I know…why does anybody get cancer? But when I hear it in children, my heart just sinks instantly. This morning I was listening to KIIS FM on my way to work and Ryan Seacrest had the mom of a little girl named Layla who is sadly dying from stage-four neuroblastoma. They have been battling cancer as a family for over a year.

I went to work thinking about a friend who told me he has a close friend going through the same thing and just a few weeks ago, things took a turn for the worst. I asked the little girl’s name, and he replied, “Layla”. Turns out, it was the same little girl I heard about on the radio earlier in the day.

Her parents have found comfort in blogging and tweeting about Layla’s condition. I read the blog a little bit and just can’t even imagine what they are going through.

My prayers are with them all and especially for Layla…

My grandma is moving out of my parents house and it’s not a negative thing. But for some reason, I hate change…even when it has really nothing to do with me. I felt this way when I moved away for college…when I got married, when Van moved out…these are all not necessarily negative or positive change, but it’s a change. A change that means things are not going to be the same anymore. Maybe because I have such a happy life that I’m scared change may be the catalyst for things to spiral downhill. Or maybe because I’m just very sentimental, and I’m afraid change will result in a lost of something I value. I’m not sure but I know I take change with a pretty heavy heart. I don’t like to talk about it outloud because I’m afraid my reasons are selfish ones. Probably is. Either way, change always makes me nervous.

Every day, Aidan and Brooke are changing. And as a mother – it is SO bittersweet. I’m so happy they’re progressing and growing – makes me feel like I’m doing my job. But I also know that you cannot rewind the clock and sometimes I worry I’m not taking it in enough. Maybe I have these feelings because we decided not to have anymore.

Or maybe everybody feels this way about change and we just don’t talk about it?

Mike randomly texted me in the middle of the day. It’s kinda sweet. I’m not sure what happened today and will ask him later, but I’m glad the framed photo the kids got him for Father’s Day last year is serving it’s purpose.

(Yes, and I left my badge at home and got locked out of my building…ha ha ha)

I want to be rich, darnit! Hahaha.

The newest opportunity that I am thinking about exploring is making these cupcake bouquets from home during my free time (What free time you ask when I’m the mother of 14 month old twins? Well, they eventually sleep, right?).

I feel into this accidentally when I made one for Steve & Jenny as a small engagement congratulations gift last winter. I posted a few pictures in Facebook so my friends can tell me I’m awesome and unexpectly received orders from a friend! She ordered 3 for Valentine’s day. I made hers and posted them and an old boss requested one for Valentine’s day as well. He’s been contacting me trying to convince me to start a business and even went as far as advertise the bouquet I made for his wife to his neighbor. Last night, I created one for his neighbor to give his children and this morning while dropping it off, he also gave me some ideas and advice and said I definitely need to do this as a side business. He will be keeping my contact information and ordering some for clients. This morning, another friend told me she mentioned me to a friend of hers who is a wedding planner and she wants to know if I’d like to be a preferred vendor. How crazy is that? I don’t even have a business name and I’m a preferred vendor? Things are definitely moving very quickly, but I like it!

Mike and I are definitely entertaining the idea but need to figure out some schematics first. I love making these so it will definitely be fun.

Shameless Plug:
For anybody interested in a bouquet, please send me an email or give me a call at 949.209.9744.
$50 for the bouquet seen here in any color.
Call/email for more details.

I got news from two different friends that they lost their pregnancies within the first trimester. *Sigh* I am so heartbroken. I remember with the twins, I was a wreck that first trimester. Always worried that they’re going to ‘disappear’ on me. I could tell a lot of people thought I was being overly paranoid, but the truth is, I wasn’t. It could happen and it could happen to anyone. I’m sure in the bigger pictures of things, things will work out for the best. I say it all the time…if it wasn’t for my difificulties with pregnancy, I wouldn’t have had my twins, so it worked out for the best. I’m sure these ladies will also have their blessings someday but for now, my heart goes out to them and I pray that they have the strength to pick themselves up and move on with their goals. It will happen.

Every year, Mike’s family goes to Hsi Lai temple for Tet. And every year, Mike and I have gotten out of going…until now. If you know me, you know I hate going to LA. I hate everything about it: the traffic, the bad driving, the crowds, the heat, the poor air quality…the list goes on. But this year, we had no excuse. Tet was on a weekend. Hahaha.

The drive wasn’t so bad. I thought it would be further but the temple is in Hacienda Heights so it was just about 18 miles away from Garden Grove. We had breakfast at Mah-mah’s house and drove to the temple. The kids napped for the entire drive.

Once we got there, I was surprised on how organized they were. It was like Disneyland, but a Chinese temple. We were smoothly guided to great parking. (I guess the trick is go get there early, before 11am, because Steve and Jenny came a little after us and were not able to get good parking and decided to turn around and go home.)

Mom did her praying thing as we walked around. It was beautiful. Easily the most beautiful temple I’ve been to (not that I’ve been to many). The kids were great sports and in good spirits despite the 80 degree heat. We lit some incense, rang a gong, threw coins at a bell for luck, ate some vegetarian deliciousness and went home a little before noon. I even at stinky tofu for the first time, and it wasn’t bad!

To see more, photos, view our February 2010 photo album.

Overall, we had a really nice time. Happy Year of the Tiger, everyone!

I’m always looking for things to do with the kids. Something fun, outdoors and doesn’t cost money (since they’re too little to appreciate the things that do right now).

I found this GREAT website that was able to give me a list of parks if Irvine.

I love Glee. Quote of the last episode that kills me came from Puck:

“Are you questioning my badassness? Did you see my guns?”

But this post isn’t about Glee. It’s about the word ‘ass’. My sister who will remain nameless (not Van) called me a kiss ass based off my touchy, feely posts about parenting. I’ll have you know that my parents do not read my blog so I’m not kissing ass. I’m just reflecting. Back to the case in point. I hate being called a kiss ass. And it’s not the meaning of kiss ass that bugs me as much as the word ‘ass’ is in it. So I told the nameless sister,

“Don’t call me anything with ass in it.”

Being that she is a smartASS, she asked, “How about badass?” I said, “No, it still has ass it it. What part of ‘don’t call me anything with ass in it didn’t you understand’?”

Why would I want to be a badass? By definition, two wrongs do not make a right:

Definition of Bad:
Bad – having undesirable or negative qualities

Definition of Ass (my favorite from Google query: “define ass”):
Ass – buttocks: the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on