Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Wishing everyone a wonderful day fill with love, joy, peace and lots of laughter with family and friends on this day. A day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. This year is almost ending and the new year will be here soon. With Christ in my life, I really feel love, joy, peace, and comfort. May you also feel the same way. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.
 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving just passed a couple days ago, this Thanksgiving, I'm very very thankful to God, because he has given me more than what I could have asked for, he given me family, friends, a job, money to spend and help out kids who are in need, a car to travel and to get to and from work, shelter, food, and etc,. Last month I passed my three day review at work and I'm super excited and happy. Looking back for the past couples months, God has really given me good mentors at work to teach and guide me so that I can be successful and do well in my position. I think the lesson I learnt is to never give up and rely on God. God only gives me what I can handle. This morning I saw a my friend's facebook post on a music video and I loved it, the song name is called "When The Lights Come On". Check it out when you have time.

Today I went to shop for some baby clothes for a friend. The baby clothes are just too cute! I spent like almost an hour inside deciding which outfits to get for my friend's baby boy. Too many choices and too many cute outfits, which make it hard to decide. I end up buying two outfits and one bib. Afterwards I saw there was a framers market, so I went to take a look and got myself some almond danish and baby tomatoes. I also saw a booth selling honey and there was live bees in a glass box/frame. I love framer's market, the stuff is not cheap, but very fresh! 

While walking back to my car, saw some really pretty foliage. It's still Fall season, but soon it'll be Winter. I had a nice and long week, hope you all had a great weekend as well.

Fresh Almond Danish and Fresh Baby Tomatoes from Framers Market

Bee's at the honey booth

Pretty color leaves! ^__^

Apricot flavor macarons

P.S. On Saturday I made macarons again and it turned out great! Not a single crack macaron shells. So happy! ^__^ I'm proud of myself. Practice makes perfect!

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34

Stay Calm...

Today I read a bible verse on the Devotion app and would like to share it, the bible verse goes  "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still". I find it so true, because at times I feel tired, stressed, burned out and without any desire to go on, but God is always there to help me out and get me through the day. God works in ways we cannot see, trust in him and he will help you overcome the obstacles in your life. 

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. Exodus 14:14

Back Pain...

This morning I was in a lot of pain, I have a cold sweat and my back hurts a lot. I don't know if I hurt myself carrying some heavy stuff to my grandparents place or if it was from a couple years ago when I injured myself learning how to drive a moped in Thailand. The pain was so unbearable, I started to pray and after thirty mins the pain went away and it's at that very moment that I realized that health is very important. Often times we take each day for granted. Today when I experienced so much pain, I come to realized that life can be really fragile. We have to take care of our body so we can live a long and healthy life. I thank God for hearing my prayers and taking away the pain. My sudden back pain reminds me of the funny things that my friend and I did in Thailand. Here is a beautiful sunset picture I took when I was at Koh Samed.

Wishing everyone a nice week ahead!

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.  Proverbs 17:22

Good news!

Today my coworker at work shared a piece of good news with me and I'm so happy for her! ^___^ Looking back from a year ago, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to be promoted to a different position at work and during the training period I got to meet many new coworkers and over the year, develop some good friendships. It's great to see my coworker pass her review and sharing the news with me.

Everything is possible for him who believes. Mark 9:23

Macarons

Happy Sunday! Lately I been into making macarons! It's not that easy to make. First time I made it, the cookies turn out all wrinkly and it wouldn't rise up and turn out to be a hard almond cookies. Second time I made it, it was all good, but it's not a circle shape but turn out to be an oval shape and the shells are too thin, but taste good. Third time making it,  it was a success, all the cookies turn out nice and perfect, no cracks. Then this weekend I tried to make macarons again with different food coloring and after taking it out of the oven, 1/3 of them are perfect, but the rest have cracked shells. Hum..I wonder why the shells cracked? Trying to think what i did differently compare to the time I got all the shells perfect? Today I attempted to make it again, but some are cracked and some are good looking. It's hard to be consistent when making Macarons. I guess i have to try to make it a couple more times and experiment with the folding of the meringue and almond meal mixture. Anyway, it was fun making macarons and sharing it with my friends!

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:09

Lumix 25mm...

Happy Saturday! I got up really early today, at 8 am, I guess the soju really knock me out yesterday night. Guess in a way it was good thing, because I had a really good sleep, therefore I didn't need to snooze or sleep until noon to get up. (^__^)

Anyway as promised from my last post, today I will post some pictures I took with the lumix 25mm lens my friend lend me to use. Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Healdsburg with my sister and brother in law to pick up some wines from Soda Rock and Williamson. Then afterwards we went to get some coffee beans from Flying Goat Coffee. I heard from my friend that she read an article, Flying Goat Coffee is among the top ten coffees. It was convincing enough for me to buy a bag of each flavor coffee bean. Coffee is addictive! At first I only drink coffee during work days, now I even drink it on the weekends, good thing or bad, I'm not sure. Then for dinner we went to BACHI, the pizza there was delicious! So simple ingredients yet so bold in taste. For the main course I had the seafood risotto, very good as well. Then we had tiramisu for dessert. After dinner I was so FULL, as always I tell myself, next time I'm not going to eat so much, lol. But you know... when dinner time comes, I easily order more than I can finish.

That's it for now, have a great weekend!

Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. Proverbs 23:12

Hachi...

Good morning and I'm so happy it's Saturday! This morning I woke up and watched a really good movie called "Hachi" it's about a loyal dog that goes back to the train station everyday after his owner passed away. I think I read or heard the story about Hachi long time ago, but cannot recalled where I read it or heard it from, but when I saw the movie I was so excited to watch it. When I finished watching the movie, I want a dog! I will consider having a dog when I get my own place.  It's a great movie, so watch it when you have a chance.

Today it's nice and sunny, my friend lend me her new lumix 25mm lens, I can't wait to go outside to shot some photos to test out the lens. I will post some photos taken with the lumix 25mm lens next time.

Anyway, time to get ready and head out, wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

These fresh figs are pretty good, very sweet! I tried to make myself eat fresh fruits everyday!


We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

Bun Rieu...

This weekend I had attempted to make Bun Rieu, after three attempts, I think I finally master the version I like. It was quite easy to make. I ate Bun Rieu as a late night snack on Friday night, then I realized that I forgot to put the fish sauce and the egg, but it still taste pretty good and that was my first attempt. Then on Saturday afternoon, I want to make it again, this time I remember to add the egg and the fish sauce, it taste better, but I think it would be better if I added some spiciness to it. Therefore today I decided to cook it again and this time I added the jalapeno to the recipe and it taste really good (in my opionion). ^___^ . Practice makes perfect! I also made pickled cucumber, so good! I love Persian cucumbers!

Lately I thought to myself about things that happened in my life and come to realized that history repeats itself in  my life and I think I have to reflect on my actions to learn from my mistakes and hopefully not let history repeat itself.

Enjoying coffee this afternoon to wake myself up

Pairing my coffee with some pecan tarts

Got the noodle ready, waiting for the soup...

Added the soup w/delicious ingredients ^__^

Added the green onions and mint leaves, ready to be serve

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Philippians 2:3

Fresh Dahlia Flowers

My friend brought me a bunch of fresh and pretty Dahlia flowers from the public market in Seattle and I would like to share it's beauty. ^__^

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

Zucchini Bread

Today woke up and nothing plan for the day, so decided to bake something and while going through the recipes, finally decided to make zucchini bread. Last year my coworker bake some and gave me some to try and I really like it. The recipe was easy to follow and it came out to be pretty good. My mom tried it and she likes it. Next time I will attempt to make macaroons, but first need to find a good recipe.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3

Saturday...

This morning I had to drop off my dad to a party in Sunset, so on the way home I went by Starbucks to buy a white chocolate mocha and a banana pecan walnut cake. Then I went to Hilda's bakery hoping to get the UBE taro rice cake, however it's already sold out, so I got the hopia and salted egg. I never tried the salted egg, so looking forward to try it. The lady in line ahead of me said it's good, so I'll give it a try. After I got home I remember my coworker told me about a recipe for Omelette, so I decided to make myself an omelette for lunch. It turned out okay and never tried omelette with ginger. And didn't realized that it's so hard to flip an omelette w/o breaking it in half. I guess it takes practice. Making the omelette reminds me of the omelette rice, maybe next time I'll try to make the omelette rice. That's it for now, wishing everyone a wonderful weekend! (^__^)

P.S. Forgot to mention I also tried to make the Chinese Spicy Cucumbers and it turned out pretty good. (Probably because I like persian cucumbers, lol). For the Chinese Spicy cucumber I found the recipe online.

Chinese Spicy Cucumbers

White Chocolate Mocha and Banana Pecan Walnut cake from Starbucks

Hopia (Made w/mung beans) Yummy!

Salted Egg

Getting the ingredients ready to make the Omelette (Ingredients, ginger, celery, two eggs, salt and black peppers)

Mix all the ingredients together

Omelette is ready!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  Galatians 5:22