Hanging out | Hip to be Mom

No-shopping weekend, us??

Nov 082010

So we decided to stay home and not hit the malls at all this weekend. I think I may finally have to admit that I’m getting tired of the mall because this time of year, it’s so crowded with miscellaneous characters from goodness knows where!

I even decided to skip groceries this weekend, something I’ve never done before! No big deal though since I’m a chronic bulk shopper so it’s not like my pantry and freezer are ever bare like Mother Hubbard’s. We won’t starve!

On the other hand, we’ve been shopping online for winter wear in anticipation of our upcoming Christmas in CA! Since it’s summer here all year, the girls have to practically shop for winter clothing from scratch! They don’t mind it, of course! Raine is already proclaiming her love for winter shopping !

As for me, I’m just glad I can do my shopping over “there” where the selections, quality and prices are far better than they are over “here”. We ordered this soft and sexy multi-way wrap from Victoria Secret! In our hot, sweltering weather, the best we can manage is to look soft and sweaty. Soft and sexy, not so much !

I scream, you scream, Happy Halloween!

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Oct 312010

At this time last year, we were all so excited that Raine had won tickets for us to go see the All-American Rejects in concert. I was trying to learn the lyrics to their songs so I could sing along. Tyson Ritter was just too cool in his Halloween costume (see it here if you can’t guess what he wore).

Seems like such a long time ago and now Halloween is finally here again. It seems Halloween, which was never a big thing here, is suddenly all the rage and the malls are decked out in plastic pumpkins, life-sized witches and ghoulish outdoor lighting!

For us, Halloween is simply about Baskin-Robbins. They have a 31% off promotion on the 31st of each month. So that’s what I’m talking about. Raine and Skye went out early to snag two tubs of Strawberry Cheesecake, Baseball Nut, Rainbow Sherbet and Chocolate Chip Dough ice-cream. Happy Halloween!

Coffee for three

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Oct 302010

So Raine, Skye and I had scrapped our earlier plan to head into the city for some serious shopping and decided to go only midway into the city. But you know what? We spent most of the afternoon collecting strips of paper sprayed with perfume samples.

When every new fragrance started to smell just like the last one, we knew it was time to give it up and rest our tired feet. We found a nice little corner at Coffee Bean and plonked ourselves down on their modern furniture for ice-blended coffee, a blueberry muffin and their luscious tri-cheese cheesecake.

Not hard to please

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Sep 092010

And lest you think I’ve gone MIA, I haven’t. I’m still in still sunny but much cooler California (70′s, cloudy skies, cool breeze, beautiful!) and I’ve been busy helping Steev move to a better set of accommodations. It’s a long story for another day. Today let me just post pictures of the cool things I love.

The laid-back Sunday afternoons where a country band plays on the streets and random folks just jump in and dance away without a care in the world.

The online shopping that’s gotten me seriously hooked. When my first package from Forever 21 arrived, I was like a kid in a candy store even though the contents are for my 2 princesses, not me! And don’t even get me started on green shopping!

The scrumptious eat-outs and decadent desserts! This is the sinfully rich Red Velvet Cheesecake we had at the Cheesecake Factory. There must be 50 different cheesecakes on the menu. Do you have any idea how hard it is to just pick ONE ?

See, I’m not that hard to please !

Hooked on cooking shows

Posted by Clairity 3 Responses »

Sep 022010

Like I said I’m not a big TV fan. You can hardly find me watching more than 3 hours of TV a year. But here, I’m totally hooked on Food Network. It’s a never-ending parade of chefs whipping up meal after meal after meal.

My favorite chefs to watch are Rachael Ray, Sandra Lee and Tyler Florence. I love how Rachael Ray has 2 or 3 dishes going on at the same time. That’s very real for me because that’s how I cook, I multi-task .

I love Sandra Lee’s tips too on saving money and using both fresh and prepacked items to save time. Again this combining fresh and storebought is very real for me. So it’s great to watch and learn.

And Tyler is very interesting because he talks about being hungry and can’t wait to eat what he cooks. That’s me too!! I’m an impatient person and his pace of cooking is pretty similar to mine – dancing back and forth and getting everything quickly together.

Do you watch cooking shows? Who’s your favorite and why?

Too much of a good thing?

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Aug 252010

So here I sit, Steev’s gone to class and the thing that strikes me is this certain what do you call it… quiet. A quiet that I’m so unaccustomed to.

On any regular day back home, I’d be dashing in and out the door every other hour, picking up one teen, dropping off the other, and my car would be so full of tales from school and college and plans for the weekend that I can’t even hear myself think!

So let’s face it, there aren’t many any days like this when I’d be home with no alarms going off relentlessly on my cell phone and computer (sometimes on both at the same time), no place to go, nothing to do except sip my tea and watch the minutes tick by till Steev walks in the door.

Yeah, so this feels weird, you know. Usually I’d be cooking up a storm, a huge pot of something or other! But here, who am I going to cook for here?!! Hmm, so I end up munching on the simplest meals you can imagine and I have all day to get through my lunch.

Guess what? Forget the mommy time sans kids. I’ll have the noisy banter, kitchen clanking, loud music and traffic madness any time. That is so much more fun. This quiet is a little too much for me!