Mamahood, Among Other Things...

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | Sheung Wan Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Sat, 26 May 2012 23:08:00 +0000

I told you I had quite a few more photos from my photo walk with my friend.

1. Capturing Movement (of the flames). This is one of my favorite shots from my photo walk on Monday. These are candle offerings at one of the temples we checked out.

2. Beneath Your Feet – This man is pushing his little cart of goods along the tram track.

3. Texture – Natural texture of the wall, on the floor and the steps…

Another one…

4. Face Your Fears – Crickets. Or some other kind of insect. Left out in the sun to dry. To be used for medicinal purposes. I had to get up close to these to get the shot. Close, very close. I was worried that some of them might still be alive and might fly out and attack me!

Check out these coils. I could not make myself to go in for a close-up.

5. Currently – I am absolutely in love with street photography. I go about with my DSLR around my neck and my point-and-shoot in my pocket. As I don’t want to bother with changing lenses, the point-and-shoot comes in very handy for those angles or shots I cannot get with my 50mm/1.8 lens. Not only that, it’s great for those quick sneaky shots that would have been hard to get if I had my big camera pointed conspicuously at the subject/s.

Photo Walk | Sheung Wan (1)

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Wed, 23 May 2012 23:08:00 +0000

My friend, S, and I finally managed to go on our first photo walk. This had been a long time in the works, but because of clashes in schedule, we didn’t manage to do it until earlier this week. We decided to go to Sheung Wan, because it is a more local part of town and we had a feeling that we would get plenty of interesting shots there. Boy, were we in for a treat!

We ducked into alleys,

stopped and lingered, chatted with a few folks, saw many things that intrigued us.

{Some kind of lizard, I think, for medicinal purposes.}

{Dried starfish – HK$5 apiece}

{Coils of incense at a temple}

With so many glitzy mega shopping malls and designer boutiques here in Hong Kong, I always find it so refreshing to come across shops that seem to have been stuck in time.

It was such a relaxing morning as we took our time soaking up the ambience,

rife with the smell of various dried goods.

{Salted fish hung to dry on the street.}

{There is a ton of photos still, but I will save those for another post.}

This had been such a fun and worthwhile way to spend a morning that we promised ourselves that we will do a photo walk at least once a month. This way, we’ll get to discover and see parts of Hong Kong that we had never really taken time out to look and explore before. Not only that, but since we’re both pretty much at the same level when it comes to photography, we’re learning from each other. It’s a wonderful way to chill with a friend who shares my interest in photography. We could compare notes, talk about shots without boring the other person, and never feel rushed whenever any one of us stops to take pictures.

Thanks for a really fun photo walk, S!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Acquired Taste

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Mon, 21 May 2012 23:08:00 +0000

Growing up, I was never a fan of Japanese food. Maybe it was because I never really knew what Japanese food was like beyond “raw fish.” Eating anything raw seemed totally wrong to me.

I don’t recall when I first tried sashimi and sushi. It probably wasn’t particularly momentous or I would remember simply loving them from first taste. It almost seems that I woke up one day and love Japanese food, all kinds.

Between sashimi and sushi, though, I would always opt for sashimi. I especially love salmon sashimi and can be at a buffet dinner and eat my fill of only salmon sashimi! I would eat sushi, but I would not say that I love sushi.

Until these…

On the menu, they’re called Boston Rolls. I think they might be Philadelphia Rolls (cucumber, salmon, cream cheese). Regardless, they are the yummiest rolls I’ve ever had. I could easily down six of these babies in one sitting… and possibly even more!

Do you like Japanese food? Do you take your sushi or sashimi with wasabi?

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | Rainbow

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Sat, 19 May 2012 23:08:00 +0000

1. Rainbow – Zoë’s Rainbow Fairy costume for her upcoming ballet performance. She has tried it on once and it looks so lovely! I can’t wait to see all the other little girls all dressed up and dancing and twirling away in their dreamy costumes.

2. Fluffy – There are quite a number of Genki Sushi restaurants across Hong Kong, but I’ve never had a chance to try one until now. Every time we pass by one, there is always a huge crowd outside, with people waiting for a table. Tonight we were lucky enough to just walk straight in. I love the idea of just grabbing what we want off the conveyor belt. Had way too much sushi, especially considering that we were not hungry when we went in. Finished off with these really yummy and fluffy cream puffs.

3. Letters – In English, we have ABC’s. In Chinese (and maybe Japanese, too), we call them ‘characters.’ This was one of the lights at the Genki Sushi restaurant we went to earlier tonight. I think it’s pretty cool.

4. Metal – The Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

5. Tree(s)

What Brings Me Joy

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:08:00 +0000

A sight for sore eyes.

Music to my ears.

The two of them yukking it up and laughing themselves silly on our trip back from Ayutthaya.

I remember when Zoë was still a baby and we were wondering when it would be before Josh and she would start to really enjoy playing together. More and more these days, we hear them playing with each other, making up stories and telling really crazy jokes, and then laughing their heads off. They crack themselves up over --

“The Eiffel Tower is an awful tower.”
“Uncle Max has no friends: true or false? True!”

Such silliness… but it really makes me all fuzzy and warm to see and hear them like this.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Underwater Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:08:00 +0000

We spent four days in Bangkok. Four VERY hot, SCORCHING, SWELTERING, BLISTERING –oh, did I mention hot? –days. I don’t know what the exact weather temp was, but it felt like the high 30s or low 40s somehow (that’s about 100 – 105^oF). So, that was why, in a city with much shopping to be done and amazing places to visit, we found ourselves at the pool most of the time.

Our underwater point-and-shoot was put to great use. Josh was doing underwater acrobatics and I managed to capture this one of him doing Tom Cruise’s move in that John Woo-directed Mission Impossible movie (MI-2?).

I complained endlessly about the weather there, but one great thing that came out of it was that we spent so much time at the pool that Zoë learned to swim! She started by putting her head underwater for longer periods of time and walking towards me… then she found that when she held her breath underwater she floated. It then just kind of clicked with her that if she held her breath and kicked her legs, she could swim! After that, there was no stopping her. A couple of times she would come up sputtering or out of breath, but she kept going, “Okay, one more time…” It took quite a while to get her out of the pool that day. Even after I’d dried her off with the towel by the poolside, she somehow managed to slide back into the pool for one more go!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | The Bangkok Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Sun, 13 May 2012 03:28:00 +0000

We had a short getaway to Bangkok this weekend with my mother-in-law. I have been to Bangkok many times, but this is the first time I’ve visited with kids in tow. It was SCORCHING hot… absolutely scorching. Out of the planned activities, we only made it to Wat Pho (The Temple of the Reclining Buddha). We never made it to the Canal Tour nor the Floating Market –which we were planning to go to after our Wat Pho visit, but the kids were miserable in the heat, so we just headed back to the hotel that day and chilled.

1. Sidewalk – A hawker selling slices of mangoes and other things right by the street.

2. Inspiring – I overheard a tour guide tell his group that each of these buddhas has gold leaves placed on them piece by piece every few years as part of their upkeep.

3. Time – Ruins at Wat Mahathat in Ayutthaya (dating back to the 1300s)

4. Close Up – One of the lilies outside the temples.

5. With Mirror – That bright flash of light is the reflection off a side mirror on one of the motorcycles parked on the street.

The Creativity Project | Double Exposure

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

When Becky (Life with Kaishon) asked me if I would be interested to do the Creativity Project, I was so excited and immediately said yes. I think Becky is my photography fairy godmother. Not only has she inspired me with the beautiful photos she takes and her philosophy with regard to photography, she’s been very supportive and had introduced me to Communal Global and a few other fun photo memes… and now she’s brought me in to the Creativity Project, a once-a-month blog circle with a new theme each month.

This month’s theme is double exposure. I had to google what it is. Apparently, double exposure is a photographic technique that combines two different images into one single image. Here is my go at a double exposure image:

I’d merged a photo of street traffic along Gloucester Road (from archives) with an image from our trip to Big Wave Bay this weekend. This… is one of the things I love about Hong Kong –the fact that you could be right in the heart of the city, yet the beach is only 30 minutes away.

Please head on over to Sharon’s (The Covert Lens) to see what her double exposure image looks like. While you’re there, drool over her many lovely, lovely images of her pretty, pretty daughter with the gorgeous soulful eyes.

Beach Party at Big Wave Bay

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:08:00 +0000

Josh and Zoë were invited to a birthday party last Saturday. Remember this? Same birthday boy, same children, similar concept, but at a different beach. But like last year, the kids all had a blast!

Upon arriving at the beach, Josh immediately took to the water to brave the big waves with his friends. They would go out, wait for the waves to build, then they would jump as high as they could when they waves came in. Sometimes they got knocked off balance and would come up sputtering, but they would just jump right back in. He came running to us at one point and announced, “That’s the best fun I’ve ever had!”

While Josh was busy with his friends, Zoë was practicing her digging skills with her brand new shovel, ahead of the treasure hunt.

To distract the kids and to buy time to bury the “treasures,” the hosts staged a sandcastle-building contest. The children were given 15 minutes to make a sandcastle. Josh enlisted Zoë’s help in making his. He got her running back and forth gathering seaweed for him.

Truth be told, Josh’s sandcastle was the most barebones of all. He had no bucket or sand toy to help him, only a small rake. Yet he somehow managed to emerge as one of the winners! Each of the four winners got a nifty water bazooka.

The judges (two teacher friends of the hosts) visited each sandcastle and interviewed each child, asking them to say something about the castle they’d made, why they’d constructed it the way they did, who had helped them build it, etc. Later on, the host told us that Josh had sold his castle to the judges with his presentation skills. Josh had explained in detail his use of the seaweed to help camouflage his castle and the different traps he’d built underground. He was so stoked that he won!

As if the excitement of the sandcastle-building contest, the treasure hunt, and jumping the waves was not enough, a paraglider landed on the beach. A shout of “Look!” and all the kids just took off running towards him. They followed him around like he was the Pied Piper as he gathered his canopy and worked the strings.

It was such a fun, fun day and I have a feeling we will be hitting Big Wave Bay again this summer.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | The Macau Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Sat, 05 May 2012 23:08:00 +0000

We took a day trip to Macau on Friday with my mother-in-law. After Chris finished visiting one of his clients, we took a walk around City of Dreams and checked out the casino. Played the slot machines. Won some, lost some. It was fun… but I can’t say I wasn't glad when we got out of there. Even with the great ventilation of the place, it was still too “smoky” for my taste. While I enjoy the occasional game of mahjong, I somehow don’t particularly enjoy casino games.

1. Shadow – Macanese almond cookies by the roadside for people to taste-test before buying.

2. Key – Bear with me on this one; I know it is quite a stretch… (I want to keep the theme of this post consistent with pictures all from our recent trip to Macau.) This is the back to the facade of the Ruins of St. Paul’s (see photo of the front here). The key to not missing out on a photo like this when all you had with you is your prime lens (50mm/1.8), without having to move a mile away from the subject, is to make sure you have your point-and-shoot with a decent-enough zoom on it. I couldn’t be bothered with lugging along the bigger lens and, more often than not, I now carry my point-and-shoot with me as a back-up.

3. Smile – There was a 10-minute multimedia show called Dragon’s Treasure and this guy was right by the entrance to the theatre.

4. Unedited (SOOC) – A statue by one of the entrances to City of Dreams.

5. Fish – A mermaid at the Vquarium right outside the casino.

This and That

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:39:00 +0000

~ Technically it is still spring… but it feels more like we are in the thick of summer already. One could easily break out in a sweat the mere five steps it would take to walk from the door to the elevator. Just saying.

~ I gave Josh a haircut. I wish I could be more consistent with how well I do it. Luckily I haven’t given him a bad buzz (yet).

I make the kids do activity sheets to earn computer or TV time.

~ Both Josh and Zoë will be in the same school this August. I’m excited about this. Hopefully, this will mean better coordinated schedules.

~ My mother-in-law is here now visiting with us. What this means: the occasional mahjong night after the kids are in bed. It’s amazing how the kids can sleep through the noisy shuffling of the mahjong tiles.

Josh and his friends taking a break between stations during their Sports Day.

~ Zoë has asked to have swimming lessons again. This time, instead of private lessons, I’ve signed both Josh and Zoë for group lessons (4:1) and they are both having their lessons at the same time, in the same pool, albeit with different coaches.

~ Hard to believe it’s May already. Two more months of school and it’s summer vacation! We are so looking forward to seeing my in-laws and getting the kids together with their cousins. Already Josh and Zoë are counting the weeks to when we leave for Canada.

What do you have planned for May?

My Drym

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:03:00 +0000

Zoë woke up all excited and told us that she wanted to tell us the dream that she had. She got out her journal and just started writing away! Words, spelling, drawing, exclamation points… all hers.

I was sleeping. I woke up. I ran in the kitchen! I found a watermelon. I put a straw and –splat! I said, “Mom! Dad! Help!”

“Towel, please!”

The end.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Hula-Hooping

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:08:00 +0000

Zoë’s asked to have a hula hoop of her own for the longest time.

We finally got her one.

It’s quite fun (and funny!) to see her gyrating away!

Go, Zoë, go!

{She has finally stopped calling it a hoopa-loop!}

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | Something That Makes Me Smile

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:08:00 +0000

1. Something that makes me smile – Zoë doing her worksheets. I give Josh and Zoë worksheets to do every day. Zoë loves doing them and would often ask for more when she’s done all the sheets I’ve assigned to her for the day. She calls them her “homework” and she’d come home from school and as soon as she’s put away her shoes, she calls out, “Mommy, where’s my homework?” What’s especially gratifying to see is that since being able to read on her own, I just give her the sheets and she reads the instructions herself and goes about doing them independently, stopping to ask only if she’s not sure of something. I hope she keeps up this love for learning… when she starts Year 1 this fall.

2. Yellow – From a game that Zoë got for her birthday.

3. Ancient or Antique – My parents gave me this box from their recent trip to China. This box is neither ancient nor antique, but it has that antique look…

4. Splash

5. In the Sun

Buddies

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:08:00 +0000

Josh is lucky enough to have three of his classmates live where we live. Sometimes after they come back from school, they get together downstairs and play.

Sometimes they race around in their scooters,

sometimes they just sit and shoot the breeze…

sometimes they make goofy, silly faces

(especially when they know that I have a camera pointed at them)!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | Simple

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 23:08:00 +0000

1. Simple – Zoë’s birthday was yesterday, but we brought a cake to school share with her classmates on Friday. I had plans of attempting this very elaborate, very pretty pink cake. But who was I kidding? I am no Cake Boss (as you can tell from the piping!). I ended up making a simple strawberry bundt instead.

2. Grain – Since she already had a birthday cake the day before, we I decided to go with chocolate crinkles for her actual birthday instead. I might bake another cake next week when my parents are in town and we’ll celebrate again. (Okay, so I know this is a stretch for grain, but the pic does look a bit grainy, right?)

3. Transportation – Josh’s “transportation” of choice around the playground is his scooter. He would zoom around and try to race his friends.

4. Stitch – From the archives, a ‘stitched’ panorama… (tutorial on how to make one here).

5. Bubbles – The Strawberry Smash for Zoë’s birthday cake… and these are the bubbles from when it started to boil.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:08:00 +0000

She is 5 today.

She has looked forward to this day

since almost immediately after she turned 4.

She’s been counting down the months and the days.

She is hoping that she might lose a tooth this year.

So that she’ll get a visit from the tooth fairy.

Even though, technically, she is already a Big Girl, she says that she still wants me to call her Baby Girl, because she will be my baby girl no matter if she’s 4 or 40.

♥ ♥ ♥

We love you so much, Baby Girl!

A Little Easter Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 23:08:00 +0000

We had one of the most fun Easters this year. Zoë had her best friend over for a play date last week and we decorated cookies. I baked the cookies; my friend took care of the pastel icing and the sprinkles. The kids totally went town decorating the cookies!

(Zoë had to have the pink plate, of course!)

(Three guesses whose this was!)

(Josh wrote his name at the back of his cookie with one of the markers with edible ink.)

After they had their fill of messing with the sprinkles and the icing, we headed downstairs for a mini Easter egg hunt. Josh was kind enough to be the “hider” and let the girls do all the hunting. He did such a great job hiding them that we couldn’t find one of the eggs until a couple of days later when they went down to play again!

(Check out how Zoë is carrying her eggs!)

Thanks, T, for helping make it such a fun day!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | Pink

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 23:08:00 +0000

1. Obvious – Is it obvious enough from the many, many pairs of legs how crowded it can get here in Hong Kong? This was taken at the pedestrian crossing outside of the Sogo department store this afternoon. This is not even the most crowded I’ve seen this crossing to be…

2. New – There was plenty of street marketing around Causeway Bay for the new Star Wars Kinect game. Across the street from this mall were mock-ups of R2D2, of Darth Vader, etc. There was even a mini flash mob going on with cute little kids wielding light sabres. I love what they did on this building, though… the XBox seems suspended… and you could see through to the mall inside.

3. Life – If these were real eggs, there would be “life” inside of them, haha!

4. Fragrant – Zoë had her best friend over for a play date that included decorating Easter cookies and going on a mini Easter egg hunt. These cookies smelled so good fresh from the oven!

4. Pink

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | Sun Flare

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 23:08:00 +0000

1. Sun Flare – I love sun flares in photos, but they’re still a hit-or-miss for me. I got lucky with this shot here. To get sun flares right when I want them… that’s definitely on my to-do list this year.

2. High Angle - Fendi must have had a special event scheduled that day. Even the ‘balls’ –if you look closely enough, – form the Fendi logo. Every few seconds or so, the color of the lights would change and the balls would go from purple to red to green to blue. I thought it was so cool that the balls look suspended in thin air.

3. Clouds – I couldn’t get any cloud photo at all this week. I actually would even venture to say that it’s not that easy to get pictures of clouds here in Hong Kong given how smoggy it gets here. So this here is one from the archives. I have tons of photos that I haven’t had time to go through… This was taken last summer in Oregon after sunset.

4. Low Angle – Taken at the same beach as the photo above. My nephew attempting to build a sand castle (I think).

5. Seven – If this prompt had come a week earlier, I would have had plenty of subjects to shoot as the annual Rugby Sevens was going on last week. This week, though, you will just have to settle for a shot of my reading light that I’d bent to make it look like the number 7. (Texture: Kim Klassen’s Annabelle)

Quarterly Top 5 Photos | Jan–Mar 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:24:00 +0000

My favorite photos so far… in no particular order.

1. Displaying their sand art and wearing the hats they decorated (arts and crafts time at the Adventure Zone during our stay in Cebu)

2. My frangipani princess

3. I can’t resist this smile!

4. My sweet gentle boy…

5. …who can give me looks like these sometimes (but I can tickle him out of this look, trust me!).

I think this is the first time that I’ve actually been able to have equal number of photos of each child! Yay me.

Silly Knights

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:08:00 +0000

You just gotta love these seven-year old boys…

they can be so silly!

Josh and his friend joined us in the fields in full knight get-up… to pick potatoes.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | Whimsy

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 03:15:00 +0000

1. Whimsy – I was totally at a loss with this prompt. I finally decided to get out the silly glasses and ask Josh to model them for me. Could you tell he was not very pleased with the task?

2. Create – Making pumpkin-shaped fondant cut-outs with which to decorate cookies.

3. Dust – A dusting of sugar on these candies…

4. Seed or Sprout – (From the archives) My coriander sprouts

5. Drop – Dew drops on the leaves

Eleven Eleven Eleven x 2

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:14:00 +0000

Kim from Little by Little and Tamar from Random-osity both tagged me in this fun meme and I thought I’d play along. To save you from a super long post, though, I merged their questions as best I could.

The Rules:

1. Post these rules.

2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random facts about you.

3. Answer the questions given to you in the tagger’s post.

4. Create 11 new questions and tag new people to answer them.

5. Go to their blog/twitter and let them know they have been tagged.

Eleven random facts about me~

1. If I have a choice between sweet and salty food, I’d almost always pick the salty one. I could resist sweets and would happily pass on desserts, but I have trouble saying no to chips.

2. It seemed that a lot of my friends wore braces growing up and I’d wanted to wear braces, too, even though I didn’t need them. I covered up my teeth with aluminum foil one time and just walked around the house pretending I had braces. Braces didn’t look so cool after that.

3. I’m a word nerd and I love games like Boggle, Scrabble, Scattergories, Balderdash, Words With Friends, Word Bubbles… you get the idea. I never turn down a game of Word With Friends, so let me know if you want to play!

4. My guilty pleasure: Dancing with the Stars. Ever since my friend got me to watch the season (can’t remember the number) when Kristi Yamaguchi won the Mirror Ball, I’ve been hooked. Haven’t missed a season since.

5. The best vacation I’ve ever taken has got to be the trip we just took with kids –to Cebu. Everything just fell together. Even though rain was predicted for the duration of our stay, it only drizzled that first day we arrived, but was wonderful the rest of the trip. The kids had an absolute blast, the food was great… Now the kids keep asking when we’re going to go back. Zoë even suggested that we move there!

6. When I watch basketball games, you might hear me muttering (or yelling) to the screen, “Box out! Move! Yes! Seriously?!” I don’t care that the players can not hear me and that I might just look and sound a tad ridiculous when I do that. I can’t help myself.

7. I need to always be reading a book. I feel a bit lost when I don’t have a book lined up when I finish with the current one.

8. Excluding Antarctica, the only other continent that I hadn’t set foot on is South America. I’d love to visit Peru, Brazil… someday.

9. There were 39 (I think) in our high school graduating class. I went to a small private school and that was it –39 seniors, –in the entire graduating batch.

10. I hoard. Yikes. There, I admitted it. Good thing Chris is a purge-r.

11. If I could have tea or coffee or spend one day with anyone, it would be Ellen de Generes. I initially wanted to say Katharine Hepburn, but then I figured I would be too intimidated and be too much in awe of her to enjoy my tea. With Ellen, on the other hand, I probably could just sit back and just watch and listen and be thoroughly entertained.

Kim’s and Tamar’s questions:

1. What languages do you speak? Wish you spoke any more?

I speak English, Tagalog, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, and the local dialect of Heshan. I know rudimentary French –I can understand it better than I can speak it, though. I wish I could speak it more fluently. I’ve always loved languages and almost majored in European Languages had my father not persuaded me to look into another discipline instead.

2. What is your favorite book and why?

I don’t think I have one favorite book, but these are books that I have read several times over: Boy’s Life (Robert McCammon), The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry), and To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee). Boy’s Life is the least known of the three, I reckon, but I love it. The one word that I’d use to describe that book is… magical.

2. If you could live in any other country in the world, where would you live?

This is tough. Top of mind, I would say France, because I am such a Francophile and I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed myself whenever I visited. BUT much as I delight in French cuisine, I would desperately miss honest to goodness, authentic Chinese and southeast Asian fare. Food trumps culture in my book.

3. What is your favorite comfort food?

This! Creamy chicken with peaches. I’d included the link to the recipe in this post. (Okay, so my comfort food is not very Chinese nor southeast Asian… go figure!)

4. Name one of your goals for this year.

To be in the pictures more with the kids instead of always being the one behind the lens.

5. What nicknames do you have?

Sing, Mama, The Queen (Zoë calls me that sometimes.)

6. Name one item you never leave home without. / Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall?
My keys. / Fall.

7. Name your current favorite show. / Reality tv, yay or nay?

Haha, I guess it’s a yea from me, as I’m eagerly awaiting the new season of Dancing with the Stars. I don’t watch TV, but I do try to catch up on YouTube.

8. What relaxes you the most?

A good book, with a cup of tea on the side, and soothing music playing in the background.

9. What is your favorite beauty product?

I love my Clarins ultra-matte oil-free foundation.

10. How'd you start blogging?
I don’t remember exactly how. I don’t even remember how I’d first heard of blogs! Two words: Mommy brain.

11. Name your favorite song of all time.

I’ve thought long and hard and still couldn’t come up with one. Current favorite, though, is Adele’s Rolling in the Deep.

My questions:

1. What is your bag style – big purse, backpack, messenger bag, etc.?

2. Do you collect anything? If yes, what?

3. What is one beauty advice you swear by.

4. Pet peeves?

5. Do you recycle gifts?

6. If you are to give yourself a Native American name, what would it be (Sitting Pretty, Laughing Burp…)?

7. Do you still read the papers or do you get most of your news online?

8. If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

9. Do you still write letters and cards or do you do them electronically these days?

10. Leather watch strap or metal?

11. What was your favorite subject in school?

I am tagging ~

1) Jade at JadeKeller.com

2) Rachel at Once Upon a Miracle

3) Stephanie at How to Survive Life in the Suburbs

Oh, My Josh!

noreply@blogger.com (Buckeroomama) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:08:00 +0000

Did you know that last Sunday was Mother’s Day in the UK? I didn’t, but apparently Josh did, because he totally, totally made melted my heart with what he did that night.

I’d stayed behind at the mall to check out some closing-down sales. Chris went ahead and took the kids home. When I finally got home, Josh excitedly met me at the door and Zoë was on the floor wrapping up some gift. A couple of other gifts were already wrapped up and sitting on a chair cushion, with a note propped up against them.

What Josh wrote on the card totally made me tear up. What he gave me made tear up some more. He got me a bag of Hershey’s Kisses, but more than that, he’d included a few coins …. and a $100 bill from his lai see money that he keeps in his wallet. He then told me, “I wish I had a $1,000 bill, then I would’ve given that to you instead.” He turned to Chris and earnestly asked if he could borrow one to give to me!

Chris later told me that the whole idea about the gifts and the card was totally Josh’s and said that he’d been asking about Mother’s Day and wanted to ‘surprise’ me with something. Remember when he told me that he loves me two trillion gazillion, eight thousand, six hundred thousand, three gazillion?

Josh may not be outwardly cuddly and snuggly like his sister, but his brand of sweetness is all the more precious because of that. Oh, how I love my little guy!

Here’s wishing everybody a someone who gives you “forever love”!