Tearful Thursday- It's been a long time

After nine years of writing poems special for you 

I am still wondering why there was no sign, not even a clue.

Everyone tells me to move forward and try not to get blue

Because you are in a safe place and at peace, I hope it's true.

The box that you left us, I kept closed for all these years,

Only to find nothing, it just brought back the pain and more tears.

All the memories of you will always remain so dear

I'll be ready to meet you someday without any fear.

Gino

June 29, 2008

Sunset

Welcoming Wednesday - Something new something old

Oops, did not want to alarm anyone, no one is getting married.  The topic is more about something new I have and something old that I restored.  It's another mix up of subjects that I wanted to share today.  Please welcome the first plum from Jeff's tree.  Last year we only harvested two since the rest were eaten by the birds or just it was too ripe and fell off.  We actually picked about six plums. 

The next item I want to welcome to my collection is my new flipflop.  Since I packed most of my foot wear, there was a need for another flip flop to be used when we travel on our RV.  It was probably my last time to get something at my favorite store - ROSS.  We stopped by during the weekend while an open house is being held.  I picked one that would match with the current purse I am using - pink.  Then Jeff said, oh the sisterhood of the travelling flipflops.

The last item to be welcomed to my post is my MIL's mail box.  A few years ago, when I decided to make our own mail box, I thought it would be nice to make one for her also with her favorite logo.  After a few years, I noticed that the paint is fading more and more.  The first time I did it, I used my red color nail polish that has a bit of shine.  I promised my MIL that I will fix it and give it a new coat of paint.  Since we had to get out of the house during open house, I bought the paint and did the restoration while it was still a little cool temperature.

For those of you who has met my MIL, you know that she loves lady bugs.  In fact she has two friends who are her neighbors for many years.  All three of them are lady bug fans.  If one finds a new item that has lady bug in them, they buy three so everyone will have the same item.  They use to meet every Thursday for an adventure, some lunch and whatever they feel like doing.  Lately they just meet at one of the homes and have ice cream and cookies.

Manic Monday - House is not a Home

As much as we like to sell our home quickly and get the best price, there are things that is a little bit annoying because you still have to live in it.  Now I know that when and if we move again, I would prefer to move out and clear the house and stay in our RV or a hotel.  When all your personal effects has been removed, it's just a house.  During the process, we have to make sure we keep it clean and I have opted not to cook so the house won't smell like food. One benefit is the house looks so bright and clean.  When we talk about what we need to do with our new home, we said we should be minimalist.  Simple furniture, clean cut and only a few decorations so it's not cluttered and less things to dust.  It's going to be a lot of fun trying to furnish a bigger home and keep it under budget.  Hopefully my daughter can help me and provide some ideas when it comes to style, color and design.  Here are some of the items we are considering.

Sourdough Saturday - Breads and more

It has been a while since I stopped by the Farmer's Market near us.  They have been there all year round each and every Saturday.  We had some down time one weekend so we decided to stop by.  The fruits and vegetables look really great but not really cheap.  The two booths that I checked was the bread and the other was the orchids. We did a little taste test of their Vegan banana and the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. The other bread that we ended up buying was their Sourdough Bread.  My MIL's favorite bread is sourdough.  We decided to check out another aisle and that's when I saw all the beautiful orchids.  I miss my orchid that my next door neighbor gave me a couple of years ago.  She ended up with it again because I couldn't take it with us.  Back to breads and more.  Last Tuesday after my lunch with one of my golf girlfriend, we decided to stop by a new bakery and I did remember to take photos.  We were going to try one of their cakes but opted on just trying the sample. OMG the frosting was too sweet it hurt our teeth.  We crossed the street and had ice cream instead.  Now here's all the photos of the breads and more.

Shredding Sunday - It was time and I was ready

What do you do with papers that does not mean anything anymore and yet you're afraid to shred them?  What would you do if you had a box of papers that only reminds you of sad moments in the past? After nine years, I finally got the courage to open my son's personal box and with the help of my MIL we were able to go through it and saved only what is important for me to keep.  Every year around the anniversary date of his date, I would open the box and I would try to get a file to review.  Honestly, I couldn't to it because I end up just breaking down.  Jeff is very supportive and always reminds me that you don't have to do it,

just keep it and when you are ready, you can do it.  Because of the recent changes in our lives, we had to really do a lot of paring down, cleaning, organizing and many hours of shredding.  In fact some of the papers that needed to be shredded will be done by MIL since she wanted to help and she knows she can do it leisurely - to keep her mind busy.  Now that the box has been organized, I do feel much better and I know those are material things and special memories and moments are more important to keep.  Everyone has their own timelines when it comes to dealing with a loved one's death and the items they have left behind.  It doesn't matter how many years my son has been gone, he will always stay close to my heart and all the memories will be stored in my mind, until I cannot remember them anymore.

Mouthwatering Monday - Makes me hungry

When my sister told me about the dinner she was preparing for her guests, I was not really

sure how she was going to do it.  A few days later she sent me the photos of the dinner she

prepared.  I was actually surprised because there were a lot of different type of Filipino dishes as well as dessert.  It was so mouth watering and I wish I was invited but it would have been a very expensive dinner.  My sister lives in Alberta, Canada.  Anyway, I wanted to share the photos with my reader.  

This dessert is called Halo-halo.  A mixture of sweets with coconut milk and crushed ice.

She made some grilled fish, crispy pork belly, lumpia (spring roll), bbq chicken and mango salad.

Then a couple days later, my daughter sent me a photo of their dinner and I got jealous again because I love seafood.  The next day after golf we decided to stop and have dinner at a place called Crab Claw.  Sorry, I couldn't find a photo of this meal.  Instead I have the dessert I made for our guests,

Frangible Friday - To pack or not to pack

How can I describe what I have been doing for the last couple of weeks? Let me see how many words I can use.  Paring, organizing, packing, sewing, sorting, shredding, cooking, cleaning, ironing, labeling, filing, wrapping, and others I can describe. Moving to another country in nothing new to me.  At my age I have move to three countries and now this is my fourth although it's the same as the one I recently came from.  For Jeff, this is the first time for him.  He was born and raised in the Bay area and although he has moved different cities or communities, it is still the Bay area and not a different state.  That's another difference, I have moved cities and provinces in Canada.  If I recall correctly, I moved from Ontario to San Jose with only 11 boxes of 16x16x16.  I used UPS for the shipping of these boxes and it arrived within a week.  Although some of the items where broken, it was nothing of importance, just the glass of some of the picture frames.  It is taking a bit more time for Jeff since he has lived in the house for almost 11 years and his other house about 14 years.  He has collected a lot of tools, boxes of files, and other stuff I don't even know.  So paring down for him is much more time consuming and overwhelming.  Being the experienced one, I have packed the linen closet, photo albums, important documents, my foot ware, his and hers coat and jackets, plus a box of dry goods that are not available in the place we are moving. Now I have to end this post because there's still plenty of packing, sorting and cleaning to be done.  Until the next post, please keep on reading and thank you for following my blog.

 

 

 

Wedding Wednesday - Happy Anniversary

This was taken on the morning of Easter Sunday(2012) right after breakfast while still wearing their PJ's.

After 11 years you two are still as crazy as when it all began.  May you continue to do what it takes to keep the love sparkle and shine everyday of your life together.  Congratulations Mike and Alysia!

Mix Mix Monday - Only one drink

Do you remember those days when you could drink a lot more before you declared yourself drunk?  As we grow old and lack of practice the amount of alcohol that we can tolerate seems getting smaller and smaller.  Not that I want to be able to consume a lot, but now that I am getting really old (LOL), I don't even need a drink to have a great time.  Actually I never did.  But I am sure some of my friends recall some of my birthday parties, where I end up going home early before some of my out of town guests arrive.  At the same time, at my 50th party, I only drank diet coke the whole evening.  It was not funny the next day where I felt a hangover from drink too much of the fake sugar in the soda.  Now when there is an occasion and I am going to have the one and only drink, I have to make sure it is the one that I crave and that I am truly going to enjoy.  Here are some of the drinks that have made my list as my favorites.  Of course being a diabetic, I have to be truly careful to ensure that my blood sugar does not go too high or too low.  

My new favorite Moscow Mule - I even got my own special mug.

AMF - ingredients very similar to the Long Island Ice Tea.

Raspberry Beer

The best Spicy Caesar I have ever seen.

Signature Saturday - Sign, sealed and delivered

For the past couple of weeks we have been doing a lot of signing in, creating user ID, password, etc.  The world of technology and paperless transaction is daunting.  Maybe for some of us older people who did not grow up using computers, etc. at times it's scary and intimidating.  I am thankful that Jeff is such a geek and so much comfortable in dealing with anything online, electronic transfers, and so on.  Even as simple as switching to a new phone is like trying to learn how to walk again.  A few days ago I was trying to check something on Pinterest and I found out I can't remember my ID and password.  I had to plug in my old phone, recharge and search for the information I needed.  My daughter was trying to help me and finally I figured it out.  She mentions that having an iphone was easy when it comes to switching new phones because that data is transferred automatically.  Jeff said, you can always switch to any Apple products, but you won't get any technical help from him. Some people create a special Excel document to record all the information for logging.  Others write them in a book, old school system that works as long as you don't misplace that book.  What is truly worrisome is every time the news announce hacking, identity theft and anything related to emails, bank accounts, personal records, one would have to quickly change passwords and do all the preventative measures.  When you experience your bank card being compromised, you tend to not trust anything anymore.  You become paranoid about using anything that might reveal your accounts, etc.  Modern technology is convenient but you also feel vulnerable to hacking and unscrupulous crooks.