Minnesota State Fair

Sorry, this comes a bit late. With a mixture of being sick and a memory stick corrupting things got pushed back.

For 12 days at the end of summer is what we like to call the Great Minnesota Get Together. The state fair is on the fair grounds on the University of Minnesota Saint Paul campus. This year we broke the record for attendance.

I always have to save for going cause I eat a lot. A LOT. Each year there is always new food. I can’t keep up. But no matter what I always have a bucket of fries and corn on the cob. We also grab a bucket of cookies on the way out.

Sadly enough I eat cookies for every meal for a few days. And no amount of walking there will help that.

But there is a lot of walking. Just meandering around to food booths to shops to more food. Even a haunted house. If they had dogs in the animal barns then I would be in heaven.

Quick update: Tired of being sick

Just wanted to give a quick update. I know I’ve been lax on posting, but I have been sick for a few weeks. Something I couldn’t seem to get rid of….or more stop others from coming. First I had a virus, then a bacterial upper respiratory infection.

So I’m taking the time to heal. Remove some of the stress in my life. I hope to be coming back better and energized.

Hope you all are having a better time. Stay warm (here in Minnesota its getting chilly).

Nobody Is Stupid

I love the idea in this book. While I write I also work and have worked in many of these jobs. People need to respect all jobs.

Bridal Shower

This month was busy again. The same weekend I had my Bridal Shower and the fiancé had his Bachelor Party. Sadly the few weeks before was not great. Every possible that that could go wrong, DID. I was suppose to have my Bachelorette Party that weekend too. But with too many changes to plans I decided to postpone.

But things started to settle down when we finally started driving to the party. We even left early…so early that we were able to stop at a Barnes and Noble real quick.

That was partially because instead of gifts I wanted people’s favorite love story. Some were actual love stories like Outlander. Others were….different. My mom gave me a funny book about a daughter and her frazzled Mom. Another gave me the Karma Sutra. And my sister in law gave me one about the love of food.

Which all fit me perfectly.

We played lots of games. My favorite is always making a wedding dress out of toilet paper.

But most of all it was just fun to talk to a bunch of women who are generally happy for us and the wedding.to just relax and talk about anything and everything.

I didn’t realize how much I needed that. Most of my life right now is work and home. And home is taking care of the dog, chores, and trying to write. It doesn’t help that I am hours away any friends, family, or my usual entertainment.

I’m also the first in the family to have a Bridal Shower. It’s not really an Asian thing. Most of the extended family didn’t come. But I’m perfectly fine with that. They like any excuse to party and I didn’t want that.

What kind of fun are you guys having? Do you have people to work around?

Being Sick and Baking Cookies

Summer colds suck. The upside is that I’ll be all better in time for my engagement party. It was one of the few times it knocked me down for days. But I made sure to take care of myself; staying home from work, drinking plenty of water, blowing my nose (instead of sniffling), and sleeping.

I get these strange craving for something sweet anytime I have a runny nose. So one of the times I was actually awake I baked some cookies.

The one thing that makes mine to soft and fluffy is drum-roll……….. Parchment paper.

Here is the recipe that I use. It took me years of experimenting to figure out what I really loved.

 

• 1 cup salted butter, softened
• 2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon smallish-medium coarse sea salt (or regular salt)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat to 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients, then add the wet. I don’t really have any particular order for things after that. Just mix until you get a good consistency. Roll the dough into pin pong size balls then place on the parchment paper on the cooking sheet. Since I’ve never had a oven that worked the same as the last one I set a timer for 7 minutes.

Yes that makes you close and not really able to go off to do something else. But having perfect cookies is more important. Besides you can spend some time doing one thing, your world will not end! You may want to leave them in for a minute or two longer. Let them cool on the sheet for a minute before sliding the parchment paper (with cookies) off.

 

Help for Staying Healthy

I’m pretty sure everyone can agree that being healthy and losing weight can be hard. We all can use some help. Sometimes people need personal help with a trainer or nutritionist. Others just support on Instagram. The point is to find what works for you.

I know I need to take classes. (Sadly could never do crossfit) A little peer pressure to push myself, but less chance of being guilt-ed. I know the basics of form and food, just need a little motivation.

The two things I use regularly are the Nike+ Fuel band and Lose It! on my phone.

My tracker

I love my fuel band because it it tracks steps, calories, and fuel points. And you can set a goal for each day that it can remind you to get up. The technology has gotten better from the first one I got. It works best for cardio like walking, running, and dancing. It doesn’t do as great with biking and swimming. But I like that because I’d rather have it undercount a little so I feel like I need to do more.

I like Lose It! most because it can sync to y Nike+ fuel band. I always had problems figuring out what exactly i did and how hard I worked. That’s one less thing to have to figure out.

Can be used on phone and computer

I found this app easiest to work with. It gives better portions, what the calories of a whole meal at a restaurant is, and a scanner. The scanner is great because you can scan a product’s bar code and all the information pops up.

What are other strategies and products do you guys use? I love to hear other ideas.

Making Changes

I finally took the plunge and got my own domain name. Hope you like it. I am still trying to figure out what colors to use and the theme design. Let me know what you think. Any ideas?

I finally learned how to make my own header. I got the instructions from here. I got the picture from here. by Jason Carpenter

I guess I want to explain a little about the name I chose. Strange story. My name was originally spelled a-n-o-n-g. Which in Laotian means gifted in the heart. But my mom, not being asian, refused to not be able to pronounce her own child’s name changed the o to a u. It wasn’t until I was about 13 that I finally Googled my name and found out it was an Ojibwe word meaning star.

The dream and create part is because I am a dreamer, but have never been great at creating those dreams. So it is reminder to myself to be constantly working towards the things I want. I also hope to help others to dream big and manifest those great things.

Giving Thanks and Feeling Humbled

Wow, today is the first day I actually looked at the number of subscribers I have. 68. Woot woot, hands in the air.

Now I know for some this is not big. But to me its huge. I am so grateful that people have found what I wrote and posted to be fun and/or helpful. I am trying. Its a small step to what I want to build. I am thankful this small beginning has been working.

So thank you all who have read any of my posts. I hope it has in some way made you smile, think, or just brighten your day.

This guy always brightens my day

The humbling part is that I still have a lot to learn. Now that I know I have an audience I am reminded that I have a standard to uphold. (Though I’m still figuring what the lines are) I need to stay consistent and engaging.

Though I wish I could get some comments, but that’s on me. I need to learn to create better posts.

Also, hopefully in a month or two I will be moving to my very own website. Something with my own name and full reins. I hope I can keep everyone here and that you will all twitch over with me.

Here’s to continuing .

Saving Money: Grocery Price List

I thought I would give a tip I use that helps us save money. We all can use a little help here and there.

I know a lot of people tout the greatness of couponing. Yes you can save hundreds of dollars, maybe even free things. But that’s only if you can find them, remember the coupons, and have places that will stack coupons. Which are all things can’t do or seem to have.

Don’t get me wrong. It is great. Just not for me.

My binder with all my house hold information in it

But one way that I’ve found to help (and be easier for me) is having a grocery price list. It is a place (on paper or digital) of where you put items you shop for and their prices from different stores. These need to be done at least a couple times a month so you can see the change in prices.

The best part about this is that after a while you will see when certain items go on sale at which store. Now for me Hyvee has pasta on sale for a dollar each in the beginning of the month. Way cheaper then Walmart. And you can stock up on them without breaking the bank.

You can either print out a list page to write things on or what I do is write on the back of my grocery list (another must to save money). This may make you shopping trip a little longer, but well worth it.

The one site I’ve found that explains it the best and has the best printouts is A Cultivated Nest.

My personal list from one of her printouts

For other Saving tips and way to organize you can check out my Pinterest page.

Happy Savings

 

Planner: Organizing My Life

My life has gotten to hectic recently that I had to find a better way to stay organized. After looking around I decided to go old school and get a planner. I even found one of my old school planners, which gave my the idea.

Sadly I could never go electronically. Too easily forgotten. I needed something physical.

Gotta love green

So I found this “Flavia” from Office Max for under $25. I took out the pages that came with it. Too busy and crowded. The once put in are from Target. I was lucky enough to find them on sale for $1.

But I’ve also found some great free printable downloads. I’ve got them all organized on my Pinterest page (http://www.pinterest.com/anungv/organize-my-life/). These will bring you to other great blogs and the printables they they made.

Of course, I couldn’t leave it at that. I have a slight obsession with washi tape. So I had to incorporate it into this. Even got special pens, post-its, and stickers.

This isn’t even all my washi tape

Now I feel more organized and a little more colorful. And I can keep up with all my writing, freelance projects, housework, wedding appointments, and everything in between.

Let me know if you want other ideas and have other great ones yourself.