How Do You Do It?

Those five words should be a compliment of sorts, but the reality is, whenever someone asks me how I do it (stay home with two kids, work, and whatever else I find myself interested in ... photoshop, budgeting, organizing, cleaning, etc.), I secretly am thinking and laughing to myself... if only they knew.  My secret......?  I sacrifice hygiene.  Yeah, it's pretty disgusting and rather pathetic to admit, but it's the truth.  I don't wear make-up everyday consistently, I sometimes forget to brush my teeth, my hair is a nightmare, my favorite go-to outfit is jeans with a big ol' sweatshirt, I barely shower until I really need to (you'd be surprised how long you can go when you're just kicking it at home all day long), and I live in my baggy Lululemons (kind of fancy, but not if you've seen mine) that are too long and make me trip sometimes - but I don't care, they're just too fabulously comfortable to care!  The only thing I am quite particular about is getting my kids diapers' changed every morning before breakfast, changed into real clothes after breakfast before we head out (if we head out), and lathering onto my own face: toner, serum, moisturizer, and SPF 25.  Yes, I'm a typical Asian - we take our skincare very seriously... well, at least I do! 

When I was working, I always took my showers at night, slept with wet hair in hopes of it coming out fantastic in the morning or being wet enough that I could style it with it only actually doing that miraculously 1 out of every 10 times.  So on the all hands office meeting days when I would actually make the sacrifice to wake up early to shower and do my hair, I would get these odd compliments about if I had just gotten my hair cut or changed it somehow.  Go figure.  

When I began working out consistently and not just for a lousy 10 minutes (mid 20's), I began investing in some fancy work out gear and found myself showering a lot because if you really work out, you can't really get away without a full shower.  That was probably an anomaly in my life to date.  And these days.. even if I do sweat, by the time I get the kids all in order and home to a shower, the sweat has dried off and I seem to forget that I'm in need of one.  Yuck right?  Truth!

When I was dating Andy and I met his family for the first time as his "girlfriend," I'd shower and do my hair everyday.  I remember thinking as I was getting ready one time, looking into the mirror in his sister's bathroom, how odd that I was putting so much effort into getting ready when this would not be a normal part of my day in the future.  But when everyone in the family showers a lot, you kinda feel pressured into doing the same.  Needless to say, how quick we fall... I sure hope Andy doesn't mind or doesn't think his wife has let herself go, because she kind of has.  

The exception would be when I'm back visiting Arcasia and with my mom.  There are high standards for the rare chance that you run into someone you used to know in high school or one of your mom's friends and *gasp, heaven forbid, you embarrass your mother because you aren't looking fabulous and like you were still in college (the good third and fourth year, not the freshman 20 really tired studying for finals kind).  So it makes me laugh when I think about how Andy has chillaxed to my level of laid back slothfulness and how we lost our luggage once and had to hang out all day in Arcasia with him in Nike sweat and Sperry boat shoes.  It was not a pretty look and I feel bad admitting that even I was a bit nervous to go out with him in fear of running into anyone I knew from high school.  HAHAHA.  He kept asking me why I cared.  I couldn't quite explain that it was just a different standard in Arcasia.  Puh-lease, I have a reputation to uphold here right?  HAHAHAHAHA.  

Why do we care so much about what other people think sometimes?  I'm not sure I know the answer, but I do care from time to time.... it ebbs and flows...and I'll let you in on a little secret... even when I'm in my baggy Lulus, I think I look pretty smoking hot.  Those pants sure are flattering, me thinks, though they probably are not.  Even when I'm sporting jeans with a big ol' sweatshirt, I'm thinking - yeah, I wear this sweatshirt well, a sweatshirt never looked so good before!  But I think that is the key to success and confidence sometimes... thinking you got it when you might not.  

At least that's how motherhood and parenthood works sometimes.  HA!  So in conclusion, I don't really do it.  Nobody really does it.  They just fake it until they make it.  

Momma's Boy

Andy has a theory that our second born, Bubba, is more of a momma's boy because anytime Andy comes home to play, that leaves Bubba and me while Andy and Jordan are playing.  Unsure if that's true or not, he smiles everytime he sees me no matter what he's doing.  I sure enjoy our time together when Jordan's at pre-school.  I finally didn't have a conference call on Friday this week, so we took some photos, just me and Bubs.  One of these will be his 9 month photo for my milestone tracking... yeah, I'm just not as good with the second child, but A for effort.

My Kid Is Awesome

At least that much he's quite confident of.

Me: Jordan, you're handsome.
Jordan: No, I'm not!
Me: Oh, okay, am I pretty?
Jordan: Yes, you're pretty.
Me: What are you then?  Not handsome?
Jordan: No, I'm just awesome!
Me: Oh, are you also a big kid?
Jordan: Yes, and awesome!

He really thinks he's awesome.

My Kid On Fat

Jordan: What's that Mommy? pointing to my stomach and watching it ebb and flow
Me: That's fat.
Jordan: Oh, when is him coming out?
Me: Hopefully soon.
Jordan: I want to play with Fat.  I want Fat to come out and play.
Me:  Okay.

A few days later.

Jordan: I miss fat.  When is him coming out?
Me: I'm not sure.
Jordan: Fat's mine.  He's my friend.

Lack of Posts.....

I love writing.  I love blogging.  I even consider myself a blogger because I like to blog, not because my blog generates any sort of huge number of visitors, hits, or revenue (like the typical definition of real bloggers hahaha).  It's therapeutic.  It's fun.  And I just enjoy it!  But lately, when free time permits and I want to be on the computer, I don't feel so much like blogging when I could be working on my book (this thing I started for my senior college thesis ten years ago....) that I hope to self-publish on Amazon in 2014 or playing on photoshop (I'm learning so much through tutorials and experimenting).  So sadly family and friends... I guess.... it's come.. the time when our blog has died.  Or is dying.  Is slowly enduring to its end.  Those fatal last posts.  The time separation between each posts grows longer... and before you know it... it's not you, it's me.

Oh well.. be on the look out for my book when it gets published.

Also, my company website got a refresh with rebranding and I have had the opportunity to write a lot of fun articles or edit ones written by others, so that's been keeping me busy too.  Hehe.  Haha.
Peace out homies!

Christmas Traditions Will Have To Wait Another Year

Wow, Christmas completely crept up on me.  I meant to sew together a banner I made two years ago, but then my sewing machine's needle broke on Halloween and I haven't yet learned how to put in a new one.  We meant to put up lights outside Thanksgiving weekend, but then the snow came and now it's too late.  I meant to clear the two huge bags of Christmas decorations we didn't put up, instead it's just currently staring me in the eye from the corner of the room.  I meant to scour Pinterest for some inspiration for Christmas morning breakfast, but now I'm trying to figure out what I can make without having to buy too much additional stuff tomorrow.  We meant to do an advent calendar scripture and activity or gift every night... but then we sort of stopped around the 8th day of December.  We have a DIY gift still not finished (though we've been working on it for what feels like every night....).  We have gifts still unwrapped.  And we have gifts still left to buy.

We do have a Christmas tree up!  We do have some gifts wrapped!  We have been talking about Jesus and his birthday celebration.  We have been watching Disney Junior shows about Christmas (and Santa too though bahhh).  We have put up our Nativity scenes.

So we do have some stuff done!

Well...better luck next year Christmas.  Those traditions I'm trying so hard to put together once Jordan is old enough to recognize it... will have to wait another year.  So far the one consistent tradition we do have down is not really completing anything.. ha!

Reflections On Snow

As cold as it's been in Salt Lake, there is a certain amount of beauty that truly comes from it being a Winter Wonderland.  I find myself staring at the sparkle in the white snow that sits on top of our lawn.  I am lost looking at all the frosted branches outlined in freshly dropped snow or the snow capped mountains, with all its wonderful textures illuminated against the sunset.  Or the illumination of the white Christmas lights against the icicles underneath the fluffy snow on the rooftops.  And the other day, someone told my son to stare at the snowflakes he caught from the falling snow, and it was me who was enthralled by the wonder of design caught in these little specks they call snow.  Sometimes, I can be seen staring at the snowflakes caught in between my dual paned windows frozen in all its beauty and glory.  It's truly been quite captivating thus far.

But then I have all these questions.  Like how do people have funerals in the snow?  Or fix their roofs in the snow?  Or do construction in the snow?  Or what happens to the fish in ponds in people's backyards?  Or can an icicle kill you?  Or how many calories am I burning when I shovel the ordinance mandated sidewalks (thank goodness for our heated driveway)?  Or how does a snow blower work and when can I get one and how much will it cost me?  Sometimes I'm afraid to ask these questions outloud to the other Native Utahans (?) for the fear of how silly I'll sound.  How naive and unacquainted with the snow I have been thus far in my adult life, eh?

I like the snow here better than in Spokane, because here (so far), the sun comes out a long and it doesn't feel as gloomy.  The roads are also cleared a lot faster, even for us up in the mountains.  Here, the snow is plentiful and sparkles instead of laying dormant and blackened on the road (I'm sure it will be like that eventually).  Spokane was nice in the sense that there never was much snow, but I'm told that's just the overall weather this year - cold everywhere, even Sunny southern California where my brother shivered as he told me it was 40 degrees (how quickly he reverts to his California skin even after years in New York's bitter cold).