Nothing but Work, Eat, Sleep

I'm back with some updates...finally!! The past few weeks had been nothing but work, eat, and (lack of) sleep...the exact same routine for 7 consecutive weeks. Been putting my life on hold with the see-saw entirely on the 'work' side. Glad that work has finally wrapped up (sorta kinda) and it's now time to bring my life back to balance. =P 

EAT: Of the 3 activities mentioned above, 'eat' was probably the only exciting thing that deserved some photos so please bear with the many food pictures in this post. 

The one good thing about working late is getting to eattake-out at a lot of restaurants here, something I rarely do. :P For my future references, I'm gonna try to list down all the restaurants I've tried: PF Chang's China Bistro, Connor's Steak & Seafood, Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, Moe's Bbq, Panera Bread, Nothing But Noodles, Rosie's Mexican Cantina, Commerce Kitchen, West End Grill, Papou's Greek Cuisin, Grille 29, Terranova's Italian, Asian Rim, Chili's, Newk's, Phil Sandoval's Mexican Restaurant, and Zoës Kitchen. =)

On top of all the good dinners during the weekdays, we took turns to decide where to eat-out one day each week for our date lunch/dinner. =)

Jan 17 and Feb 21 (Sat): Bahn mi and bubble tea at Viet Sandwich.
Jan 24 (Sat): Steak Out
Jan 30 (Fri): Beef noodle soup, grilled pork over vermicelli, and Kirin at Saigon Restaurant.
Jan 31 (Sat): Chicken burrito bowl at Chipotle Mexican Grill.
Feb 7 (Sat): Milkshake and slushy from Sonic.

Weekend is time to be lazy...that means it's either leftovers or pasta...haha!! 

Well not really all lazy during the weekends coz I still keep up with my routine of cooking for the week...for our lunches and hubby's dinners.

WORK: Even though work was kinda boring, it's still worth some space on this post since that was pretty much all I did for the past 7 weeks! :P

Jan 23 (Sat): Drove 2 hours up to Nashville and met up with Ali coz he was there for work. It was a great catch-up and it's interesting how we both ended up working in the US at the same time. Pretty snowy scenery on my drive back to Huntsville. =)


Been 'camping out' at the office and making myself at home since I spent significantly more hours at work than at home. Our snack drawer (those Chips Ahoy was mostly eaten by me), my extremely messy table during crunch time, and the heat pad that came in very handy to keep me warm.

Got this new portable monitor from work...pretty cool. =)

Busy season goodies and gift card from the firm. =)

In the midst of this work craziness, there's always time for the loved ones and some fun times. 

Feb 13 (Fri): Celebrated V-day one day earlier with dinner at Applebee's and presents for our upcoming adventures. =) Kinda hard to believe that this was our 2nd V-day together in 7 years!

Feb 18 (Wed): Woke up at 6am for a skype reunion with the family back home. I managed to get myself into the family photo...lol!! While everyone was having abalone, salmon, wine and lotsa food for dinner, I had bread and milk for breakfast...hahaha!! 

Feb 20 (Fri): We hardly get any snow in the South but when it does snow, traffic goes crazy so we had to leave work earlier before the road closes. It was fun seeing snow but I was nervous on my drive home coz it was my first experience driving on slippery ice and it wasn't fun not having full control of the car. Fortunately, I made it safe back home. =)

We got even more snow yesterday...enough of snow to build a snowman and not having to go to work. I'll share the photos in the next post. =)

Homebodies' New Year!

Happy 'belated' New Year!! Lagging a lil' behind with my weekly updates coz I was busy editing our honeymoon video during the holidays last week. Now that the holidays are over, busy season at work have officially started this week so I guess this blog will be kinda boring for the next 2 months (not like it's very interesting now either). =P 

Dec 29 (Mon): Post-Christmas shopping! Thanks for the gift cards from Grandma Lucille. =) Got myself some work clothes, Daniel's jacket for our upcoming adventures, and also glass containers for our meals. We really put those containers into good use. =)

Dec 30 (Tues): Chiak-ba-sio-eng during the holidays and decided to try making Bibimbap for the week. Just randomly used whatever ingredients we had...minced meat, celery, carrots, mushrooms, egg, seaweed and of course rice. I didn't have gochujang for the sauce so replaced it with miso soup that we bought from Atlanta instead. Not bad huh! *slap* :P

Signed up for membership at UAH fitness center to motivate myself to exercise. :P I used to cycle here quite frequently when I was studying here and it's good to be back. Hubby's company has a very good corporate rate here and $20/month is really not bad at all coz I can use all the facilities and attend the classes here. Been to few yoga classes so far. 

Jan 1 (Thurs): Spent New Year's Eve being lazy chilling at home all day, no countdown, no celebration, but I did stream the countdown concert in Taipei in the morning. =P Went to the parents' on New Year's day...jaccuzzied, helped MIL to make Asian food for dinner, and watched football. As you can see, I was more interested in taking selfie with the doogies instead of watching football...haha!!

Jan 4 (Sun): Spent almost 5 hours on my last day of holiday prepping lunch and dinner for the week. The menu for the week was rice rolls (for me)/potato salad + sandwich (for him) for lunch, and roasted chicken + stir fried veggies + rice for dinner. Making the rice rolls was really time consuming and I guess I'll stop making it for awhile. =P

There's only one word to describe the weather this week...COLDDD!! Besides, the sun sets at 4.30pm so by the time I got off work around 7.30pm, it was dark and cold. I took this photo of the full moon one evening and sent it to my friend in M'sia complaining about the cold and her response was funny asking if I was crazy watching the moon at 0°C...lol!! I shouldn't be complaining coz I used to cycle to my evening classes in this weather last time.

Jan 9 (Fri): TGIF date night at Ruby Tuesday to 'reward' ourselves after one busy work week. =)

Goodbye 2014...Hello 2015!

Counting down one day before we bid goodbye to 2014 and it's time to do a quick recap of the past year. I didn't really like FB's Year In Review feature (no offense but I feel it's for lazy people) and I still prefer to stick to my 'style' of doing a recap of the past year on my blog, something that I've been doing since 2007. OMG...can't believe I've been doing this for 8 years!! 

Anyway, 2014 has been quite an eventful year with a mix of good and not-so-good times. Not-so-good mainly because we had too many hospital runs this year, from Royal Melbourne, to LGL, to Pantai, to GH, then LWE. It has definitely been a challenging year for our family but I'm optimistic that things will turn better in 2015. I choose to keep only the good memories and leave the not-so-good ones behind so here's a quick recap of some of the good moments in the past year.

Jan-Feb: Hubby and his family returned to the States shortly after the wedding while I returned to work after taking a whole month off. Work was busy as usual but I can't complain coz I had good bosses and team mates who filled in for me while I was away.  

March: Bridesmaid for my best friend's wedding and had the opportunity to catch up with college buddies in Penang.

April: Traveled to Sydney and Melbourne for 10 days with the family. Overall, it was quite a good trip despite mom's accident causing her to extend her stay in Australia.

May: 2nd trip of the year...2-weeks honeymoon trip with hubby to Norway and Sweden. This trip was a mentally relaxing, physically challenging one but it was probably one of the best road trip that we've ever been on and definitely a very memorable honeymoon. Norway's natural beauty took our breath away. 

September: 3rd trip of the year...8-days cycling trip to Jeju & Busan with bro and his gf. This cycling trip was filled with challenges along our way but I'm proud of what we've accomplished and this trip was definitely a memorable and awesome adventure.

October: Was busy finishing up my work before my last work day while dealing with all the paperwork for my resignation and relocation. 3 years & 11 months...and I count my blessings for this great chapter. 

November: Time to say goodbye to my family and start a new chapter with hubby.

December: Started work at my new workplace...still the same company but in a new country, new office. It's another learning curve but hopefully not a steep one. Good luck to myself and all the best in 2015!! Looking forward to a better year ahead!! =)

Christmas 2014

It's half way through my 1.5 week break and I've been enjoying it so far (no more holidays for the next 6 months so I've gotta enjoy this to the max). I've got quite a few things on my to-do list during this break but I've been slacking too much, and I'm blaming it on 2 dramas. :P The first half of this break has been filled with family visits, food, and presents coz it's Christmas!! The last time I celebrated Christmas in the States was 6 years ago so this wasn't all new for me. :P As I mentioned before, I got here just in time for the 2 biggest holiday season - Thanksgiving & Christmas so it worked out perfect. =)

Hubby and MIL has been spending Christmas in Malaysia for the past 2 years (2012 proposal trip & 2013 wedding trip) so MIL organized a party at their house this year to celebrate with the family and friends here. :) 

21 December 2014 (Sun): Christmas party at the parent's house. There were almost 20 people at the party and apart from eating & chatting, we also played the 'right/left' game to exchange gifts. =)

Pot luck means lotsa food!! It was like 2nd round of Thanksgiving...hehe!!

Lotsa Christmas decos at almost every corner of the parent's house...very festive indeed! We helped to put up and decorate the Christmas tree but that's pretty much all we helped...whoops!

After many gloomy and rainy days, it was finally sunny on Christmas day! Can't get enough of the beautiful skies!!

Even though I mentioned in my previous post that I've had to go through a lot of troublesome procedures for this relocation (eg. taking a driving test) but I've been really lucky that hubby and his family helped out a lot to ease my transition here. The parents was very thoughtful and generous to give us SIL's Mazda so we didn't have to worry about getting me a new car. I love used car (if you know me well enough you'll know what I mean)...hehe! I'm also lucky that I didn't have to worry about getting expensive auto insurance for not having any driving history here coz hubby took care of that. :P

25 Dec 2014 (Thurs): Christmas day with the family. =)

Our presents!!! Thanks MIL, FIL & SIL for the awesome and practical presents!! =)

26 Dec 2014 (Fri): Christmas at Grandma Lucille's...more good food and presents! =)

27 Dec 2014 (Sat): Christmas at Paw Paw's..one last round of good food and presents! =)

Wrapping up this post with some cute Christmas decos.