Weekend Recap

It was going to be a beautiful weekend so we thought that we would go fishing on Saturday and afterwards go to Green Bay to my In-Law's house to eat some pho (noodle).

We went fishing early in the morning. We did not catch any white bass nor any kind of fish. Oh well, I think we caught enough from last weekend's fishing extravaganza. I was kind of getting sick of fishing anyways. After about 3 hours and not a single bite, we decided to head to Green Bay. On our way there, we decided to stop on by Bay Beach to check out the new ride which was the Zippin Pippin roller coaster that was brand new this year. Also, we stopped there because my oldest daughter Selina was there already along with my sister and nephew. She didn't go fishing with us but instead left early in the morning to go to Green Bay.

Pictures below of our little fishing trip early in the morning.

My son Brandon fishing. It wasn't even cold but he wore his coat.

 Below: My baby Princeton. Goofing around as usual.

 Look how naughty he is...constantly touching the little minnows and getting himself wet!

 Below: My niece Heaven went with us too.

 Below: My daughter Paris...playing very close to the edge of the water. Had to yell at her and Heaven constantly to move away from the edge of the water.

 Below: Princeton again.......he can't seem to get enough with playing with the water and the minnows.

So after fishing, we stopped in Green Bay at Bay Beach.

The new roller coaster at Bay Beach!! Zippin Pippin!! FYI: Each ride will coast 4 tickets per person. Which is $1.00 per ride because tickets costs $.25.

 Below: The younger kids waited as well as I to watch their dad and older sisters Selina and Chyna take a ride on the Zippin Pippin. Kids had to be 48" in order to ride. Brandon didn't want to ride it because he was scared. I could care less for it either. I'm afraid of heights!!

 Below: Hubby, Selina and Chyna waiting patiently in line to get on the roller coaster.

 Below: After the roller coaster we decided to take the whole family to ride on the Farris Wheel. Princeton got impatient and crabby.

Below: Princeton does not look too happy.

It started raining when we got onto the Farris Wheel. That was fun riding on the Farris Wheel while it was raining!! Princeton LOVED it!! I on the other hand.......was a chicken and I still am!! I will refuse to go on it by myself!! They had to all talk me into riding that sucker!! I just hate heights!!

After Bay Beach, we headed to my In-Law's house to go eat some pho (noodles). Boy oh boy, was it super yumi! Thanks Ka for the pho!!!! After eating, we all just sat around, talked and watched movies. Later on, we decided to spend the night there so that we could do some drinking and playing cards. It was nice to have the somewhat whole family there. Missing were Tong, his wife and child. It was a jam packed house...which was awsome!

Pictures from spending time with the in-laws.

 Below: Okay....I didn't take this picture! Jo took this of my hubby's butt! And yes, Jo was proud of taking it too!

 Below: Jo and Ka. My sister in law and her husband.

 Below: Hlau and her step child eating ice cream with Paris and Heaven.

It was a fun filled Saturday! Woke up on Sunday at about 7:30 am and came home. We did some lawn work and was going to go for a nature trail walk afterwards but they sky turned on us....so we had no choice but to hold off on our walk. Maybe next time.

There were tornado warnings in our area...the sky went from bright and sunny to dark and scary looking clouds hoovering between Menasha and Appleton. We live in Menasha near the border of Appleton so our side was bright but Appleton was pretty pitch dark! Look at the pictures below:

Picture below: Sky towards Appleton...very dark clouds rolling into Menasha. Beyond the tree is Appleton which it was pitch dark!!

 Below: You can see the dark clouds trying to push itself in.

What a weekend!! I had fun, the kids had fun. Life is good......lols!! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too! This coming weekend is memorial weekend.....can't wait!!

It was 16 years ago.....

I gave birth to my oldest daughter Selina PaChia Lor. OMG.......it was the hardest labor EVER! Dam, I could still feel the labor pains. Almost had to have a C-section because she wasn't coming out. I could still hear my mother in law pleading with the nurse and doctor to take me away to get the c-section done because they were all so scared for me. I swear, I think everyone was in the delivery room with me...my mother in law, my parents. LOLs!! At first I was embarrassed but after the contractions came...dam, who the hell cares who sees me!! I remember my mother in law crying and my parents crying in the delivery room.......yes.......the painful memory.

Now...16 years later.  Gosh...time sure fly by fast!! We have our differences and our spats, our little moments....but gotta love her...cuz I have to...Just Joking. I do love her. I have to say, she's a pretty smart/obedient kid and she's not those girls that likes to go parties/drinks or hang out with a big group of people......she's also not boy crazy like some girls too. Am I proud of her? You can say I am.

So, if anyone one of you are reading this...and see's her picture...and see her out at bars/clubs....remember she's still under age and should report to me immediately!!! LOLs!!! She knows that she has so many aunts and uncles/cousins that will kill her if they ever found out she's been a bad girl...hehehehe. I'm glad she knows that......makes my job as a mother a tab bit easier!

This past Thursday, her and I had a little time go go out and do a pre-mini photo shoot. Wanted to scout out the location for next weekend. As time was very limited...since it was on a school night and she swore she had like hundreds of homework/finals to do.....we had to limit our time. I promised her that we'd only take 1 hour....she looked at me funny and said that my 1 hour will turn into 2 hours...lols! So brought my hand held camera only and off we went to the nature center in Kaukauna, WI to shoot some photos.

Pictures below. Obviously I didn't use my very nice camera to do this shoot....I only used my hand held camera. Can't wait to go back and get better pictures!! Here are some photos from the ultra mini shoot.

Happy sweet 16 Selina PaChia Lor!!

Preview = Red Riding Hood outfit creation

I've been wanting to sew this outfit for awhile now so FINALLY I was able to do some sewing/cutting late Wednesday night into 1 AM Thursday morning. Ahhhh.....tired but feeling INSPIRED!

I was checking online to get some examples of a red outfit and red hooded cape. I just fell in LOVE with these outfits! Check below!!

I Love the puffiness of the dress pictured below, the red fabric with the black see through fabric over the red. It's an absolute beauty. I don't think I can sew this exact outfit but maybe something similar to this. I will have a two piece outfit instead of one probably.

PICTURE BELOW: Here is the hooded cape that I love so much! It's so pretty!! Mine won't be as flowy and spreaded out down at the bottom but it will be similar to this. I'm sewing a very long one just like this pictured one too. This cape in the picture is a velvet material. I'm using a satin fabric instead b/c it's cheaper than velvet fabric.

BELOW PICTURE: My husband helping me cut the fabric for the skirt. Look at his hair!!! What a girl! Awww...he's such a helper! While he's cutting the fabric for the skirt, I'm cutting and piecing together the hooded cape.

PICTURE BELOW: Hooded cape. My husband is my model for now as I don't have a mannequin so please just ignore him..lols! Hooded cape not done yet. Needs a lot more sewing!

(Front view)

 (Side view)

 (Back view)

I should be done with the hooded cape by Thursday night and get started on my skirt! Can't wait!

I bought the fabric for the hooded cape from a thrift store for $2.75 total!! Great deal!
The skirt fabric I bought 4 yards for a total of $23.00 from JoAnne's Fabric.  Not too bad but I thought it could've been a little bit cheaper.

Will probably have the whole outfit done by middle of next week or even sooner depending on how inspired I am...more like how much effort and time I want to put into it! Check back for the end result of it!!

A "mini" photo shoot =Paris

My 7 year old daughter Paris.

Thought I'd take my handy dandy point and shoot camera to the park today Monday May 16th and take some snap shots of my daughter Paris while my other kids play at the play ground. She LOVES to take pictures and when it comes to photos, she's such a natural. We went to a park in Neenah for the pictures. Gosh, my kids are growing up so fast.

I didn't take my nice professional camera out because I wanted to make a point to everyone that you don't have to have a professional camera/lens to capture nice moments/photos. You just have to have vision and know how to point and shoot as well as being creative. Although, a professional camera is always best but not everyone can own one as it is very expensive.

I put these pictures into black and white because I feel that black and white captures so much of their youth and it's so innocent looking. I wish they'd stay young and innocent forever. I hope you enjoy the pictures!!

My baby(ies) growing up too fast

I'm blogging about this today because I just feel depressed....that my 4 year old will no longer be a baby...well, technically he really isn't a baby anymore.  I quit my job so that I could spend time with him and enjoy him as he will be my last baby. My oldest, Selina Pa Chia Lor is turning 16 this coming Friday May 20th. Gosh, has it been 16 years already? Arghhh...I could still feel the labor pains trying to give birth to her. I have to say that she was the most hardest labor. Ewwwwww...I don't even wan to think of it.

My 4 year old is the sweetest thing given to me. I'm so blessed. I'm so in love with him and wished that he would never ever grow up but of course, everyone has to. He's such a smart little one and a very bright child. Next year he will be going to kindergarten all day and so I won't be able to snuggle with him every morning now. I will miss that terribly. Aww, makes me so sad to even think about it. I keep telling him to stop growing up and he tells me "but mommy, I need to grow up big like daddy so that I can help you and daddy". Awww...he makes my heart melt. When he gets mad at me, he says "I'm not going to be your baby anymore". LOLs...what a brat!

My baby tries to give me flowers every day and says that he loves me. He told me that he will hold my hands forever. I just wish that he will hold true to his words. I don't know what I would do without him or any of my kids even though they drive me crazy most of the times. Like the old saying, can't live with them and can't live without them.

Picture below: My oldest son holding my baby...at the hospital. Brandon (oldest son) and Princeton (my baby). Brandon was about 6 1/2 years old here and Princeton was barely 1 day old. August 30th, 2006

Picture below: Brandon and Princeton Christmas 2010, just this past xmas. Brandon was 10 1/2 years old and Princeton 4 years old. Look how much they've grown.

Weather is getting a lot warmer so I'm ready to take tons and tons of pictures this summer. Can't wait. We've been fishing a lot lately because white bass fishes has been running. Once White Bass season is over, we will be going to a lot more places and doing more family outings together. Can't wait!

Outfit Creation

For the past few weeks now I've been busy sewing this outfit. Pictures below. The weather has been pretty good so far so I thought maybe very soon I'll do some photography outside and of course with this dress! Can't wait!

Sewed this by scratch! The fabric was on clearance for $2.00 per yard so I snatched up 4 yards total for this whole outfit! Great deal!! This is how the whole outfit looks like.

 Picture below: Sequins and laces. All carefully sewn. Little white pearls are sewn one at a time. Very time consuming but turned out very pretty.

 Picture below: Front design of the corset. I wanted a flowery dress but didn't want to over do it so I came up with this piece that sits right below the corset. I thought it was a very pretty addition to the corset. It has feathers too!!

 Picture below: The back of the corset. I thought the back needed something like the front but yet not overpowering too much of the front so this is what I came up with. A smaller version of the front.

Picture below: A close up of the back flower design.

 Picture below: Another view of the corset.

Flowers cost me $5.00. All the flowers were on a branch so I had to take the flowers off one at a time.
Laces and other sequins/accessories were pretty expensive. I have to say it probably cost me a total of about $60.00 for this whole outfit.

I have another outfit in mind...can't wait to start on it really soon! HINT HINT: RED!! Oh la la!!

“You know you've entered new terrain when your outfit costs more than your film.”

 Jessica Yu quotes

The need to blog..can't sleep.

So for the last couple of weeks now, I can't seem to fall asleep. I don't know if I put myself into this habit of staying up at night and then falling asleep in the morning until mid afternoon. I'm trying to quit this habit but it's so hard. I've tried to just lay in bed and try to draw my mind blank but of course, 15-20 minutes later my mind is racing again and here, back to square one, the tossing and turning starts again.

I thought maybe I might have insomnia but I looked at the definition of insomnia and I don't think I meet this definition.

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Insomnia is difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep, or having non refreshing sleep for at least 1 month.

Insomnia is caused by many different things. The most common causes of insomnia are:

• Alcohol
• Anxiety
• Coffee
• Stress

Secondary insomnia is caused by a medical condition. Depression is a very common cause of secondary insomnia. Often, insomnia is the symptom that causes people with depression to seek medical help.

Symptoms

• Difficulty falling asleep on most nights
• Feeling tired during the day or falling asleep during the day
• Not feeling refreshed when you wake up
• Waking up several times during sleep

People who have primary insomnia tend to keep thinking about getting enough sleep. The more they try to sleep, the greater their sense of frustration and distress, and the more difficult sleep becomes.



I think it's stress/anxiety that's causing me to not fall asleep and probably the fact that I put myself into this situation by staying up late in the beginning by watching movies late at night or on the computer. So I decided to go and purchase some sleeping aide pill last night to help assist me so that I can try to "break" out of this non sleeping pattern. I purchased the sleeping pill brand of MidNite. It was $6.99 for a box of 30 tablets. It just dissolves in your mouth without drinking any water or swallowing it whole. A plus for me since I hate swallowing pills.  About 1 1/2 hr later..I think I could feel something so I tried getting into bed for some shut eye..omg...about another 1 hour later and after the tossing and turning...managed to get myself some ZZZZZ. When did I fall asleep? About 2 am.

So, did I get a good nite's rest? Omg....I woke up at 5:00 am to go use the restroom and then layed in bed for an hour to try to get more sleep and of course, tossed and turned, couldn't sleep again. Didn't want to take more of the pills....so I decided to just stay up to blog. Last blog was 04/17/11 so I was due a blog soon anyways.