Friday, January 31, 2025

Happy Lunar New Year!

It's the Year of the Snake! Hopefully it's a good one? Weirdly enough, I had to take care of a couple of "uninvited guest" in the attic.  Oh yeah, I thought there was only 1, but there were actually 2 of them! We had been hearing them in the walls. Sheesh!

Well, the first mouse trap didn't work. The mice actually chewed through the plastic to get to the food. And the second mouse trap, the food was gone without the trap being snapped. What?! So of course, I had to snap it - with a pencil. That force is amazing! I'm almost glad the mice didn't die that way:
But then again, the disposal of the glue trap was not a pretty one either. I suppose that's our offering to the Year of the Snake!

Found my red bracelet that was a gift from my cousin in Malaysia.  I actually didn't get to wear it last year because we are not allowed to wear red or celebrate CNY due to the passing of my dad:
Wearing red on the first day of CNY:
It was an easy one as Graham's favorite color is red.  Charlie on the other hand, couldn't find a single red shirt in his dresser! This cheeky kid, I tell you:
Tonight's meal - not very presentable but we have some long noodles to eat:
Long noodles for long life!
And tonight, as Bobby is home from his travels, we are finally able to make dumplings:
I'm so glad Charlie is still so willing to make dumplings with me:
Graham took a little bit more convincing, but once he got to it - he was actually very helpful :-)

Tonight's dipping sauce - minced garlic with soy sauce and I really think the secret recipe here is black vinegar:
Yay for dumpling night! It was a good batch tonight. Yuummm!!
Looking pretty professional here. And we didn't even have one single dumpling break while cooking. Boys have definitely improved on their dumpling-wrapping skill:
And as per usual, every year we would  give the boys their red packets or Ang Pows. Charlie had the giggles for whatever reason. Probably because he had to wish us in Chinese:
I hope these traditions stay in our family as long as we can.  Obviously, having money in the red packets help.  Ha ha! 

Monday, January 27, 2025

Thanksgiving 2024

For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to set up a little project for my "girls" in the golf program at work.  The leftover little pumpkins from Halloween came in handy!
Here's the setup at work - what cute games for the kids!
Working with some training aids after I'm done setting up :-)
This year, I was able to get some money donated by local businesses for our neighborhood Youth Committee.  And then we had some socks embroidered with the winning logo drawn by a kid in the neighborhood.  

Quite the successful sock delivery!
Aren't these too cute for Turkey Trot?!
There were some issues in getting the sponsors' logo into the newsletter for the neighborhood.  Yikes, too much drama!!  Well, as much as I was trying to stay out of it, I was in the thick of it because it was me that wanted to get the sponsors' logos recognized.  Anyway... story for another time!

For whatever reason, I can't find my electric circular saw! So I'm down to a hand-saw. And I had to get a new one as well because I couldn't find our old one.  Sheesh!
Glad the boys were being helpful in getting all the signs up for the neighborhood Turkey Trot:
If we live here long enough, the boys will probably be running the show in the next few years! That's a scary thought. LOL!!

As usual, we go to our favorite restaurant for Thanksgiving.  It's been too hectic to cook anything :-P
It's a busy night as usual, so there's some waiting.  Daddy is always on his phone! I'm guessing this is why the boys are always on theirs too:
Yummy and Happy Thanksgiving!
Did I already say yummy???
The price of the meal has gone up though, which was too bad. It was a rather expensive dinner. But just look how happy these boys are with dessert!
Yup, priceless:
I'm debating if maybe this year we will go to a different restaurant.  Well, good thing we don't have to decide now! :-)

Kokedama for sale

During the holidays last year, I was trying to finish up selling some of the kokedama that were leftover from the summer's market.

This one finally was sold to one of the golf instructors at work :-)
I gave this self-watering aloe away to a "sponsor" for our Thankgivings sock fundraiser:
Someone in the neighborhood bought this one.  I stuck a turkey decor on the kokedama.  It looks so cute!
Some Christmas decor for a few others:
Not too shabby?
Although this one didn't sell so I have it by my window sill now.  I sort of like the silver sparkles!

This little gnome went home with an employee at X-Golf :-)
And unfortunately, this one didn't last. I'm thinking I may have overwatered it!
I'll have to save the owl for next Christmas :-)  And hopefully all the ones that went to a new home are surviving.  I still have a couple of the kokedama at home and they seem to be doing pretty well.  And no one has approached me yet about the ones they bought. Should I ask when I see them??! At some point, the kokedama might need a new "moss ball".  Maybe at some point, I'll bring it up :-)

And oh, I had to buy some merchandise with my new logo on it. Looks pretty good!
Which also reminds me... where is my Plants & Paint hoodie/sweater??!  Charlie must have snagged it too

Random photos (Nov)

Just catching up with some photos from November (yes, yes... still playing catch up!)

My sister came by to visit for a few days, this was early Nov.  Actually she had a conference to attend in downtown Chicago.  Always time for some Malaysian chicken rice!
We decided to go a little whimsical with the tile by our neighborhood's Village Hall :-)
The new Village Hall is just about done.  They tore down the old one and built a completely brand new one. Should be officially opening later in Feb.

Graham bought a little donut kit.  So cute!
Daddy, on the other hand, went to Duck Donuts!
I think it would be so fun to have one of these old Pac-Man table top arcade games:
We would have to get rid of some furniture first I think, to be able to put anything else in this house!

I'm not sure if Graham is trying to impress the girl by helping with these chairs after a band concert. Almost have to push him to help, but this time I didn't even say anything?!
More golf practice at X-Golf.  This "pull" shot totally skewed my mostly straight shots!
Speaking of X-Golf, finally busted out the mirror from many many years ago (while I was still on tour) - and decided to put it up at X-Golf:
It's now in the instructional bay, which comes in quite handy while giving lessons!

Yummy maple syrup from a friend!
I wonder if Graham needs to be careful of what he eats these days. His hormones are kicking in and he's starting to get pimples!  Trying to make him keep his face clean and thankfully he also agreed to use one of these sticky tapes for blackheads on his nose.  What a sport!
One last golf outing before the golf course closes for the season!
Graham and I share a cart because he's now using my clubs!
Charlie's follow-through:
Charlie has actually been practicing a lot indoors lately. Hope he keeps at it!

Here are some of the yummy foods of the month.  Avocado toast with the perfect runny egg and spinach:
This is from one of our favorite restaurants in Libertyville - potatoes with egg and yes, I guess an addition of avocados. And also green juice. Yum!
Carbo loading with French toast with bananas and strawberries.  Now we're talking!
There's a Vietnamese restaurant near work. Their vermicelli noodles with sliced pork is pretty yummy!
Some winterizing before the freezing weather shows up.  That includes emptying out the rain barrels. Both of them were full!!
Bobby is still trying to fight these creeping Charlie's.  I think that's what he calls them:
And there's our first snowfall this month!
Just a light dusting:
And my car turn 70,000 miles years old this month!
We picked up a pull-up bar from a neighbor that was moving.  Charlie is still working on it. He actually needs to jump to get to it:
Graham can do about 5 pull-ups now!
I can do about 1/3 of one.... LOL!!  Graham is definitely getting quite strong.  He's quite the helper now with anything heavy - including getting the mower up the step/to the side of the garage for winter storage:
The agave is coming inside too.  And I'm finally giving him a bigger pot:
In the meantime, we have bought ourselves a new robot vacuum.  Graham loves to set these things up:
It seems so complicated!
But Graham is so happy he's not having to do the vacuuming now by hand. Ha!

Maybe I should have bought one more of these signs:
So true!!

By the way, first facial since being here in IL!
Face felt so nice and clean after.  One of my students works at a spa.  I'll definitely have to pay it forward and get a few more facials done.  She's been really good at bringing friends to all her lessons :-)

One more trip to Galena:
The boys love going to this one particular store that sells knives and swords. Should I be concerned??!

Quick stopover at a small mall to get some milktea. Christmas photo op!
These boys, I tell you!
As per usual, never a dull moment!