My first Scrapblog - Svjetlana's Birthday

I love all arts and crafts

My younger sister even calls me her artsy craftsy sister ( as opposed to our older sister whom she calls the "shopping sister" ) LOL. Anyway, I had come across ScrapBlog while trying to do some online digital scrapbooking - I have no space in real life at the moment to do any "hands on" scrapbooking, so this will have to suffice for now, and boy, does it suffice...

There are 6 pages to this set, so it may take some time to download. Also it has music embeded in it, so that might take a while too... :)

Ladies who Lunch

well, maybe not quite...

It almost seems like I've been doing the Ladies Who Lunch thing, but really I'm not.

First, there was a Woman to Woman event at Church, with the theme "You're my cup of Tea" where the event was held for the ladies who were new to the congregation. I had NO idea that there would be.. ahem, "tea and crumpets" at the "do" :)

Then, that was followed the next day by Svjetlana's birthday, which we celebrated at Bible Class, where this time, Nancy made us a brunch of 2 types of Quiche, pumpkin muffins and lotsa fruit.. And Denecia made us some Almond punch! I know.. I know... pretty far out :)

Woman To Woman : You're My Cup of Tea









Svjetlana's Birthday on Friday








Proverbs 30 - 31


Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

It's Getting Cold

The weather is turning,

and other than all the wind, it's nice to have the temperature in the 70's for a change. Sure, in a month or so, I'll be wishing it was warmer and grousing about how cold it is and how many layers of clothes I have to put on, but I'll take what I can get for now :)

I'm such a freebie freak, and it sometimes amazes me what I can get for free online. One of the latest things I received in the mail last week was this Retractable Optical Mouse from Samsung. Hooo Ah. We always need an extra mouse around our house.

Ooo.. and counting down to Halloween with our Inflatable Ghost and Pumpkin combo! They're pretty big compared to me in my Jammies! :)

Ecclesiastes 3:1

To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Girls' Day Out

Last Friday, David joined us

for part of our Friday Girls' Day Out, and it was fun fun fun :)

First, it was Denecia's birthday, which we celebrated at her house before the Bible lesson began - Maria had made an "Earthquake Cake" with gobs and gobs of chocolate and coconut inside, and it was delicioso!

Then it was off to lunch at A Taste Of Asia Noodle House, my favorite restaurant in Abilene ( and I suspect, for many miles ), where they serve really authentic South East Asian Food. Our usual sunroom nook had been taken over by George, the Cambodian owner guy, for him to have a little gift shop thingy ( we had actually stolen that place from him in the first place when he used to work in there ), and so we were extremely glad to find another nook that was sun-roomy and settled in for lunch and a game of Upwords Scrabble.

We hadn't been to Starbucks in months and months, so we thought it was about time ! Here's Cindy chillin' out with her Decaf, on the phone with David, making plans to meet up in a bit.

We stopped by Jason's Deli, picked up a Muffuletta for David, and headed on to the Salvation Army store to meet up with him and see what fine pickings there were for the day there. ROFL.

Cindy had to head on home after our regular weekly grocery shopping at Walmart, and so David and I headed off to the "other" pumpkin patch we knew about. It was organized by Disability Resources Inc, and although I knew it was all for a good cause and all, but I couldn't help being a little disappointed that it wasn't half as lovely or quaint as the one that Cindy and I went to last year ( click HERE to go down memory lane ), which doesn't exist anymore this year !!!

Be joyful always; pray continually;

give thanks in all circumstances,

for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Malaysians Love Food

Letti Thursday

Okay.. so, this week's Letti Thursday wasn't THAT inspired, but what the hey.

Chicken baked with Tuscan Seasoning





Cornbread Stuffing

There was a picture of Grilled Eggplant with BBQ seasoning, but that file somehow got deleted . Bleh.

On our way home from Letti Thursday, David and I passed by the Hamby Volunteer Fire Department, about a couple of miles from where we live. All the doors were open, and David and I decided to go snoop around...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Be joyful always; pray continually;
give thanks in all circumstances,
for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Of Windy Days and Watches

The wind was gusting up to 40mph today

with tornado watches in the northern part of the state, but the skies were clear where we are. But still, all this wind can get to you after a few days. Plus it wreaks havoc on stuff that's outside.. Fallen potted plants, etc. Oh well.

My pretty juvenile-looking-with-girly-pink-hearts watch from Walmart died the other day - it had an irrepairable fracture.. so we got a new one for me yesterday when we were shopping for stuff to cook on "Letti Thursday".

The New Watch



I'm a sucker for .gifs

Other than that, my sister's family and my mom landed safely in San Francisco on Saturday, and I had called them a few times to talk. My mom's here on a semi holiday/semi helping my sis settle in with her 2 kids while my bro in law's at work. There's nothing like your mom being there when you're moving your family to a foreign place...

"We were gentle among you,
like a mother caring for
her little children."
1 Thessalonians 2:7

I've Been Thwarted!!

How Outrageous...!

I was kinda excited when Cindy drove up to the Cedar Creek Pumpkin Patch ( or at least we thought ) after Bible Class on Friday, and whaddayaknow.....

Last year:

This year :

WHHAAAATTTTT?!??!!!??

*Fume*

At least there's still 2 other pumpkin patches to go to .. one in the NW part of Abilene, run by Disability Resources Inc and one at the Grace United Methodist Church

And we know that God causes everything to work together
for the good of those who love God
and are called according to his purpose for them.

Romans 8:28

A Trip, some food, and a lovely lawn

Okay, here we go..

1. Trip to Ballinger, Texas

For last week's Saturday excursion, we went to Ballinger, Texas. First off, we visited the cemetery where David's mom and her family were laid to rest. When I was growing up, I had a fear of cemeteries, but now it's become somewhat of a fascination, and a place to remember and fondly reminisce ... nothing scary at all about that.

Then, David's dad brought us around several properties where the family had mineral rights to ( that was a term I learnt only after coming to the States - who would have known you could have different people owning what was ABOVE ground and what was BELOW ground! ) , and ended up having lunch at the ( I've been told, famous ) Lowake Steak House. I opt for the grilled Tilapia ( give me fish any day ).

Then we trooped on home to relax for a bit before.....



2. The Annual Kiwanis Fish Fry

Yippee, I didn't have to make dinner either. David's dad is a member of the local Kiwanis Club and had given us 2 tickets to the annual Fish ( and chicken strips ) Fry, where Johnny once again sang and a good time was had by all :)

3. A Seasonal Lawn

Once again, when I was in Malaysia, I would look on with envy at the different seasons that other part of the world had to "play" with, and now that I am here, experiencing all of this first hand, and autumn is a-knocking at our door, I love all the things that I can do out in the lawn, even if it is for my own little "happiness is... " thing. :)

4. A couple of rare self portraitish moments

I hardly take pictures of myself coz i think i look horrendous, but since I'd lost some weight, I thought what the heck. In a year, I can look back at my blog and go "oooo" or something to that effect. Speaking of which, I looked back at my blog entries from a year ago, and I was sick a few days ago on 10/9/07 and I was ALSO sick on 10/9/06 !!! spookiness ensues....

What have I been up to?

David made me blog this one..

i.e. a breakfast I made him :)

Photo says it all

We're all excited that a new Dollar Tree is opening about 7 minutes away, by the (relatively) new Walmart - there's been a real upcropping of retail stores in our vicinity, which is super cool - there's a little strip mall thing with Radio Shack, the Game Store ( methinks ), as well as a salon place, and a express clinic and a Chili's & Cracker Barrel as well as good ol' Dairy Queen which is the only thing that was originally there. How complacent and low maintenance am I to get all excited over the opening of the Dollar Tree where everything's a dollar? *grin*

Halloween's around the corner - we've got giant inflatable pumpkins to put up by the front fence/gate, and we already have several things hanging up in the tree in front of the house... We've never had any trick-or-treat'ers come by our place before, and if they came to us, all we could give them would be energy bars. LOL

Cindy and I went for our usual girls' day out, which was real busy today - I had to make a stop at the post office to send off some warm clothes to my sister's address in California because they're flying there from Malaysia next week!!! *ooooh excitement galore*

We also stopped by the Center for Contemporary Arts for some "cultural enrichment", taking in some a series by Angie Cook.
oops, the pic below should read Center for Contemporary Arts instead of Grace Museum. BLEH. Too lazy to re-Photoshop it now.