Pocketful of Yuan…

In January I pulled out my big red coat that I hadn’t worn since last Winter and found all these treasures in my pocket from China!

1.Yuan!!!!  73 1/2 Yuan to be exact.  Sounds like a lot, but it’s just around 10 bucks. Worth hanging on to for the next time we go?  Possibly ;)

2. Candy and Gum- I was pregnant and very sick at the time.  Sometimes sucking on these things were crucial.

3. Lots of Tums- Pregnant.  Enough said.

4. Receipt that reminded me of how cool and beautiful their symbols are.

5. The best scented VS lip gloss that I thought I lost.  The good smell right under my nose helped me avoid puking.

All these items added up to a total score.  They reminded of China and how we needed to celebrate Chinese New Years!  So we did, with some last minute Beef and Broccoli from the freezer section (oh yes, we’re all sorts of fancy), fortune cookies and a Chinese Movie via RedBox!

Last Year’s Celebrations-

J drove us all over the city to see all the fireworks on our little red motorbike…then tried to get me to go up on the roof of our high rise building at midnight (when the fireworks really go ape-wild) but I wouldn’t due to my fear of heights and the ridiculous ladder you had to climb to get there…It was amazing though in our apartment….Fireworks were literally going off on all sides as far as you could see and there were ones RIGHT up next to the window.  People were lighting huge ones in the courtyard too that landed on the roof…right were J was!  He was fine, but a little singed.  The video he got was well worth it…I’ll have to find it in our old files and add it here one day!  This picture was from our ride before there were too many over the river…and there’s that lucky red coat!

This was our spread this year…(the hanging symbol was given to us by our neighbor, Ron/Charlie…he couldn’t ever decide on just one English name…so we always called him both.

  

If you’re wondering why she’s in a Bunny suit, here’s the answer:

We celebrated Chinese New Year’s living in Tianjin, China last year and it was the year of the Bunny.  In China, you are the animal of the year you were born, according to their calendar and when your year rotates around again, it’s a BIG deal…You pretty much have the biggest birthday party of your life, you’re super lucky for that year, you eat a ton, wear lots of red and people give you mullah in pretty little envelopes (if you’re Chinese, we just ate a lot and enjoyed being pyromaniacs).  Amelia-Jayne was born last year, so she’s our China Bunny…1987 also happened to be the year of the Bunny- so I’m a bunny too!  I guess that makes Jordan the new Hugh Heffner. Haha.

Amelia-Jayne tried to munch through her own fortune cookie and got her first taste of what else?!  RICE cereal.  We had to get the Asian theme in there somewhere for her. :)

 

We decided that we want to have traditions surrounding the places we’ve been and that next year we are going to really live it up for Chinese New Years…a party will happen with joutsa, chopsticks and PYROTECHNICS!  (We’re really excited about that)  So, if you happen to be in the Uintah Basin…come celebrate with us!  YOU’RE ALL INVITED!

Next stop…BRASIL!

  Carnival, anyone? I’m not sure Vernal is ready for that kind of party. ;)

3 Little Pumpkins…

This year I loved my pumpkins!  Jordan got a few we didn’t end up carving from some roofing customers…but they were pretty on my porch…the cute chunky one is my favorite. ;)

  

  

I wanted to do something different than carve pumpkins this year, so I got the idea for a pumpkin family from “All You” magazine and this is what I came up with…

Happy Autumn from Us!

xoxo

Noite Brasileira

I finally found an affordable pressure cooker so I could get my Brazilian food fix!!  So, we had a little family dinner and I made feijoada (Brazilian style beans) with fresh limes,rice,  cornbread and salad.  Rice and beans was a typical lunch for us most days (and a lot of nights too…haha) when J and I lived down there.  If you were to eat this dish at a restaurant, it would usually be accompanied by Pao de Queijo (aka: heavenly cheesy bread balls)…but I didn’t have the right kind of cheese, so I didn’t want to risk it and ruin the experience for the first timers in my family…it’s like I needed them to love it as much as I did.

Instead of Pao de Queijo, I made Brigadeiro for the first time.  These little balls of chocolaty goodness are a really popular sweet that is SOOOOO rich.  The girls in our department and I ate one after lunch almost everyday!  I like to think of it as a very Euro way of eating (they had a lot of European influences there) but it could just be called gluttony.  You decide. ;)

I only got pictures of the Brigadeiro…so if you want to experience  the rest of it, you’ll just have to stop by our house!

I had my best taste-tester there to help me out…

…don’t bother him, he’s thinking….

Yes, a success!  Thanks, Drewski.

11 Things and a Birthday

First off, some Christmas cheer…brought to you by my now 26 year old brother, Nic.

Happy Birthday Nic!!!

Tonight I was introduced to the Reverb10 site. They give you a daily prompt to reflect on during the month of December. In return, you write about your experiences from 2010 and what you would like to make happen in 2011. I love it.

BUT…I’m not so hot at the whole daily blog thing, and uh… it's already the 17th.. whoops! I do, however, want to chime in when I can, especially on the ones I feel I need to do (or, ok,ok…the easier ones).

This was the prompt from December 11:

What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)

11 Things I don't need in 2011

1. Regret. Nothing too big here, you’re just reading about an indecisive person. I don’t need to hang on to regret in 2011 or live a life with new regrets…just decide and conquer! I think many of us look back and think “what if'?” It could be anything from what happened years ago to what we just ordered for lunch. No looking back, just keep on keeping on and make the best of it!

2. Impatience. Mmmhmmm. I think that will be something on my list of no-needs EVERY year. I think a lifetime of practicing patience just might be enough. Maybe.

3. Late nights. I am horrible. My husband is awesome. I will often try to go to bed with J, only to get up out of bed 15 minutes later. No more late nights. A 10:30 bed time sounds doable...but why is it so hard to keep?!

4. Stress. Obviously. Who needs stress? Let’s cut that out. I need to do what I can can and let the rest handle itself. Life always presents us with a certain amount of inevitable stress…but we usually double it just by thinking about it!

5. To compare. I don’t think I’ve made it a day in my life without comparing my life or my things to someone else's. Plus, Mr.. Internet here doesn’t help. He’s constantly stuffing us with things to compare ourselves/our kids (or lack thereof..sad)/our husbands/our houses/our shoes to. I must stop comparing, and start owning what makes me, me.

*cough*

Hi. My name is Miranda-Jayne. I have white hair, don’t have cute kids yet and work way too many hours each week. I haven’t lived in one house long enough to decorate as a newlywed and that drives me nuts. My neighbors probably think I’m nuts…and really loud. I can't afford to shop at Anthropologie, and probably wouldn’t if I was rich anyways...unless they had a killer sale. I don't know how to make my eyes “smoky,” use a straight iron to make curls or make a batch of cookies without eating the dough to save my life. I frequently walk out of the room and leave the refrigerator door open and sometimes I don’t wash my hair for a number of days and call it “conditioning,” when really I just want to sleep in for half an hour. And that's me. Some things I like and some things I’d change. But at the end of the day it’s still me.
There’s a start.

6. A tiny kitchen. Did ya see how I did that? I worked something into this list that I DO need, because I really don't need (or want) my tiny kitchen. Sneaky…sneaky!

7. A house. Turns out I’m already regretting #6! I really don’t need a house…we have everything we need. I would just like to live in the same living space long enough to put some of my own spice on it.

8. To hate the gym. Really, I’m an exercise science major…that should be my hog heaven. But, I still manage to find something…anything better to do with my time. It’s not out of total laziness, there’s just something about a gym that screams stinky funk prison.

9. Junk. First of all, where does it all come from?? Secondly, why do I think my life won’t be complete without it? Last week I couldn’t retire my favorite wrap sweater that was stained and balled up after too much wear…so I tried to repurpose it into a bathrobe (which ironically is what J said it looked like in the first place). It’s staring at me right now asking me to throw it away. I think I will tonight.

10. Wonder Woman Skills. Do I want them? Heck yes. Does it seem like everyone and their mom (especially my mom, haha) has ALL of them? Yeppers. Does it drive me crazy that I can’t even work on half of these skills as a semi-newlywed/person who should be getting the hang of this domestic goddess stuff over here (you try shopping for ingredients or buying any sort of craft thing…I was thrilled last week because I found scotch tape…nothing too glitzy…just plain old scotch tape that didn’t even have a dispenser;)? Yes.
I’m sure skills will come with time. And if they don’t, acceptance of things I just have no talent for will. Hopefully.

10. Facebook. Sure, it can be good for the occasional birthday reminder or high school reconnection…but do I really NEED to check facebook everyday? Nope. I think I could still reap FB benefits by checking it about once a week....now that I've just refreshed my FB page.

11. American Everything. It’s easy to become enamored with everything “normal” when not much around you is. I smell good pizza…I’m drooling. I hear English…I’m all ears. I need to suck it up and not be stuck like glue to anything that reminds me of home. We chose to live here so what should we expect? I should be able to go out on a limb more for things like food, customs, etc. Besides, I’m the weird one here!

Well those are my 11 No-Needs for 2011…I’ll tell you how they’ve changed my life next year. ;) Now it’s your turn to play along!

11 Things YOU don't need in 2011.....ready? Go!