Bringin' in the new year with a boatload of sushi :-)

We had a delicious and fun New Years Eve dinner tonight at 'Green Tea' with Len, Dyan, and Nick. RICK even tried and LIKED sushi! And we all thought the serving of the sushi on a big wooden boat was WAY cool ;-) We also thought it was WAY cool when the waitress took my order, and actually said.... "And theeeennnnn....." (think 'Dude, Where's My Car') I think we may have had the beginnings of a new tradition! The only downside was the very slow and forgetful waitress... but that didn't really bother me.

My goal for the New Year is to keep sticking to the low carb thing and keep losing weight. I am leaving 2008 20 pounds lighter (ok... maybe a little less than that since the holidays, but that'll be a cinch to get back off again once I get back to it!), and I would like to end 2009 with at least another 20 pounds gone... hopefully more!! I would also like to take an adult ed class or something else enriching, and maybe volunteer somewhere. (I learned today that it can't be at the agency because of dept of labor reasons or some crap, which was a bummer because we get calls all the time from elderly, homebound people looking for someone to take them shopping every now and then and I would have loved to do that! --and it's not a huge time commitment)

Well... night owls we are not, so we have the New Year's Eve set on the DVR to watch tomorrow... only because the Jonas Brothers are performing ;-)

Good night and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It's a crock pot ~~FIESTA~~ (or what is the chinese word for party??)

I got the GREATEST crock pot book for Christmas. I have a million crock pot books, but they are the same old heavy types of foods that are nice on a cold winter day now and then, but not for everyday stuff. THIS one is different! There are tons of great recipes in from it that I can't wait to cook! And I am starting today! Tonight everyone is coming over and Mom and I are making 2 dishes from the book, Thai Pork with Peanut Sauce and Orange Hoisin Chicken. They are both VERY different than stuff we have ever had, but that's part of the fun of it...if they are yucky... oh well. ..lol! We also are firing up the rice cooker to steam up lots of jasmine rice to accompany our dishes... so at least we'll eat rice ;)




And here are a couple from xmas dinner that I never blogged about because I left my camera at Liz and Jrs and didn't go and get it til last night when I went to borrow Liz's crock pot.

P.S. 庆祝活动 <--- there is the word for celebratory activities in chinese, and here is how to say it... qìngzhù huódòng

....and here it is in Thai เลี้ยง

Just tryin' to keep ya all educated n' stuff LOL!!

Christmas eve and morning

We have had a great Christmas so far and we haven't even had dinner or done presents with my side of the family yet!! The kids slept a little later than usual, we didn't get up til 530, so no naps needed! I LOVE not feeling all morning like I can't WAIT to get back to bed for a nap!

It was goooooood :-)

I didn't break out the camera til late in the night after Nicole reminded me that I hadn't taken any photos... so for more photos... and VIDEO... Ya may wanna hop on over to Jerry's Blog later on after he gets all artsy-fartsy and finishes his movie. :)

SO READY!!!!

I am SO ready for the Christmas Party tonight and SOOOOOOOOOO excited!!!!!!

The house isn't quite as ready as I am yet.... but I am almost to the point of not caring because I am sick of cleaning. Maybe I should break out the wine a little early, then I REALLY wouldn't care!! ;-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend....

Jessi was away at a friend's.... Sean was long gone to bed... so Rick and I got slightly inebriated and..... well.... ok AFTER that.... Rick suggested that we wrap some Christmas presents. the kids have been BEGGING for 2 weeks to have presents under the tree, so I agreed, even though I was not confident in my wrapping abilities at that point in time. I am not the best present wrapper anyway... and I think I dropped the tape and scissors 874 times, BUT Rick actually WRAPPED some presents.... which he has *always* insisted that he is completely unable to do... so next year at wrapping time... I know the trick! LOL

The next morning was like Christmas (hee hee) when Sean came downstairs. He promptly inspected each one and then made them all into a "house."

Today we grouted my REAL TILE FLOOR in my master bathroom!! No more fakey tiles in this house now that we know how easy it is to do the real thing! Next stop is the downstairs bathroom since bad, naughty Lucy ripped up so many tiles....and since we never finished them in there anyway. Next weekend Scott is coming to put in the fixtures and I will have MY OWN BATHROOM!!! Only 4 years later.... but who's counting? Note the lovely little 5 year old boy handprints in caulk on my freshly painted wall that I now have to sand and repaint.

I also decided that this is the year (by this I mean 2009) is the year I get my bedroom all fancied up instead of it being a gym and room for storing clean clothes. Elsie Flanigan's blog about her cute bedroom made me get all excited to do mine! I got the bed I have wanted for YEARS earlier this year and have still done nothing with the reast of the room (except put up my cool funky mirror). And for you naysayers out there appalled that the bed is not made.... get over it, it has a day job titles "Sean's fort." And the sheets don't match the room because my aunt gave them to me and they are the most silkiest, butteriest, most luxurious sheets that I have EVER SLEPT ON, so the color thing gets canceled out in my book! I think window treatments should be #1 on the list...lol. Number 2 is this, or something like it!

And here is Rick rolling his eyes when I talk to him about the things I want to do in the bedroom.... wait... that didn't come out right. LOL

HEY.... I never blogged Turkey Day photos!

What is WRONG with me!!?? LOL

Outtakes that I JUST CAN'T bear to delete...LOL!!

Yesterday Nicole and I did a photo shoot with the kids. Always an interesting challenge.....

G..... O..... LET'S GO!!!