theParks

mauahahaha....it's been ages hasn't it my friends. hello? anyone still out there...heeheeheee....okay...so i figured July would be a good time to try to get back into the swing of things. but i was recently inspired by Kelly Purkey's blog post about starting a new-half year in July..that i figured now would be just as good a time as any to start blogging again. dont' get me wrong...i still read all my favorite blogs as often as they are updated....i just haven't been motivated to blog myself. it's a lot of work i tell you. i must be super duper lazy. lol

i actually just this afternoon downloaded pics from my camera...they went as far back as the beginning of april. i have clearly failed my P365 challenge. oh well...life apparently went on.

today is a very very raining day...but to be quite honest...i love rainy days...especially when i'm at home! as much as i hope it clears up a bit this weekend i am really not looking for the mean hot sun to reappear. really...the last couple of weeks have been brutal.

so if you any curiosity as to why i've been m.i.a. lately...well it's probably because i spent most of april, may, and june sleeping....apparently...it's one of the big symptons of being preggers....alas! there's my bit of good news! and a good enough reason to not have been blogging, social networking, etc... DH and I are expecting our first bundle of joy this December :) after 3 long and hard years of trying to have a family...God has really answered our prayers (and the prayers of many of our friends and family). so, now i'm 4 months along...and i'm beyond excited about this new stage of our lives!

needless to say...i've been far removed from my favority hobby...scrapbooking/cardmarking. i just tried to make a birthday card for one of my hubby's co-workers. it's ugly. i'm going to have to try again. seriously. i was so on a role with my cardmaking fun. now, i really suck at it. sheesh.

and although i almost always carry around my trusty little red Olympus point-and-shoot camera...i've neglected to take more photos. boo for me.

okay - so how about some pics from this past 2nd quarter of the year. i do have just a few to share...

my mom brought me some Vietnamese chicken noodle soup to work...complete with chopsticks and Asian soup spoon...it was SO yummy

my bff Mia asked me to make cupcakes for Sarah's 2nd birthday...this is starting to seem like a tradition ;o)

i think i may have broken my favorite frosting gun...but i think it was worth it...

becuase it seems that the birthday girl was pretty content with her cupcake

let's play "where's sarah?" now shall we?

later that day...i went to a baby 'sprinkle' for chloe who was expecting her second child

cute (and yummy) cake...

cute decorations...

and a group of lovely ladies around chloe who is front and center in the pink :)

got to celebrate this little fellow's baptism...although i missed the actually baptism (since i was in attendence at my church that sunday)....i did get to celebrate with jakey's family and friends that afternoon :) he's excited to get to open his gift from his favorite asian auntie...yes, that would be me :)

i also got a visit from my favorite japanese friend Taka and her half korean half japanese baby girl Hibari...these girls were so fun to hang out with

during the latter half of april...andra and i took a long lunch to visit Vanessa and her newborn baby boy JC - absolutely precious!

one of the best things to happen in april was that the Tran clan moved to Katy and are now just about 5 minutes from us...woohoo! and they love having folks over to eat...here's one of the feasts that i got to stop by and have on my way home from work one day...

chicken pitas AND banh xeo - yummy!

mr tran and their oldest son evan

mrs tran and their youngest mark...even with their hands full with two young boys...this couple has managed to invite everyone in katy to their home for one, two or several meals...gotta love them

okay - so apparently during the month of may i took zero pictures. must've been sleeping all the time. so now we move on to June.

i tagged along with the hubby who had to go to Las Vegas for a conference...we stayed in City Center at VDara...a casino-less hotel in Vegas...and it was great!

this is where i spent a good portion of my time...working remotely on my laptop while hubby was at the conference...

this was a part of our view

the kitchenette area looking into the living room area

our first night there i opted to stay in for room service while the hubby met up with co-workers for dinner...i was soooo exhausted that day that i just wanted to stay in. unfortunately while i was having my overcooked burger...hubby apparently got to go to some super great buffet at Paris. no fair i say. at least he brought me back some delicious freshly made crepes from Bellagio...that i scarfed down before i could take a picture of them. oh those were such yummy crepes. le sigh.

normally i love ordering breakfast room service...this time was no exception.

this was a $10 dessert plate made up of three pieces of mochi. ridiculous. you can by a box of a dozen mochi for $4. i didn't order this dessert by the way. this was at a sushi place located in the Forum shops. so cruel to not to be able to eat sushi - the uncooked stuff. :(

i don't know where were flying over at this point...but i just thought it was an interesting thing to see so many of these circles.

i did get to surprise our house church that evening since my flight got back from Vegas earlier than anticipated...and we got to celebrate Tania's birthday...

tania pretending to blow out imaginary candles on the cupcakes?

made by my SIL and they were delicious!

(evonne, huong, nancy, me)

our last dinner at Chuy's with Nancy before she headed out to florida to be with her new hubby

baby dedication of my niece being held there by our pastor

at lunch with my niece after her baby dedication day :)

drew's last day at expressjet

celebrating DH's birthday during house church...cake made from scratch by my dear SIL

ridiculously hot temperatures in houston

happy birthday and happy father's day cakes respectively from left to right

celebrating jun's birthday with his pals with lunch at Jasmine

phew!!!! how's THAT for a blog catch up post!!!

hope you all have a wonderful and safe Independence Day weekend!

source

hello out there - if you're still out there! wow...it's been a month since i last blogged. my bad. things must've been off kilter here in the land of the parks. well - i did just catch up on my shuttercal / P365 so there are some pics of recent events or non-events should i say.

hmmm...let's see..what has transpired that i can really think of.

-celebrated Valentine's day with the hubby. he got up early to pick up breakfast and flowers for me. after church we went to jamba juice and then headed to the couple's mani/pedi he made an appt for :) afterwards for dinner we had churrasco's and it was all so good (well, except for the service but whatevs...i was just glad the food was delish)

-went car-looking again (i say looking b/c i'm not really sure of when we're buying) i'm pretty sure i have my eyes set on the 2010 Chevy Equinox. it's a pretty little thing with some nice bells and whistles. it'll be nice not to worry that my car will die on me in the middle of traffic...my poor honda. she's been a trooper i tell you.

-got my first Copic markers...still trying to get used to using them. i do love how they don't cause paper to pill for sure. Jennifer McGuire had a great post about these the other week that i think i'll have to go back and study again.

-I made a bunch of cards...a set of bday cards...and two more set of greeting cards. good thing i was able to pick up a couple of additional stamp sets that made these last batches of cards more fun.

we've had a couple of baby showers at work...one was for Trisha and Brad who both work at our company. this is one of the shower's that i actually didn't coordinate for work so it was nice to have a little break from my shower throwing duties ;o) i did however make the framed card that everyone signed for them. my dear co-worker Natalie, who is like my right arm at work, made the lovely cake - it was not only so cute it was so delicious! it was a fun shower and i can't wait to meet their baby girl!

he boss made her think she was coming into an important meeting with one of the VPs...but that clearly was not the case :) surprise!

the proud parents-to-be!

-celebrate Andra's 40th bday at the beginning of March. we put together a gift basket as a group that contained all kinds of goodies (gift cards from her favorite places...starbucks, DSW, iTunes, Smoothie King, Target...two bottles of wine, and a set of Tina Park greeting cards) and then Vanessa and I picked up balloons and decorated her entire cube in a non-"over-the-hill" theme...we kept it cute and fresh with sky blue, orange, white and brown. yes...we are good friends like that :) i think she was pretty happy with it all :)

the following day at work, we had an Finance/Accounting team outing that our CFO treated us to. it was a beautiful day and we went to the Aquarium in downtown Houston. good times with good/goofy people...

like i said...goofy co-workers.

the next two baby showers i attended then helped with were both for Vanessa. her mom through her one this past weekend - lots of games and i even managed to win one of the games :) here are some pics from Saturday's baby shower...

after Vanessa's shower on Saturday...Andra and I spent the rest of the day hanging out. we headed to Ikea for a bit and then went to see Dear John. Oh. it was good. le sigh.

picture source here

then this past week Andra and I put together Vanessa's baby shower at work...me thinks V was quite happy with this shower as well - yay! (sorry in advance for the blurry pics...don't know what was wrong with my shaky hands, i guess)