than the movie itself. At least we were smart enough to watch the matinee.

Some of the previews that got me excited about the summer blockbusters are Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End coming out May 25 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which comes out July 13. My gosh! Has it really been a year since the last Pirates movie? This time they got Chow Yun-Fat in it, my favorite Hong Kong actor.

It was a perfect day. We had our meeting with our pastor today. It went well as usual. He's such an amazing minister. We are inspired to becoming memebers of this church. Then we drove around town for groceries. We had barbecue lamb, saffron risotto, and corn for dinner. I was not a big fan of the barbecue lamb. I don't really like the lamb meat taste, I prefer to have it cooked in some kind of sauce or spice to take away that taste. After dinner we took Schroeder to a nearby park. He ran alongside Peter, and we played fetch with a stick. He was having so much fun. You could see his big smile the whole time. He's getting used to sleeping outside now. It really saves us a lot of hassle. We don't have to get up early to let him out anymore. Last night, he even slept in his dog house I got him. Smart doggie. It was a wonderful day for Schroeder and for me too. I'm ready for a long night of rest and cuddle.

We went to the Gateway Market today. It just opened up last week. They sell a lot of gourmet food and have a big selection of cheese and freshly baked bread. We had lunch at their cafe. I had the Tokyo style ramen noddle, and Peter had the burger. Honestly, I think they are little pricey for the kind of food they serve. Also I noticed a lot of the groceries they offer can also be found in the local grocery stores. I'm not really impressed. I think it's just another gimmick to price up some ordinary products, because nowaday, most grocery stores have imported products that don't cost as much. I'm sure it will still do well though, because there are many people who are suckers for this kind of things.

I bought Schroeder a dog house today. We are trying to make him an outside dog. It took little time to assemble, but I had to work up a sweat to get it outside. It wouldn't fit through the back door. I had to take the roof off, which was the part that took the longest to put together, and reassembled it outside. I'm not sure if Schroeder likes it, but he'd better use it. I also bought Orlando some scratching tools. One of them came with a little bag of catnip. I was supposed sprinkle it onto the scartching pad, but I didn't because that stuff makes cats crazy. Orlando was already rubbing himself on the bag that the catnip was in. After I threw it in the trash, he was rubbing against the trash can. Catnip is evil!

Tonight I watched the new show The Real Wedding Crashers. I thought it was kinda funny. I like it better than other punk shows. I always feel awkard and sometimes bad for the people that are being punked or doing the punk, because sometimes people get really angry. But this time the grooms and the brides are in for it, and since it's their big day, the guests can't really be mad at them. I don't think I can ever punk anyone, because I can't keep a straight face.

I LOVE...
Going to pet stores.
Going to the zoo.
Coca-Cola.
Staying home on a rainy day.
Putting on makeup.
Waking up early in the morning.
Sleeping in occasionally.
Shopping alone.
Family gathering.
Taking baths.
Wearing perfume.
Curling my hair.
Cuddling with Orlando.
Playing with Schroeder.
Spending time with my hubby.
Looking at old pictures.
Christmas.
Weddings.

I HATE...
Waking up early in the morning when I have been staying up late the night before.
Loud noises.
Bananas.
Snow.
Lazy people.
Reading.
Bad hair day.
Pimples.
Socializing.
Darkness.
Working on the weekend.
Schroeder barking in the morning.
Being irrational.
Immoralities.

I think I'm a loner. Besides spending time with my husband, I prefer to be alone. It's different with him because we are as one, so being with him is like being with myself. I love the freedom of being alone. You don't have to compromise or negotiate. Occasionally, I enjoy having a good time with my friends, but it doesn't happen often. Even when I'm with my friends, I prefer to stay very low key. I'm also very particular about who I hang out with. It's very tiring to be with people I don't care for. I don't make friends easily. It takes a lot for me to open up to someone. I look at other people who have a big circle of friends, I say good for them. Then I look at myself, so far I can count my close friends with one hand with couple fingers to spare. But I love that though because it makes our friendship so much more special and significant.

It was a fun filled weekend visiting my friend Wing in Minneapolis. We ate plenty of good food and went shopping every chance we got. This is the first trip we have taken since we got Schroeder. We really missed him during the trip, especially when we saw the cute dog commercial on TV. The one where bunch of puppies running around in a museum singing, so adorable. I don't know what they did to Schroeder, but he has calmed down a lot since he came back from the kennel, and he smells and looks better. The cat apprently missed us too, because he wouldn't leave us alone ever since we came home.

Today I went shopping for some makeup. (More shopping yet?) I have been using Bobbi Brown makeup for a while. I like how most of her makeup are yellow based, which are suitable to most women, even caucasians. She's all about enhancing women's nautral beauty without looking all madeup, perfect for my minimalist taste. I also bought one of her books. It's pretty lame to read a cosmetic book, but there are a lot of tips in there on makeup technique and how to look good in every age group. I know how you look doesn't change who you are, but it sure changes the way you feel sometimes. You don't have to put a lot of time to make yourself look nice. You just can't go into an interview or a party looking like you just roll out of bed. This is part of taking care of ourselves, we shouldn't be so lazy about it. Besides, it shows others respect when you look well-kept. So the little extra time you spend in the morning to get yourself ready is well worth it. You just don't want to make your appearance to be your number one priority, because then you become narcissistic.

Something to share.

I was the secretary on our floor today. It was so much fun, and it's a nice change. I may do it again tomorrow. I signed up extra this weekend because we are going to Minneapolis next week, and I need to make some extra cash for it. I'm so looking forward to it. It's always fun going to see my frieng Wing. It's my chance to get in touch with my asian culture.

Couple days ago Peter let Orlando out, something I have told him not to because we don't have invisible fence. Although Orlando always came back in the past, this time he was gone for couple of days. I was getting worried because the night he was gone there was a big thunder storm and the temperature was going to drop into the 20s the next few days. Last night Peter was whistling in the backyard. Suddently we heard a meow coming from somewhere, but we couldn't tell where. Peter ran around the house and down the street, still no sight of Orlando. Then Peter whistled again, and the meow became more constant this time. We followed the sound and finally we realized the sound was coming from our neighbor's garage. Peter knocked on the neighbor's door, and an old man came out. Peter told him our cat was trapped in his garage, and the old man went back inside to put on his shoes. It took him nearly 10 minutes, and it took him another 10 minutes to walk to the garage and open its door. I had already went back to our house because it was freezing out. 20 minutes later, Orlando was home sweet home. Later Peter told me the old man sounded a little upset that we let out cat ran around free. He said there's a leash law here and that "This may smells like a free country, but it's not." Haha... We also found out why they always park on the street. Their garage is filled with old junk, and their driveway is already taken up by old junk cars. If junk equals old memories, they sure have a lot of them. Anyway, I'm glad our sweet Orlando is finally home, unfortunately, there will be no more adventure for him.

Work sucked this past weekend. First I had some really heavy patients that required totaly care. My back was so sore after work. Then I had a doctor trying to do things his way and not follow the hospital protocol. He also tried to blame the nurses for what happened. What-ever!

I love spring, the air, flowers blooming, and birds singing. Schroeder has been enjoying the weather as well. We are able to let him out most of the day. He's made friends with our neighbor's kids. At first Schroeder was a little afraid of them, even though they were on the other side of the fence. Schroeder would get close to the fence when the kids were not looking, then the kids saw him and tried to pat him, he ran away. The kids would throw sticks to our yard trying to get the dog's attention, but Schroeder didn't care. Finally Schroeder realized they were all right and started licking the kids. When our pastor's kids were over here today, the little boy Owen was extremely scared of the dog. He was screaming bloody murder and telling the dog to "GO AWAY! GO AWAY!". Haha... It was a funny scene. The girls on the other hand were having so much fun playing with the dog. Even baby Monica was patting the dog.

So March Madness has begun, and that's all I have to say about it. We have big plans this weekend. Mark's birthday on Firday, and Uncle Phil is coming from Texas to hang out and watch the games with us. Hope everyone has a great week and weekend.

Look at these tiny feet. A premature baby born at 22 weeks is being released from the hospital. Even though the doctors were not optimistic at first are now amazed by the progress this little baby is making. I wish people can look at this and think twice about abortion. Whether they want to face the truth or not, abortion is the killing of an actual human life. Even the littlest feet like these can still kick. Thanks to the Lord for bringing this miracle baby to her family.

I came down with a terrible cold right after Peter got well from his. I blamed him of course. At least he was taking good care of me while I was sick. I was at the end of my cold last night when I went to the Phantom of the Opera. I brought extra kleenex. It was so cold out, luckily we didn't have to walk too far from our parking spot to the civic center. Yesterday I kept having a feeling that I was going to miss the show. When I was checking online to see where we could park, I noticed the show time was actually 6:30 not 7:30. It was 6 already, so Peter and I had to rush out the last minute. We made it there on time with five minutes to spare actually. I always loved the music of the Phantom of the Opera and always wanted to see it. This is my first musical experience, and I really enjoyed it. It would have been more enjoyable though if I wasn't sick. I would love to see it again.


We also rented The Illusionist last night. It was good I think. I remember there were two magician movies last year around the same time, this one and The Prestige. We saw the latter one in the theater and it was equally entertaining.

It seems like there's a big chance of snow again tonight. Are you kidding me?

Poor Peter was sick the last couple days. He's so cute with his red nose though. I'm glad he's all better now because I'm going to take him to see the Phantom of the Opera with me this sunday. It's my Valentine's gift. I bought the tickets for me for him. I'm really excited.

We have satellite again, woo-hoo! I forgot how clear the picture is. We had antena for the past year, and I spent majority of my tv watching time manipulating. Now I can finally enjoy the tv watching experience. We even got some Hong Kong channels. I feel a little more closer to home now.

We did our tax return couple weeks ago, and we have to pay even more this year. I hate the IRS.

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)

It still amazes me how you can be so close to someone to a point where that person doesn't feel like a second person to you anymore. It's not unusual that my husband and I have the same thought at the same time, but what's so crazy is that sometimes what we think about is so random. Like tonight, we were both thinking about fixing tires with bubble gum at the exact same moment. How did that happen?

This is a lazy day for me. I did my routine work out at the gym today and a little extra running on the treadmill. I'm tired. I also helped Peter to rake leaves today. I was just holding the bags while he did all the hard work. I'm really lucky to have such a wonderful husband. I don't tell him how much I appreciate him enough. I know I don't deserve him and all the nice things I have in my life right now. I truely am grateful. One day all of these will go away. Life is too short, and the ultimate greatest gift we will receive as believers of God is what comes after death, the eternal life in heaven. Nothing we have in this life time is going to be able to compare to that. Therefore we shouldn't devastated with what we don't have, and certainly shouldn't be overjoyed with what we have, rather be thankful.

Sometimes I wish I could open the door and Hong Kong will be on the other side. Why can't they come up with things like that yet? I'm sick of not being able to see my friends or taste my mom's home cooking everyday. Homesick really sucks. I know I have a great family here, Peter and his family are all very nice to me, but there's no place like home. You know what I mean?

We had tradition Hong Kong style hotpot for dinner all weekend. I was stuffed and happy. We saw the Borat movie this weekend. It was the worst thing I have seen for a long time. Yes, there were parts that were hilarious, but it didn't make up for its vulgar language and scenes. The part when the two naked men wrestle and certain things touched has scarrred both Peter and me for life. Overall it was a distasteful piece of crap!

Happy Halloween! What's everyone up to on this day? I'm staying home tonight and plan on going to sleep soon because I have to work day shift tomorrow. I just want a quiet night, and I didn't even give out candies. It's for their own good. These kids are too fat anyway. Haha... meany.

My American life has been uneventful lately. However life back home is a different story. I can't say too much, every family has its own problem. In Chinese culture, you never spread the bad news about your family. I don't know what to do when all of a sudden I'm not just a daughter anymore. Even though I'm a grown adult and capable of handling my own adult problem, when it comes to my parents', I feel lost. At first I was really worried, and it's a strange feeling to worry about your own parents. Then I put my thoughts down on paper, that helped. I don't know if I have the courage to face the problem head on this time. I'm just hoping that this problem is not as big as I'm thinking.

We have been spending the past couple weekends visiting Pete's dad, trying to spend as much time as we can together. Pete's older brother Mark has been coming down from Kansas every weekend as well. It's nice to have a family that stick together through tough times like this and have them with you during your last days. The Lord has been so good to us. The extra time he has given us has helped us prepare for what's about to come. I know we will all be okay. Our hope is not here. Nothing in this life time can satisfy us. I'm just grateful that in such a short life time, we were all brought together as a family. I had never thought that I would have come half way around the world to become one of the Armstrongs. I'm glad I have.

It was a sad day for the physical therapy department. They lost one of their friends and co-workers in a tragedy. It's hard for most people to understand how someone can commit suicide. Most of us fear death, whether is fear of the process of dying or fear of the after death. I'm deeply saddened and troubled by the notion that some people suffer such saddness that will actually make them think it's better to be dead than alive. I can never understand that, but I feel sorry for them. What a lonely place to be.

I think I'm catching a cold. I hate runny and itchy nose. Constant sneezing makes me tired. I have had so many blogs, I can't even keep track. I have many thoughts in my head, but I don't always know how to put them in words. I'm a lady of few words. I don't talk much in social life. Sometimes I don't even like to talk at home. You can imagine how annoyed I get being around people that are always yapping. That's why I like writing e-mail or text mesaaging than talking on the phone. If a friend is having a bad day, instead of picking up the phone and call her, I will probably send her a pick me up e-mail. Sometimes people see that as being cold. I guess they don't really know me then.

We had a lot of fun at Peter's cousin Amy's wedding. It's also fun to see the whole family together whether we enjoy it or not. I love the asian food they served at the reception. I like how they asked each guest to go up to the altar to light a candle and say a prayer for the couple. I think that's a sweet idea. Being married to the love of your life is so wonderful, I feel incredibly lucky to have found mine. When you know he's the one, why waste more time dating? Dating is sweet and exciting, but that doesn't last forever. In a marriage, the man and woman should become one. It's not about losing your own identity, it's about becoming part of each other. Love your wife/ husband as you love yourself.

Peter and I don't take picture of ourselves that often. I stole this one from Wendy. Pete looked tired.

We saw The Departed the other night. This is a remake of a popular Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs. I prefer the orginal version better. What's with Hollywood? Can't make anything original anymore? Except for a few minor details, The Departed is an exact copy of Infernal Affairs. It's like a rip off. I feel that The Departed is too Hollywood. It got all the big stars, but you don't feel connected to the characters. It's like a freaking Ocean's Eleven. In Infernal Affairs, you actually feel for characters. They may have copied the general concept of Infernal Affairs, but they failed to portray the psychological struggle each character faces. If you like The Departed, then I would really recommend Infernal Affairs.

So long Chichi! I will always remember your meow and that cute little face of yours. Thank you for being such passionate and cuddly cat. If it wasn't because of your inability to use the litter box, I'm sure we would have many more happy years together. I have to agree with Peter though, that is a big problem whether you know it or not. We like to have people come to our house and hang out in the basement. Your poops weren't exactly welcoming to our guests. The worst though was the urine. We don't know how little thing like you could produce such potent toxic stuff. Forgive us for not being able to tolerate that anymore. We've tried, and you know it. Remember the squirt bottle, the nose dipping into your own poop, the kicking and screaming? We still love ya. We hope they can find you a lovely new home, because you are one lovely cat. No matter what will happen to you, it's been fun. Good luck baby!

It's going to be a sad day. Today Peter is going to take Chichi to the animal shelter. I'm going to miss her terribly. I was playing with her outside yesterday. I was blowing bubbles and she was chasing them. She looked confused when she saw the bubbles disappeared. I hope they can find her a good home. I haven't slept all night. The sun has just come up, so I guess it's time for bed.

What a day! I went to this health screen thing at work, and I found out my body composition and was not happy about it. I also found out I'm not 5'5" as I always thought, I'm only a little over 5'3". Then there was some health problem with one of our family members and one of my friends' grandpa passed away suddenly while on a trip. I didn't call my friend right away. I think it's probably better to give her and her famile some times to deal with this right now. I sent her a message though. I never met my grandpa, my dad's dad. In fact, my father never met him either. He died before my father was born. The other grandpa I only met him couple times in my life before he died couple years ago. From what I heard, both of my grandpas were great men. My mom's dad was a well respected teacher. It's too bad I didn't have a chance to get to know them. The only grandparents I'm closed to is my grandma. I was always her favorite. I don't know if she still remembers that. She has Alzheimer's. Last time I was home, I visited her as often as I could. She cried when she saw me. Even though her speech didn't make sense, I knew she recognized me. She kept saying "mui mui" (means little sister), what she used to call me all the time. I hope I get to see her again.

My mom called last night and asked me when we are going to have babies. Our plan is to get pregnant next year. I will be the same age as my mom when she had me. According to Chines zodiac, our first baby will be either rat or pig. My mom was telling me all different calculations for getting either a baby boy or girl. I don't believe any of it, but my mom swears by it. With Peter's new job, our finance has gotten better, maybe it is time to build a family. I really believe that there's never a good time to have babies. Of course you have to be able to take care of yourself first. I think raising children is the scariest thing, but they also bring so much joy. I don't want to miss out on that. To me, being a mom is one of my purposes in life.

We saw Jet Li's Fearless today. I like it better than his other Hollywood movies. The guy he portrayed in the movie, Huo Yuanjia, had very significant influence on martial art. Yes, it is based on a real person, but a lot of the details were fictionalized for the movie. Although there's a message, the fighting is still the selling point here, and it was very entertaining.

After the movie, we had cheesecakes from The Cheesecake Factory. Umm~ Cheesecake.

Three days pain preceptor seminar is finally over. I shouldn't say "finally" because I really enjoyed it. I was exhausted when I came home. I have only slept for 4 hours every night for the past three nights. For people like me who needs at least 8 hours sleep every night, this is just intolerable. I was going to take a little nap, which turned into a 3 hours makeup sleep. It's starting to get cold really fast. Good thing I have a warm body to cuddle with.

I went to M.A.C. today, and there was this boy (I call him boy because he really is just a boy, maybe in his early 20s) who showed me some good techniques. It's a delightful experience when a makeup artist actually knows what he's doing. I have encountered so many that were disappointing. I walked out there with new eyeshadows and blush and feeling pretty good.

I'm in pain class this week. Today was my first day, and it was very good. Also free breakfast and lunch, yay! I got a lot of valuable information today, and tomorrow we are going to do rounds with the pain clinicians. Today Angie, one of the girls at work, gave me a few Paula Begoun newletters. Paula's the author of Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me. Angie and I are both cosmetics and skin care junkies. We love to talk about it whenever we can at workl. One of the benefits of being a girly girl. For girls like us, Paula's newsletter is really help, because she goes indepth in the effectiveness of the product, and why it does or doesn't work, or if it's worth the money. We all know how much money we have wasted on products that not only ineffective but also caused problems, right?

About those Origins products I purchased couple weeks ago, here's my verdict:


Modern Friction"Skin-refining Rice Starch, cushioned in cream, shows real affinity for rapidly removing sluggish cells, uneven patches and signs of skin damage and discolorations..."
I like it because it's not too harsh like a lot of the micro-dermabrasion on the market. I'm not sure if it's as effective as I hoped for though as far as the discolorations goes. It does however make you skin feels clean and smooth.


Out of Trouble "Nature’s trouble-shooters, including super-absorbent Zinc Oxide and Sulfur, calming Camphor plus skin-sloughing salicylic acid, rapidly respond to problem skin’s plight with a three-part plan - sop up oily-shine, slough off sticky, dead cells, and sweep away irksome debris..."
I also like this one. Although it's not mentioned in its description, it seems to dry out pimples faster. One thing though, make sure put some good mositurizer on afterward. It drys out skin quite a bit as well.

I had a bizarre dream couple nights ago. I dreamed about being part of the LOTR fellowship. Apparently the lava didn't really destroy the ring. I forgot what we were supposed to do to save the middle-earth, but I remember I was running constantly and chased by dragons. Weird eh?!

I got my bangs trimmed this afternoon. It was nice, but I had to do some touch up when I got home. Then I went to tattoo shopping with Mary Ann. Okay, don't get too excited yet my friends, we were just looking. So far neither of us has any ink on my body yet. I was creeped out by the buzzing sound of the needles. I haven't seen any design I'm dying to have marked on myself permanently, and I doubt if I ever will. I should be extremely picky when it comes to things like that. Don't want anything that will scream "What were you thinking?!" later. There's this little pizza place called Big Tomato. They have a sign that says "lousy service". No kidding. You walk in there, and then up to this tiny counter, no big menu hanging up above, just a stack of paper menus you can pick up at the counter. We had the New York style, which is my favorite, with Italian sausages and mushroom. It was very good. High recommened.

Happy Monday! I'm happy cuz I don't have to work today and I'm going to have my bang trimmed this afternoon, very excited. So you probably notice there are a few cute things added on my blog. Look to the right side. One of them is my blog pet. Yes, I'm dork. So what?! I have a lot more free time than most of you. Well, this little guy eats my blog. Which means it gets bigger the more I blog. Isn't that funny? It can also learn to say some of the things on your blog. You all should get one so our little guys can hang out at each other's home.

Last night was Mary Ann's birthday, and we went to bar to celebrate. It's a sport bar, and it's quite nice on sunday night because there weren't that many people. I'm not a big bar or night club person. I don't drink, smoke, or dance, so that's not really my scene. I met some of Mary Ann's friends. They all seemed really nice, but I couldn't help but feel the gap between us. They all seemed so young. We are only few years apart, but somehow I felt much older. People put on their party faces. Just because we are supposed to be partying, doesn't mean we have to laugh at every joke, get excited and screamed at every drunken moment. Listening to myself, I realized not only am I old, I'm also a partypooper.

I'm spending this weekend alone. Peter has to work. I haven't had a weekend all by myself for a very long time. It's actually kinda nice. I have done a lot of lazying around today. I was going to see that movie The Illuionist by myself, but I lost track of time, maybe tomorrow. I was on the computer all afternoon messing with my blogs. Yes, I'm obsessed. I was playing with my blog pets. Haha... They are kinda dumb, but they are cute and they don't poop on my floor. I'm so hungry right now. We had a good lunch at the Waterfront Seafood restaurant. My tuna sandwich was delicious. I can't wait for Peter to get off work so we can have dinner together. It will be a midnight meal by the time he's done.

Peter suggested if Chichi keeps pooping on the basement floor, we may have to get rid of her. If Chichi's gone, I'm not sure if we should keep Orlando. He will be so lonely. We have tried so many things, but Chichi just won't use the litter box. I would hate to give her away, she's the first cat I ever had. She's so darn cute too. So sad to even think about it.

Work sucked tonight. I was gonna go home early, but then one of the nurses' little girl was having a fever and was in day care. She had to go pick her up, so I said I would stay few more hours. Actually I didn't mind, I was scheduled to work anyway. The sucking part was one of my patients started to have more pain and just out of control anxiety. I spent almost an hour in there total. I had given her everything she could have, I even called the doc for more pain meds. She just had her other knee done couple weeks ago, and she kept comparing this knee to the other one. She just couldn't believe how this one could hurt much more. I explained to her they are two different knees. Then she said she jsut didn't think she should be having this much pain when she's in the hospital. That didn't make any sense at all. We were always told that pain is whatever the patient says. I'd like to believe that, and I do a good job of providing pain relief to my patients, but there's a limit. When you see your patients sound asleep, then you wake them up and ask how their pain is, they still say it's at a 10, you'd wonder, wouldn't you? I think some people are more dramatic than others, just like how we are in life. Yes, we all have different pain tolerance, but I think we all have different ways to deal with pain too. Even though it's the same level of pain, some people tough it up because they know certain pain is inevitable while others choose to scream and cry. There are so many patients who don't know how to deal with pain would tell us to just knock them out with narcotics. We have advanced a lot in medicine, but they still have to cut your flesh open in surgery. If paper cut hurt like hell, what do you think having a big old incision will feel? People need to get real. Things are easlier nowaday, but having a major surgery is no picnic. Don't expect things to be easy especially when it's an elective surgery.We nurses do our best to get you well, but you got to do your part too. Remember, "No pain, no gain".

I like blogging because I have so much free time, and I'm in love with myself. Why else do we want to blog about our daily lives and let millions of people to read about it? (Pardon me for not actually having millions of readers. Maybe just a handful.) Are our lives really that interesting? Do we really think people give a thing about it? Or maybe this is how we feel connected to others. We don't like people to invade our privacy, but we gladly tell them details about our lives on the internet. Aren't we contradicting ourselves here? I guess the only difference is when we blog, we can choose to blog about the things that make us look good. Aren't we a little full of ourselves?

It's been rainning for a few days now, when is it gonna stop? The gloomy weather is kinda soothing, but it also makes me dreary. I feel lack of interest in doing anything, but that's not new for me. I think it's the pace of the mid-west. I'm not used to this slow pace life style. Anyway, I can smell the fall coming soon. That's my favorite season. I love fall and winter. That's when all the best holiday are, halloween, thanksgiving, christmas. I'm getting a little excited for halloween this year. I have a house to decorate and candies to hand out to the kids from the neighborhood. My mood has just been lifted.

Well, saw a few movies this weekend. One of them was Match Point. It's a story about a man climbing up the social ladder by marrying a girl from rich family. Later he was torn between his comfortable life with his wife and the woman he obsessed with. I can't tell you the ending, because it is quite dramatic. Nothing good ever comes with adultery. It always ends in tragedy. An affair starts with betrayal and lies on both sides. How does a relationship last without honesty and loyalty? That's what happens when people just do whatever that makes them happy. We are sinful, since birth. It's our nature to sin. When it comes to that fine line between good and evil, we already have one foot on the evil side. We have to make a conscious effort to do the right thing everyday of our lives. Nobody said it's easy.

The other movie we saw was The Family Stone. It's a big propaganda, just terrible. Boo...

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I do realize that I look really serious and sometimes angry when I'm not smiling. You know how some people always have this happy go lucky face all the time, well, I'm not one of those. I smile when I feel like it, and my smile is always genuine. I hate it when some people always have this fake smile on their face. I hate it even more when a waiter or some guy at the movie rental place told me I need to smile more. How rude? They don't even know me. Actually I don't even know why they felt the need to say anything. Were they trying to cheer me up or they just felt uncomfortable with my unsmiling face? So then I would have to fake smile in return because I'm nice, but that little moment there end up making my day crappy because they have pissed me off. I'd rather have them ask me if something is wrong, instead of just assume that I'm an unhappy serious person. If they don't care enough to know why I don't smile, or if my serious face makes them feel uncomfortable, then they just need to look the other way. Yes I know, I'm a meany. I know they are just trying to be nice. Sigh... okay I will work on this, dang it!

I just had tostada the first time. It's delicious! Hurray for El Ray!...I was so happy it's pay day today. Bought some stuff from Origins and will rate it later.... I'm beginning to realize blogs are not all that personal. You can't really say whatever you have in mind because it's viewed by many people, especially your friends and families. It really upset me when my mom used to call me up just to tell which words I misused on my blog. She doesn't do that anymore after my silent protest her insensitivity by stop blogging for a while. I think I had made my point.

I thought the sky was pretty the other day. The cotton candy color clouds made me feel like a kid again. I love childhood imagination. No limitation and always happy thoughts. This picture also reminded me of how great our God is. Look at the marvelous things he created. This is only earth, imagine how wonderful heaven will be.

We had quite a few patients coming from ER the other night. 4 of them were hip fracture. Who's going around town pushing down old people? One of mine was this cute little old lady. I told her she has very nice skin, and she really does. She smiled and said, "I wish mine was as smooth as yours". =) She was getting too excited going to a bingo game that night, she ended up tripping over herself and broke her hip. That poor thing.

I like to clean whenever I'm upset, and I did a lot of cleaning tonight. That's my crappy sunday.

Recently one of Peter's friends thinks it's okay to casually tell people to "go to hell". I don't think that's funny at all. It's rude and inappropriate. He should know better. I know my parents will not tolerate this kind of behavior. I think it's sad how some parents care more about their childrens' feelings than their character. I'm glad my parents weren't afriad to hurt my feelings when I was growing up and showed me plenty of tough love.