mock duck

i like mock anything in a can. one of my favorites is mock duck. the brand i happened to get is diing yuh foods co. you can get this, and other similar items, at any asian market, and it's usually priced under $1. you can't beat that. it tastes great, it's a good meat substitute, and you can pull together a quick meal in minutes. make it fresh by adding your favorite veggies and top it over rice. you can also season it to your own taste since it is not salty or strongly flavored. win-win-win.

if you need help finding an asian market near you, post a comment or email me!

welcome #4 (and final?!)

we've moved again, and i really love my new kitchen. i think we'll be here for a long time, as in more than one year, haha. it's nice and spacious with lots of cabinets and countertop space to take care of all the things i need to take care of!

i've been back and forth on whether i should retire this blog or not. rarely do i ever post on here because i am the primary blogger for our main blog, but i like writing personal things here that really don't have to do with my family.

for instance:

chemex is a beautiful thing

using a chemex changes the way your coffee tastes. there are no machine parts, it is purely a filter, hot water, and glass. try a cup from me and you will view coffee differently! the design is so sleek yet modern, it adds a great appeal to your kitchen or table.

i've got a couple of projects going on right now, so once things get going, i will post more about that. i'll leave you with two words: paper and pho!

weight loss

i was always afraid i would have trouble losing baby weight since it's such a common occurrance for most moms in america. well, i can honestly say stress and no sleep will make you lose that weight, and then some! i weighed myself the other day while at orion's dr. appt. i was 96.8 pounds, and that was fully clothed. my family and friends constantly say i'm too skinny, they ask if i eat enough, and my answer is always the same: it's stress and no sleep! and i pig out on food all the time! before i was pregnant, i weighed 102 pounds. i wore a size 1. now, even size 0 is too big, and i have a closet full of clothes that no longer fit.

maybe working out will bulk me a up a bit and i won't be so skinny anymore? marinella told me i look so frail. i don't want to look frail! i want to look fit, and most of all, feel fit. i need to go to the gym, or at least have some kind of workout regimen at home. running around chasing orion is not enough for my body.

i also feel i am getting more sleep in comparison to last year, when orion was only an infant. he sleeps about 3 hours at a time now, and my body has gotten used to this routine of waking up in the middle of the night to feed him. oh i also forgot to mention that breastfeeding will also drop pounds fast too. i unfortunately overdid the whole breastfeeding/pumping thing which turned me into this "frail" person. sigh...

ok so back to the gym. my goal is to reintroduce pilates and yoga into my life (it's been years since i've done it regularly). i already inflated my exercise ball so that is also a great piece of equipment at home (and also entertains orion when he needs a good laugh). AND, finally, at least i am back to cooking and eating healthy foods again.

back to school?

i am thinking about going back to school and completing a degree. i think it is important for me to have a bachelor's if i plan on teaching orion the importance of a college education. i have so many interests i want to pursue, but had to narrow it down to what i would enjoy the most, what would be most beneficial and suit our family lifestyle. i've decided to study child development with an emphasis in teaching for special needs kids. after having experienced orion's case and it having become such a major part of our lives, i'd love to be a part of other families and helping their kids reach their fullest potential. these children are so special and so deserving, sometimes we miss how beautiful these kids are, how smart they are, and how much they are just like you and me.

researching what will suit our schedule best, i am looking into university of phoenix. i was surprised by how accommodating they are! and with the rising costs of the state universities, phoenix is actually cheaper than SJSU, believe it or not. plus, i should be able to qualify for grants, etc. phoenix's plan for me is, i take one course at a time, so i do not have to struggle different subjects at once. each course is 5 weeks long, and i can attend school one night a week, four hours per session. at that rate, i can complete my bachelors in three years and still continue my role at home. that is pretty amazing! this is all still very preliminary, so there is still much more research to do (and finances to straighten out). in the end, my goal is to be an Early Start teacher. bo thinks i'll be great at it :)

welcome #3?

we have moved yet again. after a crazy stay at LPCH a few months ago, we decided living closer to the hospital was ideal. so....another new kitchen! we had hoped to stay in this apartment for a long time, but we are already setting plans for moving back down south.

anyway, we love our new dwelling. it's in a quaint little area, close to everything we need, and the layout of our place is much more spacious than our sf apt. orion has his own room, so it's much easier for him to sleep. this place is much less cluttered with toys in comparison to our last apt, so it's easier on my eyes.

we are getting the hang of our routine. it's nice that orion has a daily ritual, so it's predictable and i can set my schedule a bit easier. he's usually in bed by 9pm which leaves me the rest of the night for household chores and personal time. bo has been working insane hours, so i have been quite busy with the little guy. i think he's getting bored of me :( he misses dad a lot.

i haven't really been cooking much, i am losing motivation! i haven't been feeling all that well lately, which leaves me with little time and energy to cook full-blown meals. i must try though because I'M getting bored with my own food, which means my family must be too. i also have to state that my brain is in "high-calorie" mode since orion's on a special butter-oil-butter diet. this is not helping my tummy at all! weird though, one of my best friend's said i'm the skinniest she's ever seen me and i look frail. how sad. so i really need to make sure we all eat healthy, good calories and fats, and orion will have his extra butter-oil combo on his plate only. i have been more careful about what i choose at the market. i typically shop at trader joes, and i only buy whole wheat pasta and bread now (though we still eat white jasmine rice), lots of bright fruits and veggies, if we are going to have meat i buy turkey, pork and fish. orion loves tofu, but our local trader joes only offers one kind of tofu??? he really likes anything that's very saucy, but he also hates tomato sauce. seriously, i can't eat alfredo sauce all the time. i want to bake more, especially breads and desserts. so many things i want to do.

i've also decided i really need to break down my blog even more. i want to keep a high-calorie diet section so i can have my ideas out. that way, when i'm not sure what to give orion, i can refer to my blogs and remind myself of his favorites.

time for bed. i have an achy back and i need to rest while i can!

like christina belts...

back to basics.

i recently discovered etsy, a website that houses tons and tons of crafty, homemade things. nicole turned me on to it. after spending many hours perusing merchandise, it reminded me of how much i used to love making things. it goes way back to my childhood, making barbie clothes, fashioning things from fabric, paper, trinkets, you name it.

today, i went to artist xchange, a gallery in the mission district. seeing beautiful artwork and handmade crafts, i recalled my forgotten passion for ceramics. at alamo heights hs, the high school i attended in san antonio, mrs. carol ackles supported my passion for ceramics and let me continue the entire semester completing my ceramics projects, while other students followed the original schedule of 6-weeks per medium. i enjoyed the special attention i received, at the same time, i missed out on other mediums like silkscreening.

post-high school, my dream was to open up my own boutique store and sell handmade ceramic pieces. my friend korissa chimed in and said she'd partner because she was planning to major in business. along the way, some people in my life did not support the career of art. how could i make a living from ceramics? i let their opinions change my path and followed the rest of the crowd to graphic design. next thing i knew, eight years have passed and i lost my passion for what i used to love, very primitive art, AND i no longer had an interest in graphic design either.

today, i decided i need to go back to the basics: manual art and crafts. no more computer-generated art (though i still enjoy it). i'm planning to sign up for some classes at city college of SF so i can go back to doing what i love.

freecycle.org - my new hobby

too much stuff. freecycle.org is a yahoo group by location where you can post stuff you want to give away or you can post want ads for stuff you want. everything is free. no trading, no selling, no bargaining, just plain free. you can find some really cool stuff here, whether you need it or not. it doesn't help that we have a small apartment and that i have internet access on me 24/7 with my iphone.

my first want post was for a coffee maker. i scored a perfectly usable 4-cup coffee maker that suits the two of us nicely. i came home, spent hours researching on how to clean it, to discover that the coffee it made still did not taste good. i thought, hmm, the machine is clean, maybe it's the cheap store-brand of sugar i bought? so i bought a big box of sugar in the raw. still no good taste. after more hours of researching how to brew the perfect cup of coffee, it hit me. water. of course you need great tasting water because really, coffee is 98% water, right? so apparently, bay area tap water isn't that good! i finally brewed a pot with filtered water, and YUM. back in business.

ok, back to freecycle. so i went nuts on freecycle. we got more christmas lights to put in our kitchen since the big lots string of lights we actually bought suck and didn't even last us through the winter. 3-ring binders for bo to organize files. i got a nice pair of boots today that actually fit! some sippy cups for orion (brand new). we got rid of some stuff that we picked up from fellow recyclers but changed our mind when we got home like a coffee table that was too big for us and a really ugly espresso cup set (not even close to being modern as described). we got a big box of picture frames. i got another cool thing that i can't talk about yet because it's a valentine's present for bo (yeah, we're a little behind on the holidays, but we're busy people!!). lastly, i had to save the best for last, i posted a want message for a play kitchen for orion and someone offered one to us! how amazingly nice! they even offered to clean it for us too! the thing is gigantic, still haven't picked it up yet, but i think orion will like it. he can learn to cook just like mommy and daddy and all his little friends can come over and play house. remember those days? aww, sweet childhood memories.

i love freecycle. i should make a bumper sticker.