my new best friend

i've been eyeing two steam mops at costco. i have hardwood floors; the dark smooth kind that shows every dirty footprints and smudges on the floor. i find myself on my hands and knees at least once a week cleaning the hardwood floors. it's hard work =P so when i saw these steam mops at costco that claimed to clean hardwood floors, i was ecstatic! i examined the two types of floor cleaners and slept on it. the price difference was about $30, but i didn't care about the price since you can't put a price on something that makes life easier!

my decision: the cheaper shark steam mop simply because it was easy to use and it had removable pads that i could wash.

the only thing i worried about was it's sturdiness and its ability to clean. i tested it last night for the first time and i was totally satisfied and happy that it did the job! the only minor issue is that the steam sometimes leave little small puddles of water which can easily be wiped away with a paper towel attached to your feet! no more cleaning the floors on my hands and knees!! one happy camper.

baby nathan

congrats to shelby, roger and big brother nicholas!














nathan kai tanaka
born december 28, 2008 10ish am
7 pounds 4 ounces
20 inches

happy holidays

this christmas seemed to have breezed by. i started shopping after thanksgiving and avoided shopping during the weekends. even with "free" weekends, i didn't start making my holiday cards till the last weekend before christmas! i was able to finish 50 cards and mailed them out by monday. i'm not sure why i am so laid back, or shall i say, "lazy" this year.... anyways, here's 2008 christmas cards:

inpiration: paper source

oh, last weekend i also went to the christmas train at the irvine regional park. i DO NOT recommend it. the night was basically about waiting in line. we waited in line to get tickets; then we waited about an hour and a half for the 3-5 minute train ride to the so-called "santa's village." then we stood in line for another 30 minutes to take pictures with santa and finally waited about 15 minutes for the train back. i wished there were more things to see, but unfortunately there wasn't much. the christmas lights were not that impressive and to top it all off, it was freezing cold!!! here are some pix:

and the highlight of the night: heating lamps!!

wanted: a good child view car mirror

i bought "the first years" child view car mirror 4 years ago at burlington coat factory (baby depot). it broke this year and i attempted to fix it many many many times because i couldn't find a replacement. i even tried a different brand, but it didn't work well at all. i searched high and low and the only place i found that sells them was ebay. i finally bit the bullet and purchased one recently on ebay; i paid $12.80 (includes shipping). i don't remember how much i paid for the original one. anyways, if anyone happens to be in burlington coat factory or out shopping for baby stuff, please keep an eye out for this and empty the shelf for me! it's the best child view car mirror!!

jingle bell

aaron never likes to sing. yesterday he surprised me by singing "jingle bell" in the car. i was able to capture it on film at home next to the christmas tree (i had to bribe him with candy though). enjoy this RARE event:

sloppy seconds

this past weekend, while i sat on my kitchen floor to be next to my boys, i asked for kisses. kyle got to me first and gave me a kiss on the lips. then i puckered up to give aaron a kiss. he stopped and said, "wipe it off first." i guess at 3 and half, they already know about sloppy seconds. lol

here's a pix of my rock star playing guitar hero. watch out gene simmons!

do you love me?

aaron has never really been the affectionate type, but lately he's been saying "i love you" more frequently. last week i scolded him because he was misbehaving (which is not unusual) and for the first time he asked me, "do you love me?" aww... that made my heart melt. how could i stay mad at him after that?? so now every time i get mad at him, he asks me, "do you love me?" smart kid....

expecting card

here's one of my favorite card. i made a couple of these cards for my girl friends who are expecting boys. this card is not easy to make because of the umbrella, hand, and shoe; they are small so it's tedious to cut them out. anyways, i forgot i had a cartridge for my cricut machine that has a pregnant woman die cut. i should try it out and make a card out of it and see which one looks better.

btw, congrats to michelle lim who welcomed baby nathan on november 26th! shelby's next!!!

being thankful

since september/october, i've been waiting to find out what my future with the company that bought us out. they promised us that they would tell us by december 1st. well, i found out yesterday that i would be in the "transition bucket." that means i would stay to help them with the transition/support work during the merge. my last day will be june 26, 2009. my incentive to stay is double pay plus 2009 bonus (prorated). on top of that, i get my 16 weeks of severance. so i must say i was really happy with the package. however, on a sad note, some of my co-workers were not as fortunate and got the 60-days notice. our happy family is broken. =(

so this thanksgiving, i am thankful for caring managers looking after me, great, fun co-workers, and of course, jayant and joel, who i can count on to make me laugh and smile at work. so thank you!!!

happy thanksgiving to everyone and remember the real things you should be thankful for!!!

potty training surprise

i wasn't planning to start potty training kyle until he was 2. i wasn't even planning to be serious about it; was just planning to introduce him to the toilet at 2. well, the past couple of days has been surprising. he told g several times yesterday that he wanted to shee-shee (peeing in japanese) and he would actually go! before he would just stand over the toilet and not go at all. my mom told me he actually went to the potty all by himself today and he actually shee-shee'd in the toilet before his bath. progress!

...i am sure this is going to back fire and kyle will be one of those kids who will refuse to do #2 in the toilet until he is 4 or 5! anyways, i probably won't enforce potty training like i did with aaron. i'll just cheer him on!

time to eat!

i finally got to enjoy a nice peaceful dinner with g tonight! big thanks to ms. jessica, aaron's favorite teacher at creator's corner (pre-school) for babysitting!! the chilean sea bass at opah was awesome and i got to enjoy an adult conversation with my hubby!

i am going to be spoiled again tomorrow with a brunch at mimi's cafe for michelle's baby shower! no kids!! whoohoo! sunday will probably be payback time when we go to disneyland... =(

anyways, have a good weekend everyone!

wanted: halloween candy passer

was it just me or is the spirit of trick-or- treating gone? we went trick-or-treating for a little bit in my sister's neighborhood of west irvine tonight and i would say more than 50% of the houses that we went to had a bowl of candy out. no knocking on the door, no greeting, and no "trick or treat." having a bowl of candy out definitely takes away the fun of trick-or-treating from the kids.

i have to admit, i am guilty of leaving a bowl of candy out for the past several years because we always go to my sister's neighborhood to trick-or-treat. i am sure the houses that we visited had similiar reasons. starting next year i am going to make an effort to stay home and greet trick-or-treaters or hire someone to do it! i think it's a lot of fun seeing all the kids in their costumes, including adults!

here's a picture of aaron as batman (so were his 2 cousins)!

kyle's last minute puppy costume. too cute!

sleep battles

after spending a week in hawaii, i can see some changes in the boys' sleep. aaron, of course, is sleeping later. he doesn't fall asleep until 11ish and the teacher's aide at school told me it's been difficult waking him up after nap time is over. however, he is still ok sleeping in his own bed.

kyle, on the other hand, was a big challenge the other night. when we were in hawaii, i would rock him to sleep before putting him in his crib. he would go to sleep late and would wake up the same time he normally would at home so that's like 3 am - 4 am in hawaii! since i wanted to sleep more i would rock kyle back to sleep and let him sleep with me. unfortunately, kyle got spoiled by that. the other night he woke up at 1 am crying and wanted to be held. i picked him up and was ready to rock him back to sleep. then i thought, no, i shouldn't enforce this habit. so i put him down in his crib and that was when the battle began! he cried for 45 minutes while i sat in his room trying to comfort him without picking him up. he finally stopped crying after he threw his blanket to the floor. i gave back his blanket and he started examining his crib. then he sat down, hugged his blanket, rocked a bit, and his head started to wobble. i thought to myself, "good, he's tired. another half an hour and he should be asleep." well, an hour past and he wasn't sitting anymore. he finally laid his head down, BUT he wasn't asleep. his eyes would close then open, close then open. i think he was checking to make sure i was still there. it was now around 4 am so i moved closer to his bedroom door and he started crying again. so i thought, maybe i should convince him to sleep by talking to him. i asked him where is his bed. he points down to his crib. i asked him where he sleeps. again, he points down to his crib. then i asked, "where does mommy sleep?" he points to the chair i was sitting in. =(

i finally threw in the towel at 5 am because i only had one hour of sleep. gary took over and rocked kyle to sleep!!!! so much for my effort....

HOWEVER, kyle slept through the night last night! from 7:30 pm to 7 am! aaron even woke him up last night around 9ish, but he went back to sleep by himself. so maybe he did learned something from the other night! hehe we will see how he does the next several nights.

aaron's first dentist visit

i finally took aaron to the dentist yesterday. i was getting my teeth cleaned by pish so i decided to take aaron too. aaron did exceptionally well. he let dr. pish count and clean his teeth. then when it was my turn, he waited patiently. he even came to me and stroke my hair and held my hands. he was sooo sweet! he made mommy very proud!

aaron started wheezing today though... =( hope it's not asthma.

fireman aaron and kyle's fiery taste buds

coincidentally this weekend was about fire - that is, fire in a good way. the firemen training facility on jamboree/tustin ranch had an open house this weekend so g took aaron. he had a blast. he got to see all sorts of fire engines and he even saw them put out fire. best part was that he got to hold the fire hose!

the other "fire" event is the discovery of kyle's fiery taste buds. i gave him a little bit of spicy noodles a couple weeks ago and it didn't seem to affect him. i thought maybe the noodle didn't soak up enough of the spicy broth so i didn't think anything of it. then today, we had fried rice and i put in those spicy white peppers. kyle wanted some of my fried rice, so i gave him some of mine. again, he didn't react! he just wanted more! i'm loving this kid more and more cause he has the same taste as his mommy! he likes durian, coconut, longan... but then again, what doesn't he like?! here's a funny pix of kyle eating a popette (small powder donut).

card time

i finally found some time to make some cards. my new customer, joel, requested several cards. here are birthday cards for the many ladies in his life (haha):

here's one for his many god children:

i think i need to stop making new cards and start mass producing the existing cards, christmas cards and not to mention, sherri's announcements and my own christmas cards. busy days ahead of me. i can't believe it's OCTOBER already!!

lobstered-out

i can't believe this, but for the first time in my life, i am sick of eating lobster! my brother went on a lobster trip on roger's boat yesterday (it was opening day for lobster yesterday). they limit out within the first couple of traps; they each caught the limit, which is 7 lobsters each! the biggest lobster my brother brought home was around 8 pounds! anyways, it was good eating!

at*tah*tude!

at age 3 and a half, aaron is starting to give us attitude! he's starting to talk back to us when we try to discipline him and when i tell him to do something, he'll often respond with, "ok! ookaay!" i'm not sure how to deal with attitude; i need to google this.... got advice, anyone?

on another note, aaron is starting to learn how to use my itouch! he knows how to scroll with his finger to watch monster trucks and garbage trucks on youtube! next thing you know, he's going to want his own itouch for christmas!

oh, btw... whoohoo!!! lol

poor bambi

boy, talk about being absent! it's been a crazy week for the financial market. so can you imagine the anxieties at the office?!? watching the stocks going down and hearing all the speculations and wondering how much worst it can get.... it still amazes me on what's happening to these big companies.... well, i hope it only gets better and for people to learn from all of this!

anyways, i got to take a little weekend trip to bridgeport (a little fishing town 45 minutes north of mammoth) last weekend. it was a nice relaxing trip. the boys enjoyed themselves. g even caught some fish! trout... blah. well, the highlight of the trip was our drive up. we left around 7:30 pm and we gave martin a ride to silver lake(?). on our way back to the main highway, g encountered a deer on the road. g couldn't swerve 'cause there was a lake to the right of us so we side swept the deer. we just heard a big bang on the side of our car and continued driving. my biggest concern at the time was the deer; i was hoping that it didn't have to suffer. the next morning we finally realized the damage the deer made on our mdx - a decent size dent on the side door and snagged deer hair!! ew... the funny part of this though, is that when i told this to my mom and my oldest brother, they both responded, "did you bring some deer home?" i don't know if my brother was serious or not, but my mom was totally serious! (btw, my mom's a vegetarian. haha)

k, gotta do some work... on a friday night. how sad. =(

6 drinks too many

on saturday my neighbors had a block party. there were lots of kids, toys, and food on albee avenue! the adults even broke out alcoholic drinks (i'm sure our hoa didn't approve that =p). after 6 drinks, i thought i had a pretty good buzz until i got home and that's when it kind of hit me. i forced myself to upchuck before going to bed. then in the middle of the night, i woke up having the need to upchuck again. that one was awful; it was one of those acidic ones. ew.... after all these years, i thought i would learn my lesson and avoid tequila; even if it's patron. so for sure, NO MORE TEQUILA!

good times.... lol

"fire-rhea"

the other day, while aaron sat on the potty to do number 2, i noticed he had diarrhea. so i told him he had diarrhea. he gave me a confused look so i explained to him what diarrhea is. he asked various questions about it and came up with one that made me laugh. he asked, "fireman have fire-rhea?"

yes, firemen have "fire-rhea."

M.I.A.

so i have been missing in action. work has kept me busy. i'm taking friday night off! whoohoo! i feel the need to just vegitate so i'm just watching CSI reruns. the writers of this show must be nutso's. they have some crazy jacked up stories.

anyways, not much happening since i've been tied up. i OD'ed on caffeine the other day. it was worst than my first can of pepsi after i had aaron. i had a large coffee and a large vietnamese ice coffee in the morning. i felt jittery and my stomach turned all day. i attempted to hit the sack at 11 pm only to toss and turned all night. i finally fell asleep at 4 am in the morning!! then i had to get up at 6:20 am. auh, never again!!! lesson learned.

hope everyone have a nice labor day weekend!!! i actually have no plans!

baby cards

my friend and #1 customer (lol), christine, asked for a couple of baby shower cards. so here are the baby boy cards i made for her to choose from:


(don't care for the bootie one, but thought i'd throw it in. =P)

the following are the baby girl ones, which you guys have seen before; just slight variations.



so which cards reign supreme? which two will she chose?

our first "run away from home" threat?

while we had dinner tonight, i think we got our first "run away from home" threat from aaron. g told aaron to eat his dinner and aaron got mad and said, "you're not my friend. i'm going to go away!" of course, daddy responded with, "where are you going?" aaron didn't have an answer. ahh.... too early for this. hehe

i survived!! ... almost

this was the weekend that g got to go on a 2-night fishing trip off of san diego/mexico. so i was stuck with aaron and kyle by myself on saturday night and sunday. i even took the boys to a birthday party (which i will comment later on). amazingly, i only had to break out one new toy and that was to distract aaron when daddy had to leave. i expected to bribe them with new toys, cookies, lots of stars, etc., but i didn't have to resort to them that much! whoo-hoo! well, g comes home tomorrow morning and i now have my mom with me to help in the morning so i am golden as pee. lol

now as for the birthday party that we went to today. it was for joey, our neighbor, and he turned or is turning 6. they rented one of those bouncers but it had a huge slide and a pool at the end. well, let me tell you, that was one big pool of testosterone! the boys at the party were between 4-10(?), and they were pretty crazy going down the slide. i saw way too many rough playing and a handful of crying boys. i was scared for aaron, but he went down that slide all by himself and stayed out of harms way.

so will my two boys grow up to be typical boys? i think they are already typical boys -- getting into everything and active! i just hope they listen and be respectful. that's all i ask for! =P funny thing is, on saturday, we met up w/ g's old friend from college. he has an 8-yrs old daughter and the mom said that with girls, you have to deal with the attitude. so i was in a pretty happy state for the fact that i didn't have to deal with it in the future. then came the birthday party.... instead of attitude, i have to deal with rough playing. hmm... which is worst?

addicted to mahjong solitaire and school bulletin

if you haven't noticed, i have slowed down quite a bit on creating cards. well, blame my friend, joel, for getting me hooked on mahjong solitaire. i downloaded the game onto my ipod touch last week and it is sooo hard to put it down! when you fail to solve the puzzle, you want to try and try again until you do. then when you complete one, you want to solve another one because you want another challenge. it's addicting!!!

well, other than staying up to play mahjong, i also worked on aaron's school bulletin board this week; i was in charge of august (i still can't believe it's august!). of course, i didn't take the easy way out and go buy pre-made cut-outs or decorations at party city. it wouldn't be me. hehe so i struggled with 2 themes: under the sea or ice-cream. i wanted to put my $300 cricut machine to use so i decided on under the sea since i had cartridges that fit the theme. after removing the dust from my cricut and many many cuts, here is the final product.

catelyn, ben, and chloe: i hope you'll get to see this in person when you start school at creator's corner!!

ok, it's still kind of early... do i work on cards or play mahjong?!? hm....

dum-da-dee-dum ...

my friend, christine, asked me to make her a couple of wedding cards since she has a couple of them to attend next month. so i took a stab at making several more wedding cards. they were farely easy to make, except for the bouquet one. i like the bouquet, but not thrilled about the card itself. i think it needs more decorative paper. anyways, here they are. hope you like them, christine!

watch it giggle

watch it wiggle!! no, not my cards. hehe my work had a jello party today. it was a very unique and interesting party. here's a picture of all the jellos.


(clockwise: kelly's lime-pineapple-7up-marshmellow jello; below that is my strawberry cream jello; joel's green coconut jello; lynn's store bought jello - a joke; kevin's strawberry jello; mike's almond jello w/ tropical fruits; my coffee jello shots - minus the alcohol; jayant's strawberry shortcake jello; lynn's 7-layer jello)

here are the honorable mentions:

• joel's filipino jello - most expensive dish; $18!!
• lynn's 7-layer jello - most effort
• jayant's (or shall i say, deepali's) strawberry shortcake jello - most original
• kevin's strawberry jello - most traditional (lol)

thanks to everyone who participated. all the jellos were yummy!

here's the coffee jello recipe i made. it's a keeper =)

• 2 packets of KNOX gelatin (unflavored, 1/4 ounce each packet)
• 1/2 cup cold coffee (or kahlua)
• 3 cups of good hot brewed coffee
• 1/3 cups of sugar (or up to 3/4 cup according to desired sweetness)
• a pinch of salt

1. in a large bowl, combine gelatin and cold coffee
2. allow to sit for 10 minutes to soften
3. add hot coffee, sugar and salt; stir until the sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is clear
4. pour into individual serving dishes and chill till set
5. serve with sweetened whipped cream or half and half

serves 8

oh, i added some whipping cream to some of the coffee jello shots. i couldn't really taste the difference....

happy birthday to my mommy!!

just wanted to shout out a happy birthday to my mommy!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

btw, i DO have the wash and go hair! i finally got to wash my hair for the first time since i got it straightened. whoo-hoo!! low-maintenance hair!!

i didn't get to work on any cards tonight because i had to make jello for my work's jello party. (no, it's not that kind of a party where it involves a kiddie pool and wrestling.) anyways, here's a card i finished up last night. it's just ok. the mistletoe word is somewhat covered with glitter and the berries are 3D. can't really tell from this picture.... oh well, don't think this is a keeper....

guilty?

this weekend was all about me... me! me! me! me! =) i spent 4 hours on saturday at a salon getting my hair permanently straightened (and boy, am i happy with the results) and then on sunday, i spent 3 hours making lasting impressions cards at the red bee. being free from the kids was nice, but felt guilty leaving them with g, especially around nap time. my man never complains even if he has a tough time; that's his nature. thanks and i love you, hon!! well, he'll get to play in 2 weeks - he gets to go on a 2 night fishing trip in mexican waters!

ok, so here are the cards i made in my class today.

boy, were they time consuming! i only completed one card and had to finish up the rest at home. the snowmen card is my favorite, but it was also the one that took the longest. each snowman was cut individually and the frame was ink distressed and also 3D. even their noses are 3D! here's a closer look at the card.

i don't think i'll be making this card in bulk. like someone said in class, "there isn't one person that i like THAT much to make this card for!" lol maybe i'll use the cricut machine to make the frame and keep the snowmen in one piece. that will be much easier!

happy birthday, aidan!

i can't believe the week is over already! it was a rocky week because of the financial market. it's just been crazy! on to a happy note: happy 4th birthday to my nephew, aidan! he turned 4 on tuesday, july 16th. since i haven't made a card all week, i decided to make one for him. so here it is:



i find it a bit difficult to part with the cards that i make. i need to start making multiples so that i can keep one for myself.

i have a full weekend ahead me - aaron's last swimming lesson for the year, hair straightening appointment, aidan's birthday party, and lasting impressions class on sunday (whoohoo!).

hope everyone have a good weekend!

5 pounds lost!

yes, i FINALLY cut my hair! 12 inches off and i'm donating it to locks of love. here are some before and after pix.

it was one of my longest hair appointments ever. my usual hairdresser left christopher perry (salon) so i got a new one. i requested a male because they're normally better at the details and boy, did i get one that was meticulous! as i sat in my chair, i watched a handful of clienteles come in and out and yet, i wasn't even half way through. i thought the sun was going to set pretty soon.... finally, after 2 and half hours, i was done and 5 pounds lighter! haha the nice thing though was that he gave me a 20% discount because i was donating my hair. it only came out to $40!!! i felt so bad for him that i gave him a $20 tip.

so now my next mission - permanent hair straightening so that i can just have the wash-n-go hair that i so long for!

getting fit with wii fit?!

in lieu of making another card tonight, i finally stepped on the wii fit tonight. my center of balance is good, but it said i have a body of a 41 year old! yikes! the wii fit just reconfirmed how out of shape i am. =( anyways, i tried yoga, hula hoops, skiing, running, soccer, aerobics, etc. my favorite is running and hula hoops. lol but boy, the simple yoga poses already were a challenge to me.

hopefully, i can step on the wii fit at least 3 times a week. my goal is to lose 5 pounds and tone up! maybe all i need to do is cut my hair. oh! there goes 5 pounds! hehe

ok, so since i didn't make a card tonight, i'll post a card that i gave to katie chamkasem for her first birthday and a wedding one for brandon and kuulei (congrats, btw!).

chocolate moose

here's another one. not 100% happy with this one though.... probably would have printed the greetings on the printer and replace those christmas trees with something else. oh, what color is a moose's antlers?! for some reason they look funny too.... i think. =P anyways, i'm also thinking of making those bifold cards so that people can insert a 4x6 picture inside the card. guess that will be my next card to make. until then, ta-tah!

christmas in july

i never really knew what christmas in july meant until last year. it's when crafters start making christmas crafts/goodies for the upcoming holiday season. i can't believe i might succumb to this tradition. i made the first holiday card tonight. i used dry embossing again (i'm telling you, i am hooked on dry embossing) and i embellished with some glitter (the falling snow that you can't really see from the pix). i think i might make more to sell and/or donate to my work's charity auction. quite a long road ahead of me....














check back for more holiday cards as i add them to my collection.

aaron graduating to the next class

today was aaron's first day in the "big" boys room - ms. gaye's class! he likes ms. gaye because she draws hearts on his little hands. i thought he would have a hard time today because he is no longer with his favorite teacher, ms. jessica, but according to ms. gaye, he did very well. maybe it's because ms. jessica is still on vacation! once he sees her, i have a feeling he'll be crying for her!

anyways, today is just another reminder how fast my boys are growing....sniff sniff

playing with dry embossing

i try to squeeze in an hour of creativity every night and i recently discovered dry embossing. i got this template today and look what i created! it was pretty easy to make; the most difficult part was figuring out the hanger. those silver miniature hanger would have probably made my life a bit easier. the question is where can i get it and how would i attach it to the card/dress? i see a visit to joann's or michaels coming....

welcome!

my very first blog. whoohoo!! i thought i'd start this blog to share my creations (from my little boys to my handmade cards) with friends and family.

okie-dokie, that's all for now! ta-tah!