Our marketing team did trend tracking in the city yesterday. First stop: David’s Tea

I enjoyed the aromas and flavors of over 150 types of tea in a colorful, modern Canadian tea emporium.

Beautiful flowers shop, Ovando

“Is not your average flower shop… with sensual shapes, lush shades of flowers, unusual plants and cacti that explode in a festival of color and texture.”

Sockerbit candy store

A trendy, Scandinavian candy shop that features unique flavor combinations and textures, uses natural colors, is free of corn syrup, trans fat and GMOs.

My coworker’s purchase

My bag: lots of chocolates, liquorice and pink marshmallows.

Candies make me happy.

The Meadow

Eclectic store that features salt, chocolate, bitters and flowers. I had to buy some black truffle salt. SO GOOD.

Lunch at Mas; where they feature a seasonal menu of locally grown and sustainably raised foods cooked solely over wood fires of oak, apple and other hardwoods.

We got to meet the chef and see the kitchen!

Wood-Fired “Island Creek” Oysters with Lemon Thyme- Shallot Butter

Chilled White Gazpacho of Cucumber, Yogurt, and Hazelnuts With Crabmeat, Charred Scallions, Tomato, Mint, and Cayenne Pepper

Grilled Wild Nettle Polenta with Organic Black Beans and Grilled Asparagus Tips

Grilled Sea Scallops and Cauliflower Steak with Arugula- Pistachio Pesto and Charred Fennel

Greenmarket Strawberries with Lemon Thyme, Candied Pine Nuts Rosé Gelée and Strawberry- Buttermilk Swirl Sorbet

Sunflower Cake with Caramelized Milk Chocolate Vanilla-Buttermilk Foam, Candied Sunflower Seeds and Local Honey Ice Cream

Finished the meal with the Chef’s complementary macaroons. O. M. G.

Lastly, we feasted our eyes on luxurious, precious and exotic skin bags in bold and beautiful colors and textures. Phil Luangrath

What a day!

We had our first open house today.

We’ve been really busy trying to clean up our house to list it for sale. It’s crazy how much stuff we accumulated over the last 7 years. Cleaning the house was no joke when you have little ones following you as you clean, littering their toys everywhere and messing up the walls you just painted. Sigh…

{ living room }

I replaced our family photos with some art works. I was really sad to take them off. 🙁

{ toy room }

{ dinning room }

{ kitchen }

{ 1 st fl bathroom }

{ entryway }

{ master bedroom }

{ walking closet }

{ 2nd bedroom }

{ 3rd bedroom }

{ basement }

{ exterior }

{ backyard }

We went to Andrew’s company holiday party tonight. I was impressed they sent a car to pick us up.

I rented my dress from renttherunway.com for the first time for today’s event. It was a perfect little black dress and I wore it with this fun hair pouf.

Today, I walked around NYC doing a trend walk with our clients. 9 hours.

These are shots of our street.

We are one of the fortunate families who lost power for only a few days.
Our prayers and thoughts are with all those who have felt the devastating effects of this Hurricane Sandy…

We stayed put in the house for the last 24 hours. I’m busy cooking food that we can eat for the next couple of days.

The wind was getting stronger outside and our lights were flickering this afternoon so we rushed bathing the kids, ate dinner and did dishes.

We lost our electricity at around 6pm.

“Perfect love drives out fear.” 1 John 4:18

I had a wonderful time at woman’s retreat this weekend. Even though I was only an hour away from home (and it was only for a day and a half), I felt like I was worlds away.
Great speaker Tara Barthels of Peacekeepers Ministries spoke about Fear.  You can read about her here.

On Monday night after dinner I was doing dishes and my fingers started to hurt. All of a sudden my joints were all aching and I had a hard time holding the dishes. When Andrew came home with Chloe from Kumon, I told him that I needed to lie down and rest. This was at around 7:30 pm.

Andrew put the kids to bed and I went to bed around 8:30 pm. I was feeling dizzy, my whole body felt like it was bruised and I was also getting chills. The next morning, Andrew went to work thinking I had the flu and thought I should take a sick day. I couldn’t even begin to explain how much I was hurting and I wanted to cry when he was walking out the door. I was. In. So. Much. Pain.
I managed to prepare lunch for the kids, get them dressed and drove them to school. When I came back, I was feeling nauseous, dizzy and I could barely walk. I decided to call in sick and laid in bed for an hour. I also felt pain in my lower stomach but because my whole body was in pain, I didn’t know if I had a stomach bug or if it was the cyst situation again.

My head was spinning and I didn’t know what to do.

Around 11am, I finally thought of calling my doctor’s office and since it’s a walk-in facility, first come first serve, I asked very nicely (and desperately) if I could see the doctor as soon as she came in. The receptionist told me she’ll see what she can do. (Well, turns out, she didn’t do anything.) My mother-in-law came to my rescue and drove me to the doctor’s office. I walked in there with my mother-in-law helping me and I told the receptionists again, that I’m in a lot of pain and I would like to see the doctor first if possible. There were only two other man waiting and I thought that was a good sign.

What do you know, after an hour and an half sitting painfully in the waiting room and then another hour in the patient room, I finally saw my doctor. I had a fever of 103º and I was about to pass out. My doctor tells me I should rush to the nearest hospital right away because I might have appendicitis. FIVE minutes, she sees me. So I’m walking out the door and one of the receptionist says “Ahhh, you’re the one that called before. Your co-pay is $25.”

So here I was again after 3 weeks, my SECOND CAT scan and another misdiagnosed appendicitis later, we find out that it was the same scenario as the last one. It was the same cyst that collapsed again but this time, it turned into a hemorrhagic cyst and it was bleeding to my pelvic. The physician assistance also told me that I have some kind of virus on top of that which gave me a high fever so that’s why my doctor assumed I had appendicitis, therefore it was hard to rule out the cyst. Great…

I came out of ER that evening but the pain lasted for another 3 days. I could barely function as a human being… My stomach was so swollen, I gained and lost 6 lbs. this week

Now I’m much better and I’m really thankful that I feel like my self again. It was so scary to go from one day being totally fine to the next day feeling like you can’t function at all! My kids were so sweet and they really tried to be good kids. Chloe and Shane both told me that they decided to become doctors so they can help me and other sick people. That’s a long way from Chloe wanting to be a Pizza delivery man and a cleaning lady (lately) and Shane saying, “I want to grow up and do nothing!”

Changing your dreams for mommy? You guys are the best! 🙂

Andrew lost his dad when he just started college. I never met him but I know he would be so proud of Andrew… and that he’s watching us and praying for us in heaven.