Asian Glazed Drumsticks

Skinny Taste is a blog I found a long time ago through my good friend, Penny. This tasty recipe for Asian Glazed Drumsticks was easy to make and if you pop over to the website, her photo makes it look much more appetizing. As you all know, Jamie and I aren't ones to follow recipes exactly so we never did get a nice ooey gooey sauce like the recipe said we should. It was actually a big wok of boiling watery sauce but that's okay! Definitely worth a try if you're looking for something tasty to have with a nice big bowl of fluffy white rice.  

False Hope

Did this photo get your hopes up despite my disclaimer title? I sat down today to work on processing some old photos and let me tell you, there are a lot of them. My most recent dumping of the memory cards landed me back in March 2012. I always take photos with the intention of blogging about it, but I'm a year behind with this one. I don't even want to think about the other dumping folders buried deep without our hard drive. I remember taking this photo because I am so amazed every spring when these tulips start peeking out. We have a southeast facing backyard that gets loads of sun from sunrise till late afternoon. These babies pop out often before the grass is even green or all the snow has melted. This is a photo we can all focus on because a year ago, this lovely occurrence happened March 26th. Just don't mind that dead stuff in the right hand corner. Pretty sure it was a weed anyways. 

Sunday Sun

We've been meaning to take some New Year shots of our little family and finally got around to doing it today. After running a few errands, on the drive down our alley we noticed how gorgeous the lighting was. The sun was setting and it was just perfect. After our little impromptu photo session, we went for a little stroll and got to enjoy the wonderful warm weather. Hopefully everyone had a relaxing Sunday. 

366 Photo Project: Photo 60: Boogers

I'm going through old photos for Project Life and it's helping me discover all the old photos I never got a chance to share! This is an oldie of little Ella. She was getting over a cold that day and was blowing a huge booger bubble. I tried snapping a picture of it but by the time I got the camera again, the bubble shrank. 

Who Needs a Trim?

Or a weed whacker? One may think that Jamie's hair isn't too bad based on the above photo but here's a different perspective. The photo above was taken just before we left the house. We had a plan that Saturday: coffee at Credo, baked deliciousness at Dauphine's and most importantly, a visit to Maqxter's. You might be thinking, "Oh it's not that bad..." but trust me folks, I'm going to show you what I have to contend with.   

That's what his hair really looks like. One. Giant. Fro. Who would have thought an Asian in his 30s could have such luscious hair? Not me. But as always, Jamie proves to be something else. Something special. It's amazing how a hair cut can slim down a face and for $15 including tax and tip, I'd say it was money well spent! 

You didn't think I'd leave without showing you the outcome of the haircut did you? I don't remember if I insisted on a haircut first or not but my inkling is I did because who really wants to go sit in a coffee shop with big hair boy? 

Much better. 

A Brief Reflection

Happy New Year everyone! January is always such a unique month. It always gets people thinking of ways to better themselves, whether it be the common ones like more exercise, be healthier etc. or more specific things like learn to paint or get a dog. Jamie made it a point to start eating healthier and start working out again because his skinny clothes are no longer fitting. I told him I would join him in his working out ventures as long as we could agree on a time. I'm not a morning person and he's not a night person so I can't wake up early to work out and he can't do it late. Oh the dilemma!

2012 brought some amazing memories. We started off with some photography goals set with +Jinnee Barazzuol. I never did manage to post 366 photos but I sure did take them! Some of you might remember that I was introduced to Project Life. I wasn't able to keep that up to date despite how easy it was supposed to be, but I am officially on March 2012 so it's a good start! There was also some major travelling done. I got to visit San Francisco, Vancouver and Las Vegas again for some rockin' stagettes with some great friends. We also had our amazing honeymoon that landed Jamie and I in Europe for 4 weeks. I call it a trip of a lifetime and I'm so happy we did it. We also got to see quaint and beautiful Victoria, B.C. and I've concluded that I'd like to retire there. 

I learnt some new skills to add to my hobby/crafting list. I took a quilting class at Sew Divine with +Jinnee Barazzuol and I also picked up crocheting. I did manage to finish some projects with both newly acquired skills! I'm a proud owner of a rail fence quilt and I managed to finish 4 Catherine Wheel circle scarves. Jamie continued to dabble in his knitting and officially had one meeting for his unofficial knitting club. 

Jamie and I both took some big leaps in our career by taking on management roles. It was by far, the hardest interview I've ever had. We're both definitely more stressed and busy at work and it's been challenging trying to get home every evening in time to walk Khuno. I think we've figured out a good rhythm now, but for a while there we were constantly calling each other to say we were working late and asking if the other could go home to walk Khuno. 

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary and although it wasn't a big celebration, Jamie got me the most perfect gift. Paper. I Know that sounds a bit odd, but the reason it was such a great gift is because he filled the paper with his thoughts. I've read and re-read these two sheets of paper countless times and I still feel all warm and sappy each time. 

My brother and sister-in-law ( +Cynthia Chau +Van Tran ) announced that they are expecting their first baby, which means I'm going to be an aunt! She's due this June and I can't wait to have a little baby to snuggle! 

To end off this post, I want to share one last bit of a story. Jamie and I were chatting last week and he asked me something interesting. "If high school you were to talk to you today, what do you think high school you would think of who you've become?" It took us a few minutes to realize it was a question we couldn't answer because high school me was so long ago that I have no idea what I would have thought at 17. It did lead us to a conversation about what we thought of ourselves now. I realize that I am very happy with the person that I've become and I'm so ridiculously content with everything in my life right now that I feel so blessed, lucky, fortunate, the list goes on. I have an amazing husband, a handsome pup, family and friends I love, a job that's challenging me to grow, even my neighbors are amazing. 

I don't know who all actually reads this blog, but I want you to know that I love sharing bits and pieces of our humble lives and I hope you enjoy stopping by. Happy 2013. 

Sunday Update

Can you believe Christmas will be here in 16 days?!? I swear every year it seems Christmas creeps up faster and faster. I've decided against posting from my iPad because it's so dang slow and it's very frustrating trying to maneuver pictures around. Blogger already make that hard enough as it is and I don't need Apple to make it harder. I just wanted to give a few updates on what's been happening in the life of the Khau's. I had my very first after-hours Christmas party. Can you believe that after 7 years, this is my very first one?! It's sad but true. Jamie was sporting his Movember mustache, which I wasn't a huge fan of but at least he shaved the rest of his face. 

We've been having regular family dinners and Jamie's side of the family has been held at their new house on the north side. They're doing a lot of painting and they're smart to not actually move in until the painting is complete. It's much closer to drive there and there's a huge fenced backyard for Khuno too! Jane's been crocheting up a storm, just in time for the cold weather we've been having. Here's Khuno posing in a neat little accessory Jane made. It's a hood/scarf, hoarf? 
Now I know all of you have heard about the new roasted kale chips craze. It's the bee's knees right now of "health" snacks but what we have discovered is roasted brussel sprouts! They taste almost like roasted kale chips except meatier. All we did was pick up some gorgeous looking sprouts at Costco, quartered them up, drizzled them with oil and sprinkled them generously with salt and pepper. Pop them in the oven and roast at 375, checking on them regularly until they're nice and burnt toasty. They're so good I ate them at 11 the other night as chips. 
This last picture is to update you on our camera situation. After we took photos of James and Julie, Jamie dropped our camera and broke the shutter. The beloved Nikon D60 is quite old and when we asked about repair costs, it just isn't worth us spending the money to ship it to Nikon for fixing. So we hummed and haaa-ed about whether or not we should get a new camera for the last couple of months. One Saturday afternoon we stopped into Vistek to do some window shopping. You all know where this is going. Whether it's home, furniture, SPCA window shopping, it's always a bad idea to go and "look". In this case, it was no exception. We are now the proud owners of a new camera and although we couldn't afford to get a new lens to go with the sexy new camera body, Jamie's previous thinking ahead and buying a FX lens saved the day. Hopefully this upcoming year will bring back some better photos. 

Bringing it around back full circle to the Sunday update, Jamie spent most of the day working and I spent it crafting while listening to Christmas Pop music on Jango. I managed to sneak in some crocheting after lunch and some intermittent reading of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Top that all off with a home cooked meal and I must say, it wasn't that bad of a day. It's dinner time so I bid you all good night.