Note to Junior : Where do I begin??

Your aunt Judy and your cousins have decided to have a baby shower for you in a few weeks, and so now, among other things, your mommy is going a little batty trying to organize a baby registry or two - which will probably be Walmart and Target.

Aunt Judy asked what the nursery "theme" would be, and I'm like, "WHAT THEME?" This is horrible, but your room is FAR from ready *raises eyebrows and purses lips at daddy* and so I told her, "The Theme is Hodge Podge" .. *grin*

Well, I'll keep praying that everything will fall into place and that if it doesn't, we'll be able to come up with some sort of backup plan.

Meanwhile, let's hope I can get this registry thing in order to let people know before hand!

*sigh*

Happy Chinese New Year

This will be the 6th year I'll be missing out on CNY with my family.

Is it even possible that it's been THAT long? *twinges galore*

Hopefully next year, when all the silly Green Card stuff is sorted out, and Junior is able to travel ( other than in the mummy's tummy ), there might be a hint of a possibility of a family reunion :). Otherwise, we'll just have to go crash my brother's house in Virginia.. :P

Happy Year of the Ox, and may it be filled with Peace, Love, Joy and Blessings galore

Food Glorious Food

Since I became pregnant,

I've had a hankering for Asian food. Most of the restaurants here in Abilene offer pseudo-asian, very americanised "chinese food", and so a lot of times, I TRY my hand at making comfort food from home. I've gotten better over the years and I guess the biggest test has been if David would eat them ( seeing how they might not be things he might see at a Chinese Buffet place, for example ), and surprisingly enough, he likes most of them! I make sure not to cook anything too funky or "out there" though :)

Anyway, the latest Asian food that I've made are...

Char Kuay Teow ( Letti's Version )




Stir Fry Pepper Pork with Bell Pepper and Onion




Stir Fry Baby Bak Choy with Garlic




Stir Fry Green Beans with Pork and "glass noodles"




Chicken and Potato Curry




Tofu and Salted Mustard Greens Soup

Of course, we can't forget last week's Letti Thursday, since this is a food post after all.

Hush Puppies




Salmon Croquettes




Sweet Corn




Brownies with Cheesecake Swirls

Digital TV Signals

We have Dish Network

but don't have local channels with the service. It's a long story.

Anyway, we had been watching the local channels over the air, with rabbit ears. Suffice to say, the reception has never been stellar. Until we sort the thing out with Dish Network, we still have to get our local channels over the air, and so earlier last year, we wrote in for our DTV converter box coupons and got a couple of boxes over at Radio Shack ( ANOTHER whole OTHER debacle in itself )

Long story short, yesterday evening, I set up the boxes to the TV in the living room, and in my study, and man, what a difference that little box makes. One of the local channels hasn't started broadcasting in digital as yet, but with the new box, it's easy to switch between the analog and digital signals.

Sweet.

Space Savers make me Happy

I don't have a big kitchen

and have just the most pitiful of counter spaces for food preparation. I often have to put the cutting board over the sink to have extra space. Which is why, when our old old microwaveable food cover partially died, and I had to order a new one, it didn't take me long to decide on the Tovolo Microwave Collapsible Food Cover.

It came in the mail yesterday, and it stores away so conveniently on the top of the microwave without taking up much space.

Happy Happy Joy Joy.

Such Extravagance!

We got a new TV set.

So what's the big deal? Well, this is so self indulgent and extravagant it just makes me blush. Remember when we got the 56 inch Samsung DLP in 2004? Well, David's dad is going on 90 years old and his eyes are not as good as they used to be. He loves watching sports, but on their 27 inch ( i think ) TV, he just can't make out the scores or enjoy the games as much any more.

So, after some discussion, David and I decided to move our 56 inch TV over to his dad's house ( now THAT was quite a major task in itself ) - which we did last Saturday. It delights David to no end that his dad has no more problems making out the scores, and can enjoy watching sports so much more.

Our "OLD" TV, the Samsung 56 inch DLP


The historic day when we brought it home in 2004




Yes, we had to move THIS ( below ) WITHOUT A BOX to david's dad's house

Which leaves us with NO TV.

So what do you do when you give your big screen TV away?

GET A BIGGER TV!!!

*laugh*

We drove to Arlington on Monday and picked up a 73 ( read: SEVENTY FREAKIN' THREE ) inch Mitsubishi DLP HD TV ( Mitsubishi WD 73835 ) to bring home.

Bringing Home the new TV

We had to go get it at the warehouse




The guys opened it up so we would know that it actually worked before carting it 2 1/2 hours home






David making some final checks on the tie-downs




What the TV looks like

That sounds totally outrageous, but seriously we got it at a ridiculously reasonable price.

:)

Letti Thursday

Browns, Yellows and Oranges

That seemed to be the theme for Letti Thursday last night..

In Malaysia, I was used to having at least SOME green leafy vegetables at every meal, and potatoes or yams/sweet potatoes were considered "starch", but here apparently it can be considered the vegetable part of the meal. Oh well. At least I managed to get some Kangkung today at the Filipino Food Store, and David thought it was yummier than the usual spinach. YAY!

Anyway, the menu was

Toasted Garlic Sour Dough





My version of Golden Corral's Bourbon Street Chicken,
except mine's more like Teriyaki Garlic Chicken with Dark Soy Sauce,
with more gravy and less greasy :P




Boiled Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon




Tangerines, Mangoes and Peaches




Chocolate Chip Fudge Cake

R.I.P Mr. Roarke

Ricardo Montalban
November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009

Letti Thursday

I don't really know what it is,

but I've gotten into a "baking" thing lately, where I'm baking more than I ever did before. I'm not a good baker by any stretch of the imagination, having not done much before, but I find myself making different cakes for Letti Thursday ( soon to be Testosterone Thursday???? ) like the German Chocolate Cake from a few weeks ago, Carrot Cake from last week, and I'm already planning to make a Chocolate Chip Fudge cake for next week. Must be some maternal thing..... :)

Anyway, this past week, the menu was...

Baked Chicken with Spices

Scalloped Potatoes





Broccoli, Cauliflower and Carrots with Cheese





And of course, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Phew

I called up the OBGYN's clinic this morning to find out the results of the Glucose Test ( O'Sullivan's Test ) I had to do last Friday, and the results were NORMAL!!!

*does the dance of joy*

Baby Update

26 Weeks and 3 Days

Has it really been that long since we ( I say we, cos it really IS a joint venture, after all *grin* ) got pregnant? A blogger friend pointed out to me that there were less than 100 days to go. Yoiks. It has been quite the adventure, the latest being David finally felt the baby kick, I had to go do a routine gestational diabetes screening test, and having b*tt pain. :) Well, it can all be read over at the preggo blog.

What was really sweet though, was that Judith, David's eldest sister brought a quilt-in-progress meant for Junior, to the family Christmas gathering, and asked if everyone would like to put a stitch or two in, to participate. Awwww..

Here's part of the family doing some stitcheroos.

Stephanie and Cindy



Amy ( welcome to the family! ) and Judith



Cindy and Johnny



Judith and David



Walter



Baby Max would have chipped in too, except that he was totally exhausted from the whole Christmas extravaganza :)

Letti Thursday - New Year 2009 Edition

I learned from David several years ago,

that having black eyed peas with your New Year's dinner was a big tradition in the South, the reason being that it was believed that it would bring you good luck throughout the coming year. Therefore it is something that we have tried to observe through the years. It just so happened that this year, New Year's day fell on Letti Thursday! So we were able to share the tradition with my FIL and BIL as well.

Black-eyed Peas with Ham and Onions





BBQ Halved Chicken Leg Quarters





Crescent Rolls





Cantaloupe





German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting






Bless us, O Lord, and bless the time and seasons
yet to come.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
And fill this new year with your kindness,
that we may be glad and rejoice
all the days of our life.

Happy 2009

It's been quite the year

and of course with Junior being the biggest story of all :) I told David jokingly last night that technically, I would have been pregnant for 2 years! :)

Although traditionally, this is the time of the year for them, I just don't know about resolutions.

Haven't really made them nor kept them in a while. BUT, this year, among other things, I pray that Junior will continue to grow healthily, and that we will have a smooth and uneventful delivery when the time comes, and that David and I will have the strength and wisdom that Junior will need from us, as well as being the best examples that we can be for him, for I know that he will be such a joy to us. I can't help it if I have baby on the brain 24/7. My whole body's thrown into such a Tilt-a-Whirl state.

Oh, and that I will try not to sweat the small things in life too much :P