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.