Happy CNY!

Hello! I haven't updated in a while.. lazy.. heh.

So, we had a blast in Tokyo and Singapore! Troy fell in love with wanton mee and keeps asking for it. ;) Sadly I doubt I will be able to create char siew and wantons and noodles that are up to standard! Anyway it was a fun albeit short trip. Hopefully we'll be able to stay longer next time, whenever that is!

Anyway it was hellish coming back to the harsh MN winter!! Winter is not too bad when you ease into it gradually... but going from warm summery weather to blistery cold in one day!!!!! Took me two whole weeks to get back into winter mode and work mode again.

Work's busy busy. I had to take up two more placements, and I am not liking all the travel UGH. Anyway I'm hoping the Edina clinic will fill up and I can switch back to having more time there. All the changes to insurance and funding cutbacks have been quite the pain in the a*s. On the bright side, one of my kiddo's mom brought me flowers and a $15 cariboo gift card today!! :) Sweet parents and kids brighten up my day. :)

It's the 2nd anniversary of our first date next week! Actually we're not even sure when it is exactly, just sometime in Feb. We are not very good with dates, oops. Marriage has been absolutely wonderful so far. :)

Ok I have nothing else to update. Everyone in Singapore kept saying to bring a baby back this year, but I'm pretty sure its a NO on both counts.

Walking in a winter wonderland!

Hello snowy December!!

We had a blizzard on Saturday - 17 inches of snow! Troy and I did the smart thing and stayed home all day, watched Monk and Jeff Dunham on Netflix, played the new games I got him for Christmas, did a puzzle.. :)) All we need is a fireplace.

Love the holiday season! I had so much fun making holiday jars last night for our friends as gifts. I'll have to take a picture.

We fly out on Sunday!!! We'll be in Tokyo 3 days before we fly back to Singapore for about a week. Looking forward to our vacation! And all prepared for the flight with a new book, magazine, DS game, card games... :))

See ya all back in Singapore!

Happy November!

Can't believe its year end already!

It's pretty warm out still. Snowed all of last Saturday but hasn't snowed since.

Life's going good. Troy's lost 22 lbs! :) Flat belly diet is working well. Also our grocery bill has gone down by about half since we started the diet! Crazy I know.

We're looking forward to our trip in Dec. Troy wants to go to the night safari and also have breakfast with the orang utans at the zoo. LOL. Also planning to go to Disneyland in Tokyo - yay! :)

Wow, it's warm

This time last year, it was already snowing. Instead this year it is warm as can be! I haven't had to put on a coat for about 2 weeks, and the kids are still wearing shorts and t-shirts to therapy. ;)

So, life is pretty darn awesome. I love my hubby, he is wonderful. :) We are finally getting our apartment together - threw some stuff out, put things away, getting organized. We spend most of our Target giftcards that we got from our wedding on STORAGE. Got some shelves for our "pantry". Got a lot of big plastic containers for my barang barang. We still have a pile of unopened wedding presents in the living room, which we can't use yet because we don't have the room for it!

CANNOT WAIT TO HAVE A HOUSE!

We're socking away about $1200 a month towards our house down payment, so hopefully we will be able to buy one sometime in spring/summer of 2012. Hopefully house prices will still be LOW then! I've been checking out houses online and right now we can get a 3-4 bedroom house for about $140,000 in a pretty decent area. I am really thankful we live in a very affordable state!

Work is still going good. I think I am getting better with more experience, so my job actually gets better all the time. I work with really nice people, I work 40 hours a week, pay is decent, so really can't complain too much. I only get 2.5 weeks of paid vacation time now, but if I stay with the company for 4 years then I will get 3.5 weeks which will be very nice indeed! :)

We are excited for our upcoming vacation in December! It will be our first vacation together so that will be very nice indeed. Plus 10 days off work sounds awesome!!! I haven't had a long break since starting work. Haven't been back to Singapore in 2 years, and looks like there's been a lot of changes! Am looking forward to checking out Universal Studios, Helix (?) bridge, Singapore Flyer, and the resorts (maybe). It's been so long since I've been back I don't even know the names or locations of these new places, but looks pretty cool from my friends' fb pictures. ;)

I can write what I want, its a free country

I resent being labeled a "quitter". I traveled 5000 miles by myself to a country I had never been to before, and where I knew absolutely nobody. I had to find my way around, learn this new culture and language, live on my own, make new friends, do well in school, and get a job in this economy. I had to learn everything from scratch. I am a SURVIVOR okay?? Keep calling me an ungrateful Singaporean and see if I still want to keep being one.

Why is the gahmen deaf to voices of young Singaporeans? How long do they think they can get their way with threats, lies, blackmail, secrecy, and coercion? What disappoints me the most is 这么多年来，一点长进都没有... The world has moved on and yet some people are still living in the past. This is not our parents' generation anymore. Wake up.

It's Fall

The summer has just zoomed by. I love each of the four seasons, but always feel some sadness and withdrawal during these transition periods.

Looking on the bright side, I do love Fall. Tomorrow I am going apple and pumpkin picking, which I am really excited about! Have always wanted to do that. I love Honey Crisp apples from MN and PUMPKIN is quite possibly my favorite fruit. I adore pumpkin pie. :)

And... FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!!!!!! :)) Which means lazy Sundays on the couch with my hubby, watching 3 games back to back. LOL.

I love the four seasons. Each one is so special and enjoyable in its own way. And also it helps me remember when things happen. ;)

Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the funniest wedding moments was when Troy's friend Shag went up to my dad, Troy's dad, and me separately to tell us how Troy was the nicest guy he knows and Troy's the man he would introduce to his sister. We both thought it was really sweet of him, but also sooooo funny. :) Shag felt bad for Troy because everyone at the wedding kept saying how lucky Troy was, and he felt the need to stick up for Troy. ;)

Ok I confess I am still a little high from the wedding. ;) Avery's mom emailed to say she and his dad were also still high from how good Avery was at the wedding, and they are very proud parents. :)

I cleaned up the apartment some this weekend. Took out some boxes to the trash. We still have a stockpile of wedding presents in our living room though, but we'll probably leave them unopened until we have our own house. We both can't wait to have a house!!!!!! Me because I want a place to call our permanent home, start decorating it, and have lots of friends over. Troy because he wants dogs and a MAN CAVE in the basement. :P

I started a smartypig savings account for us today! Our first savings goal is a trip to ROCKY MOUNTAINS, COLORADO next October for our first year anniversary. OMG check out these gorgeous cabins with an OUTDOOR HOT TUB overlooking the mountains?!!? HELLOOO??? http://www.cabinsofcolorado.com/index.htm

And, because I'm a person who always plans ahead.. my latest interest is researching citizenship. Being a green card holder married to an American citizen, I will become eligible for US citizenship in 2013. Thing is, when I first started this immigration process several months ago, I had absolutely no intention of taking up US citizenship. I had always planned to retain my Sg citizenship so that our kids could be dual citizens. Sadly, due to DON'T-MAKE-ANY-SENSE GAHMEN, this plan is now foiled.

Why? Well, gahmen has this absolutely ridiculous law that states male dual citizens are not permitted to renounce their citizenship until age 21. Which means our sons will be called up for NS at age 18 just like any Singaporean. I would be fine with it if they were actually in Singapore. However, since Troy and I plan to stay in the USA, our poor sons will have to leave their entire lives in the USA and return to Singapore all by themselves to serve NS for 2 years. Following NS, they would then have to renounce Sg citizenship at age 21 because Sg does not permit dual citizenship. UMM, HELLOO??? At the end of the day, they would still NOT be dual citizens, just wasted two years of their lives. Which parent would inflict this torture on their child???

Does this policy make sense to anyone???

I'm a married woman!!

Being "married" makes me feel about 10 years older. Oooooh I'm a grown-up now! With a real job and everything! ;)

I HAD THE BEST WEEKEND OF MY LIFE!!!!!! I enjoyed every single minute of my wedding and prepping with the boys+girls the day before. It was a blast!! I was still high for 2 days after... ;)

My girls were just wonderful in helping in every way and making it all a breeze for me. I really enjoyed having them stay at the Inn with us, it gave us some nice time to catch up while making centerpieces, cocktails, decorations... And the boys!! If you look under their jokey exterior, they are the kindest souls. :)

And boy am I glad I bought those bubbles and hired a DJ! Those bubbles kept the kids entertained ALL NIGHT long, and really got Avery and Bekah going! I was really worried about Avery being bored, but omg the kids became little DANCING MACHINES once the music came on. It was hilarious to watch.

Am sooooo soooooooo glad Troy convinced me to get a DJ and have a dollar dance. I was pretty hesitant since 1) I can't dance to save my life, 2) I'd never even heard of a dollar dance. IT WAS SUCH A BLAST! I loved loved loved it, it was awesome to chat and slow dance with so many guests, plus how cute were Caden and Avery (both 6) when they bashfully came up and asked the bride to dance! It was adorable. Bekah (little bride in the making) kept coming up to me every 5 minutes to ask me something, (Umm.. Meijie? Can I have more bubbles? Can I have a crane? Can I have another crane?) which also cracked me up. ;) And then I had to stop talking to my coworkers because this little 5-year-old insisted I teach her how to make a crane at my wedding, LOL.

And the toasts were just wonderful! We have funny friends. :)

Anyway, what made it even better was everyone telling me after that what a fun time they had. Johanna said it was the funnest wedding she had ever been to, and my coworker said it was one of the nicest. :) Awwwwwwww, ain't that the sweetest things anyone can say! And everyone we talked to had a blast, and we got compliments on the venue, cookies, food, flowers, little handmade details... Troy said his dad was impressed with my organization skills. ;)))

Am soooo glad we had an intimate wedding. 60 turned out to be the perfect number of people there. Can't wait for the pro pictures to come back! In the meantime, check out fb for pictures. :)

LOL, again

The baby's been pretty curious about Singlish, so last week I pulled up a video on YouTube to show him what Singlish sounds like. It was a clip from the movie Singapore Dreaming.

He watched it 3 times with a really confused look on his face.

Me: So, what do you think?
Him: What do you mean?
Me: Did you understand what they were saying?
Him: Oh... you mean they were speaking in ENGLISH???

1 week away!

Wowee, time flies! Can you believe the wedding is ONE week away??

Our little apartment is stacked full of boxes right now. There's about 10 boxes that we need to bring with us to the wedding.. and in the other corner we have all our wedding presents! Opening presents has been TOO MUCH FUN. LOL. My coworkers at preschool and Capernaum very sweetly threw me a wedding lunch and a wedding shower last week. I was very touched.

I've been having quite a bit of wedding panic these two weeks, mainly worried about if I forgot something, or if I should have done such-and-such differently. I'm trying to remind myself that the world won't come to an end if I have ugly centerpieces. :P I'm really praying for good weather.

Am also looking forward to life after the wedding. It will be my last week at preschool next week, then I am starting at Global Academy, which is K-8th grade. Mostly Muslim students, children of recent immigrants from Somalia, Iraq, and the middle east. I certainly identify with the adjustments that recent immigrants have to make! I am very curious about Somali and Iraqi culture and am looking forward to learning about it.

Community ed classes are starting in September, and I am most likely signing up for yoga. Have been wanting to do yoga for a while, and these classes thru the Minneapolis schools are pretty cheap.

Am also contemplating starting up my own small business online on etsy. I've had fun DIY-ing some parts of my wedding, so I figure I might be able to sell some of my crafts online. Some extra income would be really nice, since we'd like to get our first house in about a year. I've been thinking about what kind of part time job I'd like... don't really wanna do more speech therapy, 4.5 days a week is enough. Don't really wanna work as a waitress, sales person.. kinda boring and pay's not great. Soo... if I could get my etsy shop going, that would really be perfect.

Troy is planning on going to grad school next Fall, for a Masters in School Counseling. He is pretty psyched about becoming a school counselor, because it means weekends and summers off!! THREE whole months in the summer to bum around and do nothing. And if I get a job working in the schools too, that means 3 months off a year for the BOTH of us! ;) So yeah, we've been researching grad school options around here.

Oh, and I also ordered the Flat Belly Diet book and cookbook, on the recommendation of my coworker. She said she and her husband lost a bunch of weight and lowered their cholesterol after starting the diet, and also have more energy to boot. So, Troy and I plan to get started on it after the wedding. Since we have a family history of heart disease on both sides, can't be too careful really.

Fall's a-coming, and this year I am determined not to miss out on pumpkin and apple-picking. I LOVE FALL. I love pumpkin pie. I love halloween. I love the beautiful colors and gorgeous weather. I love Thanksgiving. I love football. I love having the four seasons.

So, lots and lots of plans ahead!!!! :)

My baby cracks me up

Was rather bored last Sunday, so I dug out my 放羊的星星 DVDs that I bought from Taiwan a couple years ago.
Troy's first exposure to Taiwanese drama!

Our conversation:
Him: Why do they keep calling him Tianqi?
Me: Because that's his name?
Him: But... I thought his name is Vernon.
Me: It is.
Him: Huh??
Me: His English name is Vernon, his Chinese name is Tianqi.
Him: I'm confused.

*Me laughing hysterically because its so duuuuhh!* My poor baby's going to be so confused when he goes to Singapore. ;) I already told him to go read angryangmo.com, which is written by a German in Singapore.

And later...

Him: Even though I don't understand what they're saying, they're all really bad actors.
Me: Hey!!! Don't talk about my childhood idol that way. I've liked him since I was 10!
Him: If you had a choice between him and David Duchovny, who would you pick?
Me: Uhhhhhhh... ummmmm..... dunno. Can't decide.

;)

We went to watch Myq Kaplan at the Acme Comedy Club last night. He was 5th on Last Comic Standing. But I was quite disappointed in his performance because I'd already heard half his jokes on TV! The 2 other comedians were REALLY REALLY funny though! Quite sad that the sidekicks upstaged the headliner huh? We had a great time, only $15! Definitely going back. We'd probably go check out the comedy club at the Mall too sometime.