THE SIMPLE LIFE

Super-old blog that somehow never got posted until now.

Owning a home is hard work. Not only do you have to clean more rooms than ever before, the sucky part is that majority of the space you don't even use! Other than cleaning, there's the outside: Alex has been good with mowing the lawn but we've failed a watering the grass/plants and our poor garden has fallen by the wayside since the previous owners left.

Another thing that we've been trying to do is accomplish the list of things that our home inspector pointed out to us. We've already scheduled our roof to be done, although it's been delayed because of the rain. It was suppose to start this past Monday but when I left the house this morning, all the materials were lying around and not a worker was seen. I sincerely hope they will be done before everyone comes to visit this weekend. Another thing on the list was to replace our bathroom fans.

Now this doesn't sound that complicated. We picked up a new fan "easy to install in just 3 steps". Yeah...we kind of rean into some problems. Since our home is older, the fan that was originally there happens to be in dimensions that are no longer made. We ended up with a smaller fan - which we figured was fine as long as the grill covered the ugliness. We didn't take into the fact that the insulation from the attic would be falling down from the excess space nor could we figure out how to adhere the fan so that it would not fall through the hole. After 2 labour-intensive days, we gave up and hired a handyman. The poor guy spent 2 hours installing the fan and only got paid 50 bucks for all his hard work.

As with all lessons, it doesn't matter how often ppl tell you, you have to experience them yourself to really learn. In this case, Gord & Steph once told me that throwing money at problems will make things go away. It took us two very frustrating days before we were willing to submit to the fact that we will no longer attempt to fix things up on our own and simply hire ppl's expertise.






Oh and btw, we're having a lady come help with our garden this saturday.

My mom left Waterloo yesterday after staying for a week. It was great to have her come - hopefully she felt at home since everything inside was essentially hers. I accomplished more in the few days that she was here than my entire 2 months. Of course, I also spent a lot more too.

Filling a home is expensive! We bought a papasan chair for, what I think, was an obscene amount. Simply because it's totally not practical - cushion will get flat from use and I keep worrying that it'll break under my weight. Plus the fact that it's an odd piece to have in the living room because of it's so casual (aren't living rooms meant to be for formal sitting?). With all that being said, I love it. I love curling up in it to read by our window. It's just comfy, I almost feel like I'm in a crib! =P I've been keeping an eye out for used ones cuz we have 30 days to return. For some odd reason, they're very popular in London but I haven't seen anything that looks like ours yet.

I've spent so much time going back and forth between the different Home Sense locations I feel like I know their entire inventory. Plus, I forgot that I got a gift card for it from our wedding so I had to go back. They have this really stupid policy where you can't just bring your receipt. I had to bring back all my merchandise, refund it and then re-purchase it with the gift card. Have you ever tried carrying 10 pillows? Ridiculous!

Of course, it's my own fault. I'm not a designer. I can't just see things in my head. So, being an idiot I buy everything and then return things that don't work. Which ends up creating more work for myself - not to mention gas. I was so exhausted by the time my mom's vacation ended, I felt like I needed another vacation! But it was definitely great girl time. Alex was smart enough to schedule 2 on-calls back to back so he was never home. Otherwise, I think it would've been too much estrogen for him.

Now, we're back to our regular routine. I start working 3x/week starting next Monday. Excited and nervous at the same time because the specialties will be something completely different from what I'm doing right now. And I was just starting to get comfortable with where I'm at. We'll see...!

I'm in PEI right now, having a wonderful time. Here's a quick summary of our trip so far:

We left home on Friday morning stopping first in Montreal for the night. Our hotel was right in the heart of downtown which was perfect since we walked Prince Arthur Street and had dinner there while a street performer serenaded us. Then we went to the casino where I tripled my money at the slots (won $16.45!!) but we also lost 10 bucks playing the horse tracks and the fortune wheel. We went to Schwartz's for some smoked meat for lunch to go with our bread and brought it to Mont Royal. It was a great idea since the park was just around the corner and it was a nice, impromptu picnic overlooking eastern Montreal.

We drove to Quebec City next and spent the evening walking along Rue Petit-Champlain looking at little shops, checking out Chateau Frontenac and eating dinner at Spag&tini. The line up was long so we tought it was good but turns out it was more for the price than the quality. Service was good though and our waitress had me practice my french with her. Oh yeah, we also did a detour to Chutes de la Chaudiere. Alex managed to walk right to the Falls.

We didn't end up staying another night in Quebec because our main trip was suppose to be the Maritimes so we drove for another 3 hours after dinner and spent the night in Edmunston, New Brunswick at a very sketchy motel. I've never actually been to a motel like this (I know, I've been spoiled) but other than the washroom, it actually didn't look that bad in the morning. At least the bedsheets were clean and the bed was comfortable.

We drove another 6 hours to get to PEI. We did another detour to the longest covered bridge in the world (really wasn't that exciting...) but I guess that the fun thing about road trips - the hits and the misses. We also stopped by Magnetic Hill - which is a "reverse hill". You put your car into neutral and somehow roll UP the hill. We were actually quite amused by this and tried different materials like water bottles to try and figure it out.

Since then, we've been staying at a B&B on PEI. It's my first time at a B&B and I kinda it. Every morning we eat breakfast with the other guests at chat with them about where we've been and where to go next. Since everyone does something different, it really opens up for conversation and new places to explore.

We had arrived late the first night so ate dinner at their famous "lobster suppers". Basically, for a fixed price you get unlimited bread, seafood chowder, salad, mussels and dessert. You also get a lobster, price depends on size. We ordered a 3lb to share and snuck out back to see what they looked like alive. Some of them are huge!! If you look at the picture, the lobster runs from past the fingertips to the elbow. I was quite impressed with their dinner and I highly recommend everyone to go to New Glasgow. Their lemon meringue is the absolute BEST I've ever had. Usually they're either too sweet or too tangy (or both) but this was perfect. I ate 2 huge slices. My belly has expanded quite a bit since being on the island.

This past weekend was great! Dan & Beth finally got married and we were able to a part of the celebrations. Alex was their Best Man and needless to say, there were a lot of tears during his speech. What can I say - I love a man who is comfortable showing his emotions. =D It was at the Hockley Valley Resort and you know, it's a great thing to do it somewhere else. Kind of like a destination wedding because it was far enough out of the way that a lot of people stayed the night. The group of guys decided to stay 2 nights which made it a lot more fun. If I had to do my wedding over again, I would have liked to spend the day before hanging out with my friends. But to be honest, I know that it would never happen. It would be just like at my wedding where I would end up spending alone time with my parents the day before they give me away. Maybe it would've been different if we had actually been living together before I got married?

Any way, I went with the boyz to play 9 holes of golf. I had so much fun, I always hated the driving range cuz it's so boring but being on the course is completely different. It was my second time AND this time, I got to drive the golf cart too. We had some mini races and I totally felt like I was living Mario kart. My game sucked obviously but there were a few satisfying swings. All in all something I would totally do again if it wasn't so expensive. But I guess 50 bucks for a few hours of play is actually a pretty good deal. Oh no! I'm turning into one of "them". This is total payback for all the grief I gave Alex about the expenses of golf.

I also played beach volleyball with everyone on the day after the wedding. I sucked at that as well but Alex was so encouraging. He told me I actually have pretty good form considering I don't nurture my atheletic side and all I needed was more practice for improve my eye-hand coordination. *laughs* Isn't that sweet?

I also started watching Friday Night Lights since Simon's been raving about it. Surprisingly I loved it as well. I should've known because I actually enjoy football and the show the most exciting parts the game but the character development gets to me too. The only thing I didn't like was their filming style (documentary-like). I'm still on season 1 and it's getting hard to find everything on streaming. Stupid megavideo only lets me watch 1 episode every few hours.

We're suppose to be on vacation starting next week and Alex has already taken 2 weeks off. Originally we were talking about driving to the east coast to explore...but we haven't booked anything or planned anything yet. Part of me just wants to fly out west, play golf and eat off my parents. But they're still settling in and I'm sure Alex doesn't want to spend his holiday moving furniture for them. Plus, we should have some down-time alone. We haven't officially had a vacation since our honeymoon (China doesn't count since he was there on elective...and not what I would consider a vacation). Hopefully we're figure something out this weekend.

So the only reason I'm posting right now is because I received a threatening e-mail reminding me that there are a lot of bored people out there *laughs* I have to say, I surf other blogs too and get disappointed when they haven't updated every day so I guess it's only fair that I post more frequently.

Now...what to talk about. I guess now that I've moved, no one really knows what I do. And I guess it's cuz I really don't do much. But I love it. So a typical day for me is as follows:

9:30-10am wake-up
10-11am get ready/shower/read a book
11-1pm decide what's for dinner/check cupboards and flyers for food & sales/lunch
1-3pm grocery shopping (typically at 2-3 stores)
3-6pm cook
6-7pm dinner/clean-up
7-12pm read/watch shows/spend time with Alex/visit Alex's parents

Exciting huh? I probably could be more efficient but I've alway been slow in everything that I do (even homework as a kid). I think I just chop veggies and wash dishes slower than everyone else. Which is fine by me at the moment because...what's the rush? I've really got nothing else to do. *grin* The funny thing is that I spend most of my day in the kitchen, which sounds really foreign when I actually think about it. It's like my little domain. But my man is happy with dinner ready for him when he comes home from work and I'm happy that he doesn't make a mess in my kitchen so...overall, I'd say this works for us.

Oh, I've been doing more baking too. At the moment, everything still out of a box or tube but we just bought a mixer. My goal is to be able to bake bread one day. But...even though I've been making meals, I don't even consider it really cooking. I feel as though there's this standard to live up to (ie. cooking like our parents - the asian way). I've been doing mainly western style (casseroles, meats, pastas) but I've tried doing chinese twice and it's been improving. The hard thing I find about chinese is that everything happens in the last 1/2 hr. I'm just not fast enough for that and to be quite honest, it stresses me out. *sigh* Alex and I realized that we're a lot happier when I'm not stressed out =P

I've been going to work too - on days like today. Every Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday I'm at work supervising the students at school. I actually like it A LOT. Much better than coming home crying every night like I did when I was in Toronto. Because it's a school, it's usually patients with bigger problems that get referred. It's so much more exciting (and occasionally scary) to be more challenged and I've always enjoyed being able to teach something. I'm never meant to be a business person. Even when I was working for myself I hated it - knowing that the only thing keeping me going is money. It was awful to have that as your driving force. I'm so happy here, I'm enjoying myself and at the end of the day, I can be surprised and say 'Wow, I got paid to do THAT? I would've done it voluntarily!'

"My long-term intent is to meet the future needs of optometry in two areas - serving those in under-developed countries with the skills and expertise acquired through the profession as well as educating and encouraging younger generations of optometrists."

That's what I wrote on my applications when I was trying to enter optometry school. How awesome is that God has provided the opportunities to do both within a year after graduating. Neither one was expected but proved to be a great learning experience. I really have to thank God for everything - because there is no way I ever deserve all this. I enjoy it and appreciate it. But it always comes back to me...What am I asked to do? And am I doing it?

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." ~ Luke 12:48

In the back of my mind, I feel as though there is something big that I will have to do...and I'm not sure I'm ready to do it yet. God give me courage and obedience when the time comes.

That's all. Until next time...

So I handed in my notice for Toronto about 2 weeks ago and I haven't had to work since last Monday. It's been so awesome to have a break! I've been totally lazy sleeping in late and reading tons. Since Alex doesn't start residency until July 2nd, we've just been relaxing. We would have gone on a vacation but he had a weekend bachelor party and recently more orientation things. But all in all, a great time.

1. Family

So the reason I haven't been blogging recently is because I've been super busy. First was planning Steph's bachelorette and Jack & Jill. I had an awesome time at both thanks to everyone that was there and I was pretty surprised how well things flowed - good times with good friends. Next, Clark, Tracy and little Natalie came back home for a visit from HK. It was nice to spend so much time together with my bro & sis (-in-laws) and my little niece always manages to put a smile on everyone's face. I'm amazed at how quickly she's growing and how she's no longer a lump but a mini person with her own opinions. I learnt a major lesson about earrings during their visit - it makes a huge difference! Natalie used to look like her father but after she got her ears pierced, she looks like a little princess instead. I will now add earrings (in addition to make-up) as a magical makeover.

Alex's graduation was last weekend. My parents were able to come back from Beijing for it as well which was great. We haven't had both sides of the family all together since our wedding. It made the weekend filled with laughter since all 5 couples stayed up late playing card games. It's pretty cool that our family can get along like that. Alex and I were reflecting on the fact that our familys are very different and if God wasn't their common factor, they actually may have a hard time getting along. His family's very fun-loving: the more noise, people and excitement the better. My family's prefers order, quiet and more intimate conversations. It's really funny cuz several times being with my parents I realized where all my habits and things that I thought were "distinctly me" came from them.


2. God is at work.

There is no such thing as a coincidence...at least, I don't believe it. God has been amazing in showing me His plans lately, especially through our house-hunting process. As I had previously mentioned my aunt was my agent. However, now that I'm settling back to Waterloo, we felt bad that she would to to travel back and forth on our whim so we were going to go with someone more local. The very next day, we saw our dream home at an open house only for private sale (ie. no agent). That's God being at work #1.

When I originally started house-hunting, I had very specific requirements (eg. not within a knuckle joint from hydro line on this paper map that I have). Alex makes fun of me all the time because to him it's random. Trust me, the distance between my 2 finger joints is about 1 km on the map. Any way, this particular neighbourhood only had one little section that wasn't touching my finger joint - and how crazy is it that this house happens to be in that area!!

The awesome thing was that both my parents, Alex's parents, Alex's brother & wife were ALL there for this open house AND ALL agreed that it was great. That's God being at work #2 & #3. Now we know why the offer we placed on the first house didn't go through because this was even better than that one! God at work #4. We placed an offer 2 hours later and the sellers accepted it (more on this later). God at work #5. We find out this week that we beat a ton of ppl - they have already received 5 other offers after us. God at work #6.


God is amazing...I know that He's always at work but sometimes, you never see the reason or the results of it. It makes it all the more exciting when you can...this was a great reminder for me of how He brought Alex and I together as well.

More details and pics later =D

I just got back from a very busy weekend...but also a lot of fun.

It all started with Thursday evening movie - I finally got to see 'I love you man'. Alex had already seen it with his med boys so Mike and I went on our own after doing his exam. It was a decent movie...but remembering the scenes & lines in retrospect makes it much better than it actually is.

It was Carson's 23rd birthday this weekend and we went to celebrate in Niagara. Needless to say, when you're going so close to the border, you gotta cross over! We went back to Waterloo Thursday night to pick up our American currency left over from my Chicago days. However, in my rush to leave TO after the movie I forgot to pack my passport. Alex and I had to drive back to TO on Friday to pick it up before we were on our road trip to The Falls. (there was a LOT of travelling this weekend).

We went to Canyon Creek chophouse for dinner and I got to spend time chatting with Aaron about our profession and his perspectives as a student right now. It's always really encouraging to talk to ppl who are super enthusiastic - it reminded me of how I felt when I was in school...and how much I miss being involved while in Chicago. We had TWO reasons to celebrate Carson - his b-day AND his acceptance to Law School. Congrats!!

Alex and I stayed at the Embassy suites for a REAL good price - we got a view of the Falls PLUS a buffet breakfast at the Keg the next morning. It wasn't a skimpy breakfast either - they made Omelets with anything you want on it...and you get to watch the Falls again while you eat too.

We went to Buffalo saturday afternoon but didn't anything at the outlets. Our only purchases ended up from Target (sort of like a K-mart). Their stuff is so much cheaper, even with the exchange rate. I bought a whole pack of Burt's Bees lip gloss, (Zaditor) some allergy eye drops not available in Canada and (Airborne) sim. to ColdFX but not available in Canada either. The guy and the border kind of laughed at us when we showed him our receipt.

Any way, Saturday night we travelled back to London for Alex's Grad formal. It was good times celebrating everyone's achievements. Congrats to Brian and Drew for their honour awards - especially Bri. You know, we should be really proud of our friend. He got the longest applause and the ONLY standing ovation. I'm glad their class recognized what a special guy he really is *smile*.

Sunday morning we went for brunch at this place which served breakfast in bowls. Literally, the typical eggs, potatos, meats but a bowl instead of a plate. Weird I know, but it's actually pretty good. Any way, the service was really slow so we spoke to the manager and ended up with free meals & drinks for all 7 of us. Pretty cool...now that's what I call a good manager!

We travelled back to spend Sunday night in Waterloo and got to finally watch Slumdog Millionaire. It WAS a good movie and all in all, a good but busy weekend as well.

I love when my profession gives me perks - one of which is free food. Yesterday, I got to go to a corporate sponsored event and for listening to someone talk for 2 hrs, I got free unlimited alcohol and dinner at Auberge du Pommier. It was sweet! I just went onto their website to find out what we got - they spent over 90 bucks me on last night; craziness!

For h'or douvres they had Cappuccino de Truffle. It's pureed mushroom and truffle soup with velvet shank cream and parmesan biscuit. It was soooo good. Although looking at the menu, it costs $19. It was such a tiny little tease...now I wish I drank more than one cup =P I also got to try their tuna tartare inside hallowed cucumbers. I have to say I was a little disappointed with that one. Although their presentation was nice, I actually preferred Simon's version at last week's dinner. They also had chicken kebobs with a sweet mustard sauce which was just okay too.

For appetizers we got to choose between Winter Squash Veloute, Mousseline of Scallop or Foie Gras Terrine. I chose the the Scallop, which was chilled mousse of sea scallop wrapped in smoked salmon with tarragon and lime dressing. I guess I should've read the menu more closely cuz making a scallop mousse just sounds kinda gross. It really didn't taste great either - the salmon was good but the scallop was very rubbery and pairing it with the lime didn't make it any better. I should have gone for the Foie Gras instead - doh!

For the main, we got to choose between a roast grouper, loin of lamb or grilled beef tenderloin. I went for the lamb with golden potato, braised garlic, roast parship and rosemary. It was delicious. Perfectly done and oh so yummy. I was really full by the end of it. The only sucky part was burping lamb for the rest of the evening. Doesn't taste as good coming back up - ewwwww!

For dessert everyone got Auberge Crepes. It was undescribable. They filled it with pastry cream and fresh oranges and grapefruit. Topped with a citrus reduction mixed with Grand Marnier. So so so so so so good!

All in all, it was a delightful evening. Oh yeah...and I got to talk to a few strangers and learn about some new products. I hate networking but I'll do it for good food...or just free food.