Back on track

For the pass few months I have been eating freely which leads to expanding waist line. I also realized that working out twice a week isn't making a dent to my goal weight.
On 5/26/07, I started to get back on track by eating healthy and exercising more. I'm proud of my self the night I turned down red wine for water and skipped green tea ice cream for dessert.
This week, I started walking 30 min at lunch time around the block. I wish I could go to the gym but walking is a good start and saves time & gas. My short term goal is walking 3 times a week, weights 2 times a week. I do feel better taking a break from the office and get some outdoor breeze and sun. Long term goal is walking 5 times/week.
What motivated me to change is my boot camp instructor. She just had a baby in Feb and now she's smaller than I am where as my belly still looks like I'm 3 months pregnant if I don't consciously hold it in.

For the transformation, I started

1. Drinking more water during the day before I feel thirsty
2. Stay away from the candy stray in our front office
3. Stop going out to lunch with coworkers and bring my own lunch
4. Eat more veggies and cut down on rice during dinner
5. Weigh my self every 2 weeks instead of daily
6. Stop reading food blogs
   

Secondo turned 2

We celebrated Secondo's birthday party last weekend. She loves Elmo so naturally the birthday theme was Elmo. We only invited 2 of her friends living on our street and the rest of the guests were family members.
Menu for the party was the following

1. Chow mien
2. Firm tofu with fish cake
3. Vietnamese egg rolls
4. Tom Yum Kung
5. Thai pork ribs
6. Potato Salad

Drinks

1. Margarita
2. Wine
3. Almond Champagne
4. Sodas
   
5. Juice boxes for little ones
   

It was too hectic as the host and I didn't get to take pictures of all these wonderful dishes. Everyone ( Neighbor, mom, mother in law and I) pitched in to provide such variety of food for the party. Mom liked Tom Yum Kung from my Thai neighbor so much that she brought home half of the pot so she could share it with her Ma-Jong friends the day after. I know that I gained 5 pounds after eating all the different food.
Hubby got the bubble machine that kept the older and younger kids entertained for a while.













One very special gift Secondo got for her birthday is this head piece from her Aunt Ellen who is on a radical sabbatical traveling through China for the pass 3 months. Cost of shipping exceeded the cost of the head pieces (Danielle got one also)

Being Short

Lately, Danielle has been inquiring about the following

1. Mom, why are you short? or Kimee on Hi5 ( a kid TV show) is short like you. I never really think about how short I am before but now that she's growing, she's going to catch up to me by the time she's 10
2. How much is a Nintendo DS? I don't know. She wants one because her friends have it and she wants to play pokemon game on the handheld videogame device. I've started to give her allowance weekly so she can save her own money to buy these things she wants
   
3. Can I have an Ipod shuffle? No, you can use your allowance to buy it.

I've decided to blog once a week considering how hectic my life has been. My neighbor has recently gotten Wii so we went over and played the sports game and it was fun. Can't wait to get one

Mother's day weekend

I started celebrating Mother's day last Thursday night when Danielle came home with a dark puple Petunia planted in a decorated pot she made. She also made a card with reasons why I'm an amazing mom. Her reasons were:

1. I take care of her when she's hurt
2. I help her with homework and piano practice

In a her own way, she did appreciate our head butting during piano practices. She's more independent as far as learning new piano pieces. We're working on the sound of music medley and her 1st piece is "Do re mi".
Friday night, we had dinner with our neighbor and Danielle played chess with our neighbor Dave who have not played chess for 10 years.
On Saturday, I took my parents out to Dim sum along with their close friends while hubby babysit the kids. I was able to eat in peace instead of rushing or being interrupted by the girls needing one thing or another. I really wanted to eat crabs but it's not in season so I settled for deep fried fish instead. After lunch we hung out at my in laws for a while before heading out to my brother's in laws for Mother's day BBQ potluck dinner. I marinated several pounds of Korean BBQ ribs and got some corn on the cob. Others brought chicken for the barbie, salad, taquitos with guacamole and salsa. Danielle ate half a hot dog and 4 pieces of rice krispies treats for desert. After dinner, one of the neighbor told brother in law Mike that she saw a rat jump into his car engine parked on the street. Hubby and Mike went to investigate and found a possum instead of a rat.
On Sunday, we did our normal routine. Hubby and I exercised in the morning and he worked on the yard while I spend time with the girls, did laundry etc..

busy busy

I can't seem to find time to sit down blog anymore so here's a short post.
There was a horrible car accident on the 5 freeway last Friday where 3 kids were killed when a semi ran into a van. These folks lives in our neigborhood so it really hits home. I saw pink and blue ribbon on trees along the streets and also in Danielle's school. I can't and don't want to be in the parents shoes. Another reminder to treasure those we love everyday.