Annual Gingerbread House Party!

Every year my girlfriends, Sonja and Lauren, and I get together to make Gingerbread houses. Well... OUR rendition of gingerbread houses anyway.

We started this tradition in 2005 and have made every effort to keep it going each year. This year it was at my house. We started the night off with homemade fish tacos for dinner. Lauren had just come home from three months in Europe, so Sonja and I were enamored by her stories of the life and culture over there! While she was in PT school she made friends with people from Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, and Ansterdam. She was lucky enough to be able to couch surf with her friends and see the real sides of the countries. I'm so jealous!

This is the beginnings of our creations.

This is my house... It's tiny and if you look carefully you will see a slug coming out of the door to welcome you to her home. Check out my M&M trees I made!

This is Lauren's flower creation. Isn't she so creative? She chewed the graham cracker to shape the petals! Yes, that's right... We had white AND pink frosting!

Sonja made a UFO with a dome on top. She added a Chinese temple entrance as well.

We are so proud of our gingerbread houses!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Time to Gripe...

Hello all...

I am a positive person, or at least I like to think I can find the positive in ANY situation... But right now - I am in a total negative mood and I want to share it with everyone!!! Just in time for this holiday season... How sweet (see my sarcasm is coming out - that's me in a mood).

So I bought this beautiful ring from NY & Company in the mall. It is a purple stone weave ring. It has small amethyst colored stones at each criss-cross of the metal weave. I absolutely loved it! You know when you find a piece of jewelery after searching for months and it's perfect!

Anyway... I'm regressing.

So I had the ring for a month and when I looked at it one day, there were two stones missing from it! So I went back to the store to try and exchange it, but since I didn't have the original receipt (who knew the ring would fall apart?!?!?) I could only exchange it for the sale price. So instead of my exchange receipt saying $15 it said $4. Didn't think anything about it... UNTIL NOW!!!!

Just imagine a look of shear disgust on my face right now. This very minute.

The ring I exchanged was size 6, the size I received in return was size 7 - doesn't fit me! So I went to exchange the ring AGAIN at the store and they did not have the size. So I left my name and number for the manager to call me for when the next shipment comes in. Apparently the store cannot request certain items to be shipped to them. So the manager told me I just had to wait and see if the ring comes in.

That was about three weeks ago - I am still a ring size too big. I have not been able to wear my ring because it will fall off my finger. I called the corporate number from online - they told me they cannot do store transfers and that they could give me a list of the store that carry the ring size. Non of the stores were in CA.

So I called the manager that I have been working with at the Chico store and she informs me that the ring still has not come in. So I told her I wanted the full refund of $15 (not the $4) because the ring was defective. I told her I have been patient in waiting for the ring to come in especially since each time I went in or spoke to her on the phone I was told it should be in any day now. She informs me that since I am not in their system nor did I have the original receipt, that I cannot receive my $15. I also told her I am not being unreasonable for asking for the full refund since the ring was defective! I am not trying to cheat the company out of anything - THE RING WAS DEFECTIVE. I was actually yelling at the manager on the phone.

For a big company, I do not know why their customer service is so messed up.

So now I am out of an awesome ring and out $15.

I am going to cry.

Someone I work with found me a solution - to buy a ring snuckle. So I am on my way to Walmart to see if I can find one.

But it's just the principle of the situation... I've been patient and now I am being punished for purchasing a defective ring. Thanks alot NY & Co. I am NEVER SHOPPING THERE EVER AGAIN.

Wedding Bells...

But not mine!!!! I'm so evil!

Joe spanked me for that one...

I took Joe to my friend Kari's wedding in Wisconsin this past weekend. What a whirlwind trip... Seriously... I hope to never fly again. DO NOT FLY WITH DELTA OR NORTHWEST. I put that in capitals because it is now a rule I am going to live by. First off, I called the airlines on Wednesday to see if the flights were still on time (I was told they were) and to change my seat to accomodate my motion sickness (which they did). Oh wait... I forgot to start at the beginning. The Bay Bridge decided to break so we couldn't drive straight to the airport hotel; we decided to drive through San Francisco because I didn't know the San Mateo area. BAD IDEA... It took us about 4 1/2 hours to drive to our hotel because of traffic. Okay, got that out of my system... Back to my story - We arrived at the airport at 4am and the ticket agent informed us that they did not have any record of tickets for us. The start of a very bad weekend... We finally got our tickets - they never did tell us why we didn't have tickets in the first place. We landed late in Minneapolis because a runway was down due to construction so we had 10 minutes to make it from one end of this ginormous airport to the other end... After we ran to our connecting gate, there was no one there and there wasn't a plane waiting... We checked the monitors and our connecting flight had been cancelled. Great - I have to be in Milwaukee by 5pm for the wedding rehearsal - THAT wasn't going to happen.

We talked to a new ticket agent who told us the next two flights had been overbooked, but she could put us on stand by to arrive in Milwaukee by 530pm. I don't think she understood what I was saying to her - I needed to be in Milwaukee by FIVE PM... Luckily we made it onto that flight and we flew into Milwaukee in time for the rehearsal dinner at least. The worse part about this is that a Supervision came out because Joe and I were throwing a very loud fit - all he could tell us was "There's nothing I can do." He did offer us a $25 voucher for future flights - I told him I didn't want that becuase I would never fly with Delta/Northwest again. I even showed him my itenerary... He still didn't help us out.

So I made it to the dinner and didn't know anyone except her parents! Haha - It was funny. But I met her Whitewater friends whom she talks about all the time so it was nice to put some faces to the names.

This is Kari - the Bride - My very good friend from my days in Platteville, WI. (Elisha - I've been wearing the pearls you gave to me!)

Joe and I had our very first Fish Fry - Although it is exactly like Fish & Chips... Funny thing - Every time Kari and I talked on the phone she was on her way to a Fish Fry - I lived in WI for 4 years and never had fish fry - so we had it at the rehearsal dinner. Yummy.

The next day we had the wedding. I carried the Gospel book in at the beginning and I read the Prayers of the Faithful. I was so honored to be apart of her wedding.

Here is Kari walking in with her father - Rick. Very beautiful dress with lace and beading. Her veil was her mother's headdress with a new veil sewn on it. She looked so happy!

They are husband and wifie!!! Mike and Kari after officially taking their vows. It was such a beautiful ceremony. What made it even more special was Mike's brother was just ordained as a priest so he was able to marry them.

The cake was beautiful as well. White frosting with some elegant piping and ribbon wrapped around the bottom of each layer with some red roses planted on top.

They had a humungous wedding party - 8 people on each side - A couple of them were students at Platteville when I was there - apparently we recognized each other, but we couldn't place how we knew each other.

Don't they look soooo happy?!?!?

I guess everyone in WI are midgets - Joe towered over a lot of the guys out there. He looked soooooooo friggin' handsome in his suit!

I was so very blessed to be invited to this wedding - and I would never have missed it for anything! One of the best parts was seeing her parents - Linda and Rick. I remember going home with Kari for Easter and spending the week with her and her family. Her mom was so serious and stressed out about making the Easter meal so perfect and her dad spent the day teasing her mother and just laughing at her and having fun. I also remember going to mass with them and then there was a food festival afterwards. Each table had a special meal from a different country including their signature liquor. We spent the evening drinking and stuffing our tummies!!! Tons of fun I tell you.

All in all, I was so glad we went out there even though traveling was such a headache. I'm also glad to be home after this ordeal. Kitty missed us so much!!!!!!!!

Greet Each Day With A Smile.

I have just acquired some cute pictures of my nieces and I have decided to share them with you! The baby is Madelyne and the older is Eleni. Mommy is Bethany and daddy is Seth. I love them so much!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE!

So, Joe never reads my blog - he makes fun of it actually - but I thought I would post a GINORMOUS Happy Birthday to Joe on here.

Kind of reminds of Monkey... Actually, this is what Monkey looked like!!!!

So to my favorite man in the whole wide world - HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I'm so glad you were born! Love you muchos!

Monkey No Mas.

Today is a sad day... Monkey has passed from this wonderful world. He had been running on his wheel for the past three days (after not running on it for about a year) and this morning Joe made a joke that Monkey gave himself a heart attack while on the wheel. I ran in there and I thought he was just sleeping - he likes to bury himself in the bedding - but he wasn't breathing. He was already gone...

Monkey touched many lives in his three years of existence... He was so friendly, always poked his head out of his house to say hi, and always bit me when I reached inside his cage. But in his last few months, he was more friendly and wanted to be held - He loved Melissa and Teaghan holding him - and just the other day he let me hold him without biting my fingers.

I remember when I first bought him - he was half the size he was today - and he was such a lovable baby. Then he went through his teenage years - Always talking back at me, not eating his vegetables, and not exercising to stay in shape. I was so happy when he got over himself...

I will always remember the sweet Monkey he always was...

He hated his ball... But Kitty was always "watching" over him.

Teaghan & Brittnee...

Joe and I invited Teaghan and Brittnee up for the weekend - I'd like to think we all had a fantastic time together (I hope the girls enjoyed themselves as much as we enjoyed them).

We started the weekend with renting some movies - Brittnee chose Hannah Montana - I'm so proud of Joe for watching the entire movie! And we picked Madagacar, Escape to Africa - Funny movie! We watched Hannah Montana and ate ice cream!

The next day, we went downtown to watch some festivities going on... There was a Palio event - where different organizations in Chico build horse models and race them around the City parking lot - They had real horses there that did a dance routine as well... We walked to the City Plaza where different groups could purchase a square and show off there chalk artistry. Here are some pictures of the best ones we saw.

This one looks yummy!

The artistry work on this one was phenomenol... I wish I could've seen the final product!

We next went mini-golfing. Teaghan made TWO hole in ones and I made one as well!!!! The other two were inferior to our golf performance.

Aren't they cute???

We went swimming at One-Mile after that - The golf course was totally in the sun so we had to cool off somewhere! The water was actually very cold. Everyone was brave enough to jump in all the way except for me! I was not going to freeze to death!

We went bowling after that - I think the girls had fun, but Brittnee had some trouble throwing the ball straight down the middle of the lane. We helped her and she definitely improved during two games.

Last, but not least, that day we made personal pan pizzas! We rolled our own crust out, we decorated them the way we each wanted and then we PIGGED OUT!!!!!!!

Kitty decided she wanted to be in on the fun!

The finished products!!!!!

Joe had to work on Sunday, so I spent the morning playing board games with the girls and we ended our fantastic weekend by meeting Doug in Yuba City for the hand-off.

We were so happy to have the chance to spend quality time with the girls. Thank you to Doug and Kristin for sharing their children with us!!!!!!!!!

It's Official...

I'm promoted to.... Drum Roll Please... OPERATIONS MANAGER of New Beginnings!

As you can see, I'm very excited about this new title. With it comes some perks...

1. Authority to run the front office/desk
2. Help in making some minor procedure/process decisions
3. Support in some minor business decisions
4. Support with hiring

AND THE DOOSY...

5. A car!!! Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen... New Beginnings is going to lease a new Honda Accord for me. I took the car instead of a cash raise. Who wouldn't?!?!?!?

So, everyone may now call me Ms. Operations Manager from now on... I've deserved it!

Thank you.

Pre-Flight Child Report.

My mom gave me a little treat the other day... My Pre-Flight Child Report. This is the report my parents received before they received me! I was 10 months when I flew over so I don't remember anything about my adoption, so this kind of clears some of my babyhood. What a treat... It definitely clears up why I have some of the habits I have. So, I am sharing the "treat" with all of you! Just remember, this was written in Korea so that English is not very good... I entered it here the same as it reads on the report. Enjoy!

PRE-FLIGHT CHILD REPORT

Date of report: 2-23-82

Name: Yung In Kim (that's my Korean name)

Eating habits: Takes well to 200cc of milk mixed with rice powder 7 times a day with good appetite
Likes to eat biscuit, bread, candy, which she can hold in her hand
(This is great because I LOVE, and I mean I LOVE, candy... See where I get it from? The orphanage addicted me to candy)

Sleeping habits: Sleeps from 8pm to 7am and wakes twice for milk
Takes two naps for 1 hour daily
(So this is funny because I cannot function with anything less than 9 or 10 hours of sleep. I guess this habit came from the orphanage as well. And what is even funnier is I love to take naps and will take one any chance I can get!)

Toilet: I won't share this one, but for those with babies - My bathroom habits were healthy

Speech: Recognizes her name
Says "Ubbuba" - carry me on your back
(I have a lot of pictures of Papa carrying me on his back when I was a little baby. I guess he understands Korean baby talk!)

Abilities: Holds out hands to catch a toy and carries it into her mouth
Stands up if holds her by hand
(I was a talented 10 month baby! Kind of reminds me of baby monkeys and how they carry things in their mouths... Hm....)

Personality: Is not shy with strangers
Gets along with them very soon if she is loved
Likes to be cuddled or touched the skin surface
(This is still true of my personality. I will love you if you love me!)

This report is a very special part of me and I'm so happy my mom decided to share it with me! As she starts to pack up the house, she is finding more and more things from my childhood to share. It's kind of exciting to see things from a time I was too young to remember.

I hope you enjoyed this report as much as I am! It has helped me understand some of how I have become who I am today!

Relaxation Vacation...

Last week I went to Point Roberts, WA to visit my parents for a few days of relaxation. My boss actually spared me some vacation time!

Rewind...

My parents bought five acres of land up in Point Roberts, WA to retire to. Currently they are building a barn to live in while they build their house. So for the past few months, they have been traveling back and forth from Chico and Point Roberts... It's weird to have my parents move so far away - I grew up in Chico in the same house on the same street with the same neighbors. Now, if you really knew me, you would know that I am not comfortable with change... Especially with something that I have known all my life. So this is a big step for me... Slowly I have been preparing myself for THE BIG MOVE. Enough about that... Makes me want to cry...

Fast forward...

I flew up to WA... Well, first I made Collette, Joe's mom, drive me to the airport at 4:30 in the morning - THANKS SO MUCH COLLETTE!

Point Roberts is the little pennisula off Canada. In order to get to down into it you have to drive through Canada for an hour and back down into WA. My parents have a Nexus card that gives them free passes through the border from either country, while I only have my passport. So I was privileged enough to walk across the border while my parents drove through the Nexus line. I totally forgot to get a picture, but there is a beautiful park on Canadian border with a beautiful Canadian flag made out of flowers.

The first day I was there, we drove to Richmond, Canada and ate at Pajo's - THE BEST FISH AND CHIPS place known worldwide. It is on a little dock and always has a line. To give you an idea of how delicious the fish is - We had to wait 45 minutes for our order.

The second day I was there, we drove to Mt. Whistler. This is where the 2010 Winter Olympics are to take place! All the buildings have a Scandanavian feel to them and everything is so clean. Canada, in general, is very clean.

This is from an outside cafe we ate lunch at. This is Village Stroll - just a street lined with mini-shops on the ground level and various lodges and hotels on the top levels.

We went to the Olympic Store where I tried my hand at bobsledding - SCARED OUT OF MY WITS!

And these are the Olympic mascots. They were friendly enough to let me rest my feet.

Point Roberts is surrounded by water - well it feels like it. We spent the evenings on the beach watching the sunset and listening to the waves.

On one of the beaches, people built forts with all the driftwood that floats up on the shore. These were pretty elaborate with little benches made with the flat wood and windows and doors.
The next day, my mom and I walked all over the town. She showed me the library - which used to be the school house - and the clinic - and the fire station - and the one grocery store - and a cute little cafe on the beach. This is where my parents spend most of the day since it has wireless. My parents have made a lot of friends up there as well! They walk with a group of people twice a week and they are known at the cafe as well. It's so cute to see them interact with their new friends.

All-in-all I had a wonderful time. Not to mention I hadn't seen my parents for five weeks before I went up there. I am very excited to go up there for Christmas - Sorry Bassetts - It'll be my first Christmas with them up there and I want to be with them!

When I flew back - Thanks to Melissa for picking me up from the airport - I started really missing my parents. I didn't miss them until I spent some time with them... Funny how that works... Sigh...

Anyway - I'm better now. It's late and I'm super duper tired. Hopefully this post made some sort of sense...

I definitely had a great time - the town is small and quiet, surrounded by water, and full of very nice people. I will have to make sure my boss continues to give me time off!!!!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

Last weekend a couple of girlfriends and I went to an Oakland A's baseball game. What a great time... Mostly we sat there "people watching" and checking out the weirdos. There was a big group of guys on a bachelor party, drunk, and LOUD! They were really funny to watch until they decided to move a few rows in front of us. Every time there was a great play, this guy would stand up in my way. I should've thrown my hot dog at him. But seriously... If I was to have a bachelorette party... I would totally want my girlfriends to take me to a ballgame. Giants would be the better pick if I had a choice though! I made sure to plant that thought in Lauren and Sonja's little heads...

The weather was perfect. We got down there early to hang out and we decided to drive to Vallejo and hang out with a few of Lauren's friends by a pool. The sun is brutal down there! But I got a nice tan, which is all that matters! Haha... On Sunday we were going to check out the Gay Pride Parade going on in San Francisco, but decided to check out the Thai Temple instead. Lauren has been talking about this Thai Temple ever since she moved to Oakland and Sonja and I wanted to finally try it. It is a temple in the middle of a neighborhood and they make authentic Thai food. I had yellow curry chicken over white rice, Sonja had red curry beef, and Lauren had curried pumpkin. And we had the most amazing dessert... It's called Mango and sticky rice. It has a white rice and a purple rice marinated in a coconut or something very sweet with mango slices on top. Oh my goodness - I couldn't stop eating it! I can't even describe the flavor... Delicious. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. It's probably even worth driving to Oakland tomorrow just to eat their food again...

Here are some pictures from the ballpark - Had a great time!

Baby Bonanza!

Joe and I went to San Francisco for a mini-vacation together... Our first one! It went so well. We had a great time, the weather was perfect, and we walked our tooshies off!

Saturday we went to a comedy show - Jamie Kennedy - He's on The Ghost Whisperer with Jennifer Love Hewitt. I'm not sure what it says when the opener had a better gig than Jamie did and that Jennifer got a louder welcome than Jamie... It was great. Although Jamie had a rough start, he warmed up through his act and it was actually quite funny! I almost peed my pants during a couple of jokes.

On Sunday we went to the Zoo! It was Baby Bonanza... Apparently they had numerous babies born in the past few months, but they must have been sleeping because we did not see very many babies. Actually, most of the animals must have been sleeping because we did not see very many of them. Either that, or they were shy... Yeah, I think I like that explanation a lot better.

But all in all, the animals we did see were SUPER CUTE!!! We saw giraffs, zebras, rhinos, teddy bears, polar bear, tigers, a lion, and.... MONKEYS!!! The best part I must say so myself. There was a cute chimpanzee roaming around and playing in his area... There was a gorilla, and apparently a baby gorilla was born in December, but no one wanted to play outside. They were all inside their hut and no matter how long Joe and I waited, no one came out to say hi. There were New World Monkeys (little monkeys with long tails) and they were so cute too! These ones were younger and more playful and showing off for everyone. Very curious little creatures... Made me want to take one home for a pet - Move over Mooz!

Joe made me go into the Insect Zoo - CREEPY! I don't, I repeat, I don't like insects AT ALL. Plus, it smelled funny in there.

Oh! And there were penguins and flamingos and meerkats and leemurs and... and... and... I get so excited thinking about all the monkeys I saw!

We walked for four hours and didn't even see all of the animals! What a day...

I took some pictures with my iPhone - whose camera sucks by the way... Here they are (and you'll see why I say the phone camera sucks)...

Joe was not happy about this one - What a sport...

The iPhone's camera may suck, but the navigation system is AWESOME! We didn't get lost once in the city and Joe found the satelite function that moves as you move! Oh my gosh... I can't say enough about this function on my phone.

That night we went to Joe's Crab Shack - I HAVE TO SAY THIS IN CAPITAL LETTERS... I LOVE CRAB and all SEAFOOD... What a fun experience. The waitresses dance and the atmosphere was happy and very welcoming. The food was delicious and the view of our table was the best. It looked out into the Fisherman's Wharf area. Nothing beats people watching in San Francisco...

So our weekend in San Francisco was very relaxing and fun! I'm so glad we can travel together - next time will be a major vacation for the both of us... I can't wait to see what our next adventure has in store for us!

Kristin is a ROCKSTAR!

I know... I know... I haven't posted in a loonnnnnnnnggggg time - I apologize to all of my fans out there!

Here are a few updates -

1. I finished my semester of school - FINALLY! It seemed like the last fifteen weeks went by extremely slow... But I passed my classes and that is all that matters!

2. Joe got a promotion at work - Assistant Manager of Whitney Hall. I'm so proud of him! It is a full-time, year-round position with benefits, etc. He is doing so well working for Chico State and now... Since this is a positive change in his professional career - maybe he'll want to start thinking about settling down! *Wink wink*

3. I got a raise at my job - I soooo deserve it! Haha! I am still enjoying working for New Beginnings. My boss keeps giving me projects to work on. Currently I am working on a business plan for an addition to our business. Wish me luck - I receive a bonus if we are approved by the State for this program.

4. Mooz is still as cute as ever - And I have made a weird discovery - Our kitty has a major foot fetish! I'm speechless - I thought I had a normal kitty... Sigh...

So, this summer... I don't have an exciting plans, unfortunately. Though Joe and I are taking a mini-vacation to San Francisco before he starts his job. We are going to see a comedy show and eat at Joe's Crab Shack! I will also probably be helping my parents pack up the house as they will be moving most of their stuff to Point Roberts, WA this summer. I will also be learning how to install sprinklers and sod - I'm very excited about this!!!

And... This is for my very good friend in Wisconsin - Kari! I added a gadget to my blog to count down your wedding!!!! I cannot wait to go out there and see you and your family!

So, KRISTIN ROCKS! She took amazing - and I mean AMAZING - photos of Joe and I in Bidwell Park. Here are a few of them to share.

I love, love, love them! I had them printed and framed them - now I have some great photos of Joe and I! So thank Kristin for taking the time to take and edit these. You're the Greatest!

So anywho - I'm sorry I don't have more interesting things to share - I'll try and do something exciting in the near future and post it! Haha!