phones... bleh

i realize more and more how i'm not a phone person. i'd rather pass of the phone to nat or let the answering machine pickup than answer and talk. i find it kinda odd b/c i like talking with people, but the phone makes it not as much fun*.

anyways, this post is random, and i'm just really avoiding making 2 phone calls today (to the gas company and the insurance company).

*i don't mind talking to my friends as much on the phone, but i'd really talk in person. seeing how many of my friends are hundreds or thousands of miles away kinda makes that difficult.

thankful for my husband

what inspired today's post is reflecting on how supportive and loving nat has been throughout my pregnancy. recently, i've been starting to "show", but it looks more like a small beer gut (or more affectionately, a pooch), than a nice rounded pregnant belly. deep down, i know it's beautiful, but most of the time, i can't help but feel fat. nat has told me how beautiful i am with the pooch and all (and sometimes just the pooch itself) during the times i complain about being fat.

as i reflected more, i realized how secure i feel in our marriage because of nat. he has made me feel loved, beautiful, respected, and cared for. i praise God for such a gift in nat. :) it's amazing to think that all these good things are only be a small sliver compared to what i'll experience in heaven with Jesus!

super mom

i've been so blessed by mom the past week. i called her last week with a craving for zhong zhi (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), and she told me she'd mail me some. i thought that she would just go to the chinese store and get some for me, but i was wrong. she made them from scratch (which takes a good couple of hours of wrapping, cooking, and drying)! not only that, my mom added some other goodies--some new clothes, radish cake, and sweet sticky rice cake (all of the food was made from scratch). i love my mom and my family; they're so generous! :)

love you mama! happy chinese new year! :)

woes of a budget

nat and i calculated our average monthly spending broken up into categories. sadly, we are about $200-$400 overbudget each month, after trimming down our budget. we figured if i can get a minimum wage job and work 12 hours a week, we'd break even. the problem is finding said job. :)

there were some good things that came of this discussion. :)

1. we both had similar ideas of where to cut our budget and where not to cut. i thought that was very encouraging to see that we have the same heart.
   
2. if we wanted to stay in champaign long term, nat wouldn't have to get paid very much for us to live within our means.
   

the best valentine's gift!

it seems that most women want chocolate, jewelry, flowers, or a nice romantic dinner as a gift on valentine's day. well, i got the best valentine's gift: my husband serving me through shoveling our driveway* (hopefully he'll finish soon!). what an act of love and service! I LOVE YOU NAT! :)

*picture of nat's progress can be seen on our family's website. if you want the address, e-mail me. :)

snow snow go away, come again another day

this morning we woke up to about 5 inches of snow in our driveway. it wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't have a doctor's appointment at 9am. our normal drive of 15 min to the clinic took about 25-30 min this morning. it was weird driving, because most of champaign and urbana looks closed.

now, we are at the doctor's office waiting for our doctor to show up. the nurse said the staff is slowly making it's way in because of the snow.

the university actually canceled classes today, for the first time since 1979. nat was really shocked b/c he thought they'd never cancel classes just because of snow. i guess this is a pretty bad snow storm for classes to be canceled. well, at least we can just go home and enjoy our day (after shoveling the driveway!). :) hope all of you that are affected by the snow are keeping nice at toasty!

babbling in an interview

last week i had a phone screen interview. one of the questions they asked me was to design a user study for a certain tool. it was funny b/c the interviewer said that it was ok if i was silent for a couple of minutes as i formed my thoughts, but being an extrovert, i just processed my thoughts out loud as i was thinking. all in all, i think it went okay (i hate to be optimistic). the only thing that bothered me was i kept on thinking of ways to improve my user study after the interview. :P well, i'm hoping they just wanted to see how i thought on my feet and not necessarily come up with the "perfect" answer.

super stuffed sunday

part of the sermon at church on sunday was for our body to show hospitality to others through "partying" (in the words of the pastor). well, we took those words to heart, and we had 2 fabulous opportunities to party.

1) our small group hosted student feast (lunch after church for the students at our church). it was great time of fabulous food and conversation. and in case you were wondering, 14 C of uncooked rice is enough to serve about 30 hungry people. :)
2) we had a superbowl party at our house where we ate more (and i ate too much!). it was fun watching the game with friends, especially with some that didn't really care about the sport or the outcome. one of our friends was rooting for prince to win. :) hehehe. :0)

all that socializing and hanging out with people was marvelous for me. i think i like the idea of partying to show hospitality. :)