Things That Go Bump In The Night

I really love Halloween! I love seeing people dressed up in costumes. It really brings out the kid in everyone. I love the decorations. Almost everything about it. That's why it blew my mind this morning when I got to work and saw my receptionist dressed as a witch and realized that I had forgotten that today was Halloween. Don't worry, if you are stopping by my place I did remember to get candy so all is good with the world.

I celebrated Halloween early with my family over the weekend. I was a witch. A really colorful and wide witch. Like I swallowed some kids or maybe just one.

Speaking of kids...the one in my belly is a little boy! He's going to love Halloween in the next couple of years. This year he's going as a baby bump.

This week I'm about 20 weeks along, just 20 more weeks to go. @_@ My bladder is running out of space. I almost peed my pants in the car a couple of weeks ago when my husband made me laugh and I could not stop laughing. That was a close one. I told him never to talk to me about the thing that I could not stop laughing at ever again.  

It's getting difficult for me to get comfortable at night. It feels like I am eternally flip-flopping my belly from one side to the other every night in order to find that magical comfort zone. This picture is not me but it is how I look in the morning. I just do not want to get out of bed.

The lack of bladder control and uncomfortable nights have not been fun but I can't really complain too much since my pregnancy has been pretty great so far. Last week, I thought I felt fetal movement for the first time but I wasn't sure since I've never been pregnant before and don't know what the heck it feels like. This week they have picked up quite a bit so I'm pretty sure he's trying to get my attention. I've read a couple of articles on what fetal movements should feel like but it doesn't feel like anything I've read about. You know what it does feel like? Involuntary muscle twists. It's weird and cute all at the same time.

Happy Halloween!!

Twenty Thirteen

Wow, its been awhile since I've blogged. The holidays be crazy which actually translates to me just being lazy. How is it already January 8th and I've not paid respects to 2013? I mean this is going to be one heck of a year. Dare I say EPIC! For starters, I'm getting married next month...and we have an amazing honeymoon planned to a beautiful tropical locale...and come tax day I'm going to be running the race of all races...Boston! All this just means that I'll either be blogging more or way less. Stay tuned!

Since I had not blogged since the middle of December, here is a quick recap. I had a very nice holiday break with my family. It was filled with presents, amazing food, family and joy! I really couldn't ask for more.

Sister K. celebrated a birthday the day after Christmas!

Of course, I ate...here are just a few photos of all the amazing food I mentioned eating.

It was back to the office last week with a pile of things to do waiting for me. I'm still trying to dig myself out of the pile.

On the wedding planning front, I am waist deep in finalizing little details here and there. I am hoping to get a couple of posts up soon on my planning process so that I can share a few glimpses of what I've been doing.

Welcome to 2013!

2012 Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon - Race Recap

Date: October 28, 2012
Location: L.A. Live
Start: 7:30am
Finish: 1:45:19




Elevation:  

I ran this race last year and I apparently liked it enough to sign up again. I drove up to the convention center on Saturday morning to pick up my race packet. The LA Women's Show was also going on this weekend and I actually spent more time there than at the expo. It was an estrogen overload over there and based on the vendors in attendance, apparently LA women like chocolate, big fake jewelry, wine, hair styling, cosmetics and spa-ing. Did I cover everything? Anyhow, I saw Deidra Hall of Days of our Lives and Duane of Dog the Bounty Hunter but did not wanted to get in line for a photo. Celebrity stalking fail.

The race expo was organized but boring. The race shirt was pretty nice. My little sister was nice enough to model the shirt below. Not much came in the swag bag. I walked around the expo a bit but didn't buy anything.

The night before the race was our annual family Halloween party and this year we dressed up as characters from the video game genre. Fun times!

My youngest sister and I got up pretty early the next morning to make the drive to the LA Convention Center. We got to the parking structure before 6am but there was already a really long slow moving line to get in. I later find out why the parking lines were so congested that early in the morning. When I finally make my way to a parking spot, I parked and made my way into the convention center to look for the restrooms. As I entered the main hall of the convention center I see bright lights flashing and hear loud music playing and then I noticed that there was some sort of Hispanic/Latin concert going on and there were families there with little children and grandmas. Yeah, that's normal right, a family rock concert at 6am in the morning? Anyhow, the attendees of that concert were looking strangely at all the runners walking around dressed in Halloween costumes while we runners were wondering who the heck holds a concert that early in the morning. There you have it, the reason for the slow moving line into the parking structure as I had mentioned earlier. Moving on...

After grabbing a drink from the Starbucks inside the Convention center, I made my way back to my car to change into my costume and headed to my corral. Sister J and her future husband finds me shortly after I get there. They were dressed up in bride and groom costumes since they are getting married in a couple of weeks. Sister J and I were in the same corral so we stood around chatting a bit until the race started. I want to take a moment to mention that Skylar Laine sang one of the best versions of our national athem that I've ever heard. Shortly after that the wheelchair division was on their way and moments later they started releasing the corrals one-by-one a couple of minutes apart. As we neared the starting line, I told my sister to have a good race and we were off.

I wasn't sure what my goals were for this race even after I took my first step. I even sand-bagged my finish time a bit to my sister's surprise when she found me in her corral. Naturally I am always aiming for that PR but wasn't sure if I had it in me. I thought that I would formulate a goal based on how I felt in the first couple of miles. Turns out it was a good day for racing and I ran one of my fastest half marathon times. No PR but I also wasn't dying at the end so that was a good sign. I had a blast running that course because lots of people were dressed up in costumes and it was like one huge moving Halloween party. Plus, this was my 30th half marathon.

Putting my blue sparkle skirt to good use.

What's happening here? Obviously having too much fun running up an incline.

I found out later that Will Ferrell also ran the race. I really should pay more attention while I am running.

Source

After I crossed the finish line, I went back to my car to changed into some dry clothes and headed back out to the festivities to look for my little sister. I've never stayed around after a race before so it was interesting to see what goes on in the aftermath. Apparently, lots of drinking, picture taking and rocking out. I ran into Emil near the gear check area and we chatted for a bit before parting ways. He ran a great race despite some minor setbacks.

So the reason why my little sister came with me to the race was because she was a volunteer. She did things like guard the corrals and worked at the gear check area. Woohoo for volunteers!

Dads & Grads

Happy Father's Day to my daddy and Congratulations to Sister K (UCLA's Class of 2012)!!!

Year of the Dragon

I've been so busy running races these past few weekends that I nearly forgot to blog about the Lunar New Year that came and went on January 23rd this year. My parents tell me that they use to celebrate the Lunar New Year in a big way when they use to live in Vietnam. The day before the Lunar New Year was a day of  renewal (cleaning the house from top to bottom). This included bathing and grooming as you were not to bathe, groom or clean on New Years Day. The act of washing, cutting/shaving or sweeping symbolized washing, cutting or sweeping their luck for the year out the door. Not how you want to start a new year.

My parents say that it is different here in the states. The Lunar New Year is just like any other day. We don't even get a day off of work. In Asia, almost everyone takes off at least a week to welcome the new year. Now that's what I call a party!  

My parents are amazing cooks! The Lunar New Year feast they prepare each year is always a button buster. It's like Thanksgiving in a way. Wear your comfy pants to the table. Colorful, bold, flavorful dishes each symbolizing health, wealth and prosperity! Some tasty symbols if you ask me.

Our family traditionally go out to have dim sum on New Years Day and it was no exception this year. I love me some dim sum.

A lot of red! The color of good luck as it is rumored to frighten away evil spirits. I took these photos at the Lunar New Year Festival in Monterey Park (CA) on January 21.

Lots of street food vendors were there. I wonder what he is cooking up?

Yum! Grilled seafood on a stick. Too bad I had just eaten prior to coming to this festival, else I would've been all over those squid tentacles on a stick.

A calligrapher writing up some spring couplets to be hung outside one's home for good fortune. Yeah I'll take a hundred of those, please! Need all the fortune I can get. Happy year of the Dragon!

Gingerbread People

I was trying to look for some photos of the last time that gingerbread man/people were made at my parents' house and apparently it was a long time ago because I cannot find any photos from within the last couple of years. 

This baking project was Sister K's and here is where it all started.

Awaiting to go into the oven.

Mixing up the icing.

What a motley crew!

I helped with piping the icing. It was a lot of fun. Plus, I didn't lose my head trying to get all the lines perfect!

Holiday Biscottis and a Cup of Cheer!

Every December for the past three years, I've subscribed to Food Network's 12 Days of Cookies email newsletter. For twelve continuous days in December, I would get a different cookie recipe; and for the past three years, I've wanted to at least make one of those recipes but because I go crazy when the holidays hit, I've yet to make any of those cookies.

I pretty much thought that it wasn't going to happen again this year because once again the holidays are driving me nuts and I was caught up in getting ready for Christmas. Then one day last week, I get an email from Sister K asking when we should all get together to do some baking. This was just the reminder and inspiration that I needed to go and dig up a recipe that I had socked away. So which cookie did I select for the grand honor of being my first 12 Days of Cookie experiment?

I selected Giada's Holiday Biscotti because aside from the fact that I adore biscottis, these were made with pistachios, dried cranberries AND dipped in white chocolate and covered in more pistachios! I've been carrying this recipe in my purse for the last 3 weeks and can you blame me. This cookie recipe was from Day 6 from the series this year.

Form into a long flat log and bake for forty minutes at 350.

After it comes out of the oven, let it cool for 30 minutes before slicing the log on a diagonal and baking again until golden brown.

They are good just like this enjoyed with a cup of hot tea or coffee...

...with a pup warming your lap...

...or you can dip them into some melted white chocolate and cover in some crushed pistachios! I enjoyed some on this Christmas morning and they are pretty fabulous.  

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to everyone that comes here to my humble little corner of the internet to share in my shenanigans. I hope you are spending this day surrounded by loved ones, presents, great food, abundant health and joyous laughter! Seasons Greetings!

~Madison

Holiday Construction

Last year on this date my sisters and I worked on this gingerbread house kit. I didn't have time to post about it at the time but today is as good a time as any. Looking at these photos made me realized that I fell off the baking wagon around March this year. I had challenged myself to bake something at least once a month but that only lasted until March. Oh well. 

I think we picked up this kit at Michael's Arts and Craft or Trader Joe's. Can't remember now.

Everything started out okay...

...but this is harder than it looks. I had to enlist the help of Sister J to hold up the walls as I applied more icing to kept the walls up. The roof kept sliding off too. You need to stick a couple of toothpicks in there to hold it up.

Little Sister was doing all the detail work. Thank goodness because that looked tedious.

Putting snow on the roof. This made the roof even heavier. I was afraid the whole thing was going to slide down.

Sister S doing some nice detail work on the roof.

Nice, right?

Here's the finish product. I'm embarrassed to say that I did the frosting. It started melting for some reason and it was cold as heck at my parents' place!

Oh well, we had fun putting it together but we won't be getting into construction any time soon.