My Corny Poem

There are still a few more stories from Moe that he wrote when he was in middle school, that I want to post on this blog. Stay tuned for more of his stories later this week.

In the meantime, while I was sorting through a box full of memorabilia - I found a poem that I wrote when I was a sophomore in high school, as part of an English assignment. At the time, I thought it was a poem full of mystery and intrigue, but when my English teacher read it to the class - they laughed!

The class thought it was supposed to be funny, which of course wasn't my intention at all. I was mortified!

It's only been 10 years since I graduated from high school (humor me) and reading the poem again as an adult, my opinion has definitely changed - it's pretty corny!

Here is the poem that I naively thought, would go down as the most riveting poems ever written:

"Nature"

I like to sleep under the stars,

with the moon giving light to the darkness.

The grass beneath me like a green rug.

Loving the perfume of nature .

The rattling of a snake,

Not far away.

Looking for a poor creature to eat.

The possibility that the creature might be me,

I discover nature is not for me.

Note: It's funny but after I wrote that poem, I didn't like camping as much. Nowadays, my idea of camping is the Marriott Courtyard.

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I'm a guest blogger this month at Solomon Family Delights- a blog full of yummy recipes and fun crafts. If you want a delicious and easy recipe for crumb cake, click Here for the recipe.

I made this delicious crumb cake last Sunday and my family loved it!

Childhood Friends by Moe: Part 2

(written at age 13)

Everyone has a childhood friend, but in my case, I have many friends. Friends are people who call each other when someone is sick. A friend is someone that sticks up for you if you're getting bullied. A friend is someone who is nice to you, no matter what situation.

For me, my first best friend was in Pre-school. His name was Ryan. Ryan and I would have a play date at each other houses almost every week. We would play action figures and video games.

In kindergarten and first grade my best friend was Zade. He loved sports, and I loved sports too. I guess that's why we became friends. When we would go to each other's houses, we would just play sports all day.

In second and third grade, I was best friends with Mickey. That guy was so funny. He and I would make each other laugh so much, it would hurt.

(Moe and Adam)
In fourth and fifth grade, I was best friends with Aliki, Kyle, and Adam. We would all just hang out and go to the movies.

(James, Moe, Kyle)

Then once I got to middle school, I became very lucky. I had four best friends.

Their names are David C, Kyle, James and Adam. My parents called us the "four amigos". We would go to the movies, walk to Nob HIll, rent movies, and last but not least, play video games. What was cool was that two of my best friends live across the street.

You do not need to have only one best friend, you can have many. I became very lucky because I had a lot of friends.

Note from H.K- I only posted pics of Moe's friends from middle school because it was then, that he started to realize the true meaning of friendships. The last two pictures were taken at our home. We were getting ready to move and we had a goodbye pizza party. His friends were great- they gave him cards, gifts, and when it was time to say goodbye, there were also tears.

Moe has developed other close friends since then, his only contact with these boys are through Facebook and has remained good friends with only one.

But, no matter how many friends Moe makes over the years, you never forget your childhood friends.

My favorite Childhood Toy by Moe: Part I

(written by Moe when he was 13 years old)

One boring and long summer day, my mom told me to get off my butt and clean my room. I don't blame her, my room was a mess. I went upstairs and started cleaning. I put away my sports stuff, games, and videos. Then I folded my blankets and I looked under my bed to clean.

It was then when I found my bear Russ. Russ is a beanie bear that I got when I was three.


I remember the day when I got my Bear...It was a regular day and my birthday had just passed. My grandma couldn't make it to my birthday because she had something to do. She stopped by my house to give me a late birthday present.

The gift was wrapped in a box as large as a mouse pad. I opened it and inside was a stuffed little bear. I was so excited when I got it. I named the bear Russ.


Russ looked so cool at the time...I used to play with my bear 24-7. I pretended it was a Power Ranger, an airplane, and a cop. I hugged it, threw it against the wall and "playfully" threw it at my parents.

I know that Russ didn't mind the rough housing because he still had a smile on his face. I took him everywhere I went and I MEAN EVERYWHERE.

That bear was one of my favorite toys. It reminded me of good times because of the memories it gave me. In fact, I still have that bear sitting right next to my bed on my dresser.

Note from H.K. - This is how Russ looks now. Russ has seen better days and has gone through a lot of wear and tear over the years. He's been sewed together so many times, it's amazing that he's still in one piece.

Moe's too old to play with Russ, but he still has an honorary place in Moe's room - on top of his dresser.



***I'm a guest blogger for Solomon Family Delights- a blog that contains some yummy recipes from Mother Goose. And all the recipes have Pictures! Check out my latest recipe of Noodle Spinach Casserole recipe and click Here ***

My one year Blogiversary

Next week, it will be about a year since I started this blog. My blog has evolved since I wrote my first post. I first started it as a way to improve my writing skills and then it became more of an online family scrapbook.

I've read through old posts and I'm so glad that I was able to write down some important family events and post pictures. It has become very important to me to document those events.

My goal is to eventually put everything that I wrote on this blog and compile it into a blog book- something that our family could always look through like an old family album.

The past two weeks, I've been sorting through old pictures and journals. As I went through the pictures, I started to remember events that occurred when the picture was taken, and I couldn't help but wish that blogging was invented when Moe was a baby!

I used to love to scrap book, but it took so much time. You spent more time figuring out how to place the pictures on the page than doing what was more important - writing down the memories. Blogging is so much easier- it's a combination of a journal and a scrapbook.

To celebrate my "One Year Blogiversary", I'll be posting a series of flashbacks; edited entries from old journals and posting old pictures, especially the ones of Moe.

I found a written report by Moe that he did for his school when he was 12 years old. It's titled, "My Life". He writes about favorite memories of his childhood.

Moe's report is already starting to decay with age, so what better way to preserve those memories than to record here it in this blog. The next few posts will be from Moe's report.

I'm looking forward to recording those flashbacks on my blog and it has been fun blogging. I can't imagine a day that I get tired of it!

Exercising the stress away

I gained almost 15 pounds while being pregnant, which is not a good thing when I still had some extra weight to lose, and of course, no baby to show for it. And then someone asked me over a week ago, after looking at my stomach, if I was pregnant.

I immediately said, "Nope, I just forgot to suck it in."

That comment was the extra push I needed to haul my butt into the gym. I knew that the best time for me to get into the gym is between 5 & 5:30 am. When you exercise that early, there's nothing that can distract you. You don't have time or the energy to make up excuses not to work out.

After hitting the snooze button a couple of times, I drag myself out of bed with one eye barely opened and the other eye that seems to be glued shut- not a pretty sight. After splashing my face a few times with cold water, change into my work out clothes - I'm ready for a sweaty work out!

The other motivation is my personal trainer and my work out partner.

He's committed.

He's a hard task master.

When I feel like I can't do one more push up, he screams at me and tells me, I'm a pansy.

And then I scream back at him and remind him that I'm his wife.

I've had some work out partners before, but RM is the toughest. He's helped me to run that extra few yards when I feel like quitting. When I grab a 5 lb dumb bell, he gives me the 15 lb dumb bell and tells me that I can lift it- surprisingly he's right.

RM has already lost 15 pounds in 3 weeks and I....don't come close to that.

However, I've worked out with RM for less than 2 weeks and I've already started to see a difference in my attitude, my stress level has gone down, and my jeans are just a tad bit looser.

It feels good to be back into a routine.

This is my favorite new low fat snack. When I want a chocolate fix - I grab Chocolate Goldfish Graham crackers and they're delicious and fixes my need for chocolate right away. Only 50 crackers equals to 150 calories and only 3 grams of fat. You can find them at any Safeway or Target store.

Love is in the Details

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon".
~ Author Unknown

We have always celebrated Valentine's Day as a family occasion - just the three of us. We would normally go out to dinner and then come home for homemade desserts or go out for ice cream.

Since Valentine's Day was on a Sunday, we had dinner at home and RM did the "cooking" - warming up a roasted chicken purchased from Costco the night before, frozen tortellini with Alfredo sauce, and Pillsbury Buttermilk biscuits.

It wasn't a homemade dinner, but it was still delicious!

And since RM was in charge of dinner, I made desserts - Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I'm always a wee bit nervous when I make something new, not sure how Moe or RM would react, when I venture out of their normal eating habits.

When I made the finishing touches on the cupcakes, I had RM take the first bite.

He took a bite, closed his eyes, chewed very slowly, made some strange guttural noise with his throat, and then when he finally opened his eyes, said,
"That was one heavenly cupcake."

The next person to please would be tough:

- He's been known to scraping off cheese & all toppings from pizzas,
- He's renowned for putting ketchup on almost anything,
- Makes gagging noises when he has to eat salad,
- And went through a period of taking out the chocolate chips from chocolate chip cookies.

When Moe took his first bite, I was prepared for anything.

Surprisingly, he said, "Mom, not bad. I like it a lot."

And then I noticed that he ate his cupcake from the bottom and threw away the top ...with the frosting still intact. The kid definitely has some strange eating habits.

Next to Christmas, I love celebrating Valentine's Day. There's nothing like expressing love through sweets.

"Love is in the details" and I wanted to show my family on this Valentine's Day, that they are worth spending the time- to make it just right.

***I used Paula Deen's recipe for the cupcakes which you can find here.
For the frosting, I used a small zip lock bag and filled it with frosting. Snip a corner and pipe away. If you want small swirls, snip a small hole and for bigger swirls snip a bigger hole. ***

Moving On

"While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it." ~Samuel Johnson

RM knew that I needed time to grieve. He held me as I cried and often cried with me. When I had no energy to cook or clean the house, he took over the household duties and kept the "ship" running while I recuperated physically and emotionally.

After several weeks of coming home after work and finding me spending more time in my PJ's than in regular clothes, RM became worried.

He said to me, "I know that you still need time to grieve, but right now, you need to find a balance between grieving and living. I lost a baby too, but I still have to go to work, and we have a son that needs us. I don't want you grieve so much that you forget to live."

It has been a little over two months since I had my miscarriage, and I took what RM said to me to heart. I know it sounds cliche, but I started to notice nature's beauty. I marveled at the flowers blooming in our front yard despite the cold weather, and even the bare trees had it's own unique beauty.

And when life recently started to give out more lemons....

....I made lemonade.

**Some of you have shared your stories of your own miscarriages, which I truly appreciate. It helps to know that when you read my experience of loss- you know exactly what it means.

Thank you everyone for your supportive comments and emails. You will never know how much it has helped me.