happy bday popo!

although popo means grandma in chinese, my popo was a lot more than that. while my mom was working 3 jobs trying to support us, my popo was the one picking me and marla up from school and feeding us. she took care of us for a lot of years. she used to be so full of life and was my "gaigai" (go out) pal. age is taking a toll on her though. she's loosing her memory and can't get around like she used to. it's really heartbreaking for me to see her like this.

she turned 93 this week. doesn't she look great? just looking at her, you would never guess her age! i hope to spend more time with her this year and that God heals all her illnesses so that she can really live life like she used to. i hope she knows how much we love her and how much we need her. it's a hard thing to convey to someone who thinks that they are a burden to others. although a lot of things have gone on between her and the family that has caused a rift in a lot of relationships, she is still my popo ... my gaigai pal. i hope she has a wonderful 93rd year!!!

fancy dinner

i went to this fancy awards dinner last night in which i (among a lot of other people) received an award. it's funny that i'm writing this on my blog where potentially a gazillion people can read it and i haven't even told half of my family yet. lol. (i wasn't planning on telling anyone except that my boss spilled the beans and told a lot of people i work with and i told my mom since i was going to take her as my guest.) i only am writing this because i'm pretty sure that no one reads my blog since i have a lack of comments on my postings. i rather think that's no one's reading it rather than what i'm writiing is not worth commenting on. lol.

i digress - on the ticket it said "semi-formal, evening attire" and "no aloha shirts allowed". this is a big deal in hawaii, where wearing aloha shirts is considered "dressy". i didn't have anything in my closet to wear. my closet is full of denim mini skirts, tank tops, and of course, nike drifit clothes. since i will probably not have a chance to wear anything this fancy again, i didn't want to spend too much money on a dress and i didn't. although i bought a couple of dresses, i settled on a $20 find at ross. i found a semi-formal one for $40 but it wasn't "me". i stressed about what i was going to wear for days but after the night was over, what i wore didn't matter. what mattered was that i was surrounded by my family and friends. it was great. something that i didn't want anyone to know, was a wonderful experience because they knew and were there.

in case anyone is wondering, the award i received was a technology industry award for being a top 50 high tech leader in 2006. (if you know me, this is really ironic because i'm the most untech-techie i know. lol. when i heard i won, i thought that everyone who was nominated won but heard that there were almost 500 nominations for this award! throughout the whole night, i kept telling people that i might not be getting the award just in case there was a mistake. hee hee.) i also received a mayor's award of recoginition. it was a fun night and the food was great ... AND i didn't trip when i went to get my award. yay! :)

CE clock

i finally finished my clock (which i started on september 8th at CE)! =P although we were provided a citron green paper, it just didn't go with any photos of roxy i printed. luckily i went shopping at scrapbooks, etc. the day before and bought some great paper from mme from their "bohemia" line. i saved time matching the photos to the papers the night before but when it came time to choose which one to do, i took forever because i wanted it to come out purrrfect. :) when i finally decided to do this picture of roxy on my bed snuggled in my blanket, i was stuck with how i was going to embellish it. in the sample clocks, heidi used the word "time". coming up with titles is one of my many weakpoints so i kept thinking about using the word "time" but when i look at the photo it looks like roxy is waiting for me like "when is it bedtime mama?" i tried playing with the words in my head (meanwhile everyone is about 1/2 way done with their clocks - lol), i thought of "nap time", then "cat nap time". cute? i think so! :) btw, much mahalos to heidi swapp who created this project for us at CE. even though all of us were provided with basically the same stuff, they all came out vastly different. isn't that amazing? :) i LOVE my clock ... thanks heidi!!!

the only thing i regret is not making a concious effort to take better care of the cover. it's all scratched up (not sure if it came that way) but hopefully the scratches won't be seen too much when it's hanging on the wall. hmm ... pink doesn't really go with my decor but i'm sure i'll find somewhere to hang it. who cares if it doesn't match my place right??? ;)

sierra's party pic

don't have much time to blog today but wanted to post a picture of sierra at her bday party last night. she did the cutest thing. my brother was trying to teach her how to blow the candle out so he would put up his finger (to represent the candle) and tell her to blow. they practiced this several times during the week. when it came time to blow out her candles, she put her little finger up to her mouth and blew. awww!!! so cute yeah? although she can't sit still, i was able to take this picture of her before we started singing to her. :) she was even singing to herself! :)) i'm not biased, she is just TOO CUTE!!! (btw, i know the cake is small but there were a lot of other desserts there so they just got a small cake.)

happy birthday sierra!

my niece sierra turned 2 yesterday. she's got the longest hair i've even seen on a 2 year old. she actually looks a little like me when i was that age. there's a big difference though. i was painfully shy at that age and she's not - which is wonderful because i don't want her to have the issues that i still have. =P she's the cutest ... although her speaking vocabulary is limited, she totally understands what we're saying. when i tell her, "don't touch sierra". she looks up at me, sticks her finger closer to the object she's not suppossed to touch, and smiles. i love that she's silly like that. i guess she IS a little like me after all. ;)

last sunday my mom went to visit her and she was singing, "birfday to me ... birfday to me". how cute is that??? (sigh) i can't wait to have one of my own. of course i'm absolutely terrified that i wouldn't be a good parent because of my upbringing and anal nature but moments like these are priceless. her bday party is tonight so i hope to have more pictures to post later :) but for now, here is my message to her.

sierra - because you look a little like me when i was your age, you remind me that my clock is ticking and how much i want to be a mom. i feel so bad for you and your sister that you don't have any cousins but i pray that will change soon. you are very precious to me and bring such joy to our family. i pray that God will protect you and give you a healthy and happy life. i love you little munky!!!

tv junkie

i admit. i'm a tv junkie. i'm soo into tv that when the last season ended and the new shows (for fall 2006) was being announced, i made an excel spreadsheet of each channel (fox, abc, cbs, nbc) and the new shows that were going to come out. i made a column for each - show name, it's actors, and the basic premise. i know. i'm a nerd. it's funny because i made it to share with my tv junkie gf and somehow ended forwarding it to a couple other people. lol. they loved it and used it to determine what shows they want to watch and the basic lineup of what to watch (oh yeah - i made a spreadsheet for that too.) hee hee.

i don't base a show on one episode so i promised my friends that i would write short reviews on the new shows for them - which i will probably post here just in case somebody out there is interested. :) on that note, i'm excited that tonight is the premiere of the 3rd season of LOST. i hope it's better than last season. last season sucked but i think they learned that they have to beef things up a bit or they are going to lose viewers. i hope not cause i could watch josh halloway for hours. ;) hee hee.

my space

although i had a lot of stuff to do, i updated my my space page. i usually do this when i have a new default pic but i was just getting tired of the page i had. i changed the background, font colors, default pic, and the song so that it matches the "theme" i have going on. lol. it takes a lot longer than you would think because i want everything to "go" together. :) good thing scrapbooking hasn't gotten that far to add songs or i would never get anything done! not that i do anyway - hee hee.

i admit. myspace has a bad rep and i can see why BUT it's only that way if you want it to be. you don't have to accept friend requests nor do you have to friend request people you don't know. i personally know (except for 1 who is my g/f's best friend that i talk to on the phone on occasion) all of my myspace friends. it's a great way for me to keep in touch with people or let them know i've been thinking about them on MY time. i can do it at 3AM or 3PM and won't have to worry about waking them up or disturbing them at work. it's a great way to see what they've been up to too if they post pics or post blogs.

anyway, one of my friends recently posted a question to me - asking me if i would go on a date with him. what was he thinking??? i mean he asked me out on the forum where EVERYONE could see AND asked ME - his friend of 10+ years! is the dating world that bad or is it just in hawaii? lol. is it weird or is it just me? i'm not saying that relationships between friends can't become more than that BUT ... i don't know ... there has to be something that draws them together. it can't be just because they're both single. (sigh). hopefully he was/is just joking and just wants to catch up since we haven't seen each other in 2 years or that he wanted to post on my page that he's single. that could be it right?