I have been incorporating some different facial oils for my face. Some are good, some are not because the oils caused me some small zits. I gave up the bad ones and used them with body oils. That work great. My coworker gave me a sample of an anti-aging oil which she received from an all organic beauty company. I am not sure if it is suitable for me since I started using it two days ago. So far there are no zits popping up. My coworker loves the products from this company. She is now looking out for the best eyelash growth products, natural if possible. I told her we (she and I are about the same age) as we age, we are vainer, and we are experimenting on facial oils.
I read a few websites on careers. One of the best jobs out there that will withstand layoff are in the medical field. I heard of some folks who were laid off went back to school for medical coder so when they are done with school, they can apply for Medical Transcriptionist Jobs. I have also read a lot of stories on the web about folks totally changing their career paths to the medical field: from a sales manager to an RN (registered nurse). Yeah, nurses are hot commodities now.
My camping adventure started on Friday, October 14. DB got ready all the camping gear for me when I’m at work. When I got home, he loaded them up in the car for me. I brought 2 single oversize sleeping bags, tent, stuff for setting up the tent, 2 coolers, rugs, charcaol, lighter fluid, towels, change of clothes, pots and pans, some food, water and i cannot remember anymore!
Drove to my friend’s place, unloaded my car into hers. Seriously, the next time, we are taking two cars. We stopped to get some sandwiches at the Vietnamese restaurant and we started our journey. It takes about an hour from St. Paul to Stillwater.
This is our camp site at William O’Brien State Park in Stillwater. Picture taken the day we left:
We arrived at the park grounds and registered at the park office. We got our permit, paid for it, bought a bundle of fire wood and got to our camp site around 7-ish. Its was pitch black. First thing we did was set up the tent and our sleeping bags. Two rookies working in the dark with just flash lights. Should have just turn on the car head lights and we would have done a quicker job. Since it was our first time, we weren’t that equipped. We didn’t bring or buy any good fire wood. We bought one small pack from the park office. The wood were cheap fly wood that are good for starting a fire.
Our pathetic fire we started with the cheap wood.
We stayed up for a while in front of the fire, ate the sandwiches we bought on our way in, set up the propane stove to boil water for our Milo and crawled into bed. Yes, we practically crawled in since the tent is only for 2 persons. It was a damn cold night with the wind blowing at a good speed!! The worse thing was we didn’t put the top of the tent (rain cover) on, so we had a good draft coming in. I seriously didn’t know coz the last i went camping, it was not put on!
And this is what it looks like without the cover. We had dew inside the tent!!!
And basically this is what it all looks like the next morning since we could not see a thing without much light.
After we had our breakfast of muffins, tea and Milo, we went out shopping at Walmart for a proper propone stove, loads of water, munchies, and grapes. We then stopped over at Menards hoping to buy firewood but they didn’t have any. We then drove to Cub Foods which was across the street for good firewood. Yes, good ones like oak will burn much longer. The bundle of wood were mixture of oak and birch. We bought 4 bundles. Next we saw a sign for rummage sale at the high school. Crazy us we went in and spent about 2+ hours.
Our loot!
THere are 2 single sleeping bags, a blanket, bags, sweat shirts, pants, books, and soft toys (for my friend’s school stuff)
On our way back, I had to stop at Starbucks for coffee….need my coffee for the day. Once we got back to camp, my friend started setting up the new stove and cook some comfort food of rice and stir fry.
While she was cooking, I re-do our sleeping quaters. I put the 2 sleeping bags and the rugs I brought under our current sleeping bags so it’s not so hard on our bones! Next, I prepped the fire pit so we could start the fire later in the evening, however, we rookies didn’t bring a lighter or proper matches to start the fire or stove.
Get this, this was how we lit the stove: pulled out a lousy floppy match (those matches you get from hotels or bars), lit up the cigarette lighter, lit up the match and the other person has to turn on the knob on the stove so the person holding on to the lit up match could light up the stove!!! OMG!!! We were so pathetic. We had a good laugh at ourselves though.
So we lit up the stove but my friend accidentally lost the fire on one side of the stove, not once, but several times. We rolled up some newspaper lit it up and started the other side and my friend ran over to the fire pit and dump the lighted newspaper. Hence the fire going in the pit:
The munchies we bought at Walmart:
After we stuffed ourselves with rice and stir fry veggies with sotong balls (heaven!) we had to go for a walk along the river to walk off the rice! 
Too bad we came at the end of fall, most of the trees are botak! There were hardly any colors to see.
After the walk, we started our fire and feeding our stomachs again with the munchies, grapes, tom yum noodles and more noodles.
Since none of us had a DSLR, we tried our best to get a good picture of the fire, but these are what we were able to come up with….which spells P A T H E T I C.
And it rained on us that night. We had to scrambled to put the top on, again, in the dark with flash lights! Shortly after we had our feast of “siew yeh”, we got ready for bed and
Oh and I forgot, there’s free wifi at the park! My friend was able to watch her Korean dramas. Crazy indeed. We are not exactly in the wilderness.
The next morning, we woke up and made our breakfast of hash browns, eggs and tom yum noodles and down it with tea, coffee and Milo! We were pigs. Remember seeing the two bikes hooked up to my friend’s car? We wanted to go biking after our dinner last night but I opted to walk, plus the trail were all gravel. We thought on Sunday morning after we woke up, we could go for a bike ride. Yeah right, I woke up at 8:30, and my friend at 9. By the time we had our breakfast and cleaned up, it was time to pack up even though check out time is 4 p.m. I wanted to get home around 2 to get ready for work the next day.
We finally left the camp site and out of the park at 11:20 a.m. Got back to my friend’s place and unloaded her car and loaded up mine. We were getting ready to go to IKEA to get a desk for herself around 1:30-ish, she accidentally locked her house and car keys in her apartment, plus she has no spare keys. My handbag and her cellphone are sitting in her car. I have my cellphone so we called and left a text message for her landlord. Her landlord called at 1:36 and said he will come by within the hour.
To kill time, we went for coffee around the block. Came back, we BS a little, took pictures, BS more and I was getting grumpy coz i was very tired – eyes closing and yawning till my jaw was about to lock. I looked at the time which was 2:46 and told my friend I’m going home without my bag. She said she will drop my bag off when the landlord shows up and after her shower.
Good thing I left coz her landlord texted my phone saying he is running 20 minutes late and the time he texted was 3:20 and I was already home in the garage unloading my stuff. I even went out to toss the frisbee for Chase for about 20 minutes, no call from my friend. When i was half way on my walk with Ranger, at 4:15, my friend call saying she just got into her apartment!!! Good call on my own.
All in all, it was a good adventure. We weren’t that prepared but still a good experience. All my other times of camping were well equiped but i never lifted a finger to do anything. Hence, the rookieness I’m calling myself.
I have been trying out home made mask. I’m not using yogurt or honey that I read on beauty blogs. I bought some Dead Sea Salt clay at Garden of Wisdom. Add some distilled water or hydrosol of my choice and a teeny bit of tea tree oil, mixed it all up into a paste I favor. I put the paste on for about 10 minutes or till it drys up, and rinse it off with water. I read to wash it off with a warm wash cloth but I didn’t. I am now curious to know what are the benefits of seaweed powder. I might have to try that out. I gather it’s no harm if I start off on my hand first.
What a surprised when I walked into the company’s coffee place and saw 5 brand spanking new Macs replacing the digustingly old PCs for employee usage. The company even got rid of the black chairs and replaced them with white chairs, plus painted one side of the wall white! A co-worker and I were upstairs in the afernoon and tried our hands on one of them Macs. It definitely had a different feel and the white keyboard is one mini keyboard waiting to for it to turn “gray” or with brown stains. So my co-worker ask where is the icon for IE which of course is not IE but is Safari. When we found it, she wanted to type in “where can I buy ps3 games” but there was no where she can type in for her search. I told her it is going to take some time for us old timers to get use to Apple prods!
Happy Friday, peeps! I cannot wait to get off work today. My friend and I are going camping at William O’Brien State Park. It’s about 50 minutes to an hour drive and I have to say it is a very last minute decision of ours. Of course, DB is not too happy about it because he said my friend has no not been camping before and I’m still a rookie! Hah, we didn’t care, we are going for it. I don’t even know how to set up the tent. It was always done by others, not me!
Anyway, he and I already made plans to clean our carpets again as our carpets are extremely dirty. The thought of shampooing the carpet is really daunting!! Actually shampooing the carpet is not bad, just the hassle of rinsing it. If it is our house, I am not so picky about it, but since the house is not ours, I want to keep it at least presentable. For those who lives in Austin, TX, The Steam Team does carpet, upholstery, air-ducts cleaning and a lot more. Check out http://www.thesteamteam.com/ for more information.
So, I am planning to leave my house to my friend’s house around 4 and hopefully we get to the camp grounds before dusk. DB is the Mr. Paranoia, so he said to get there early. He wanted me to bring Chase, as a “body guard”!! I could but I’m not going to. He will totally go wild. Last night, DB asked again if I want Chase with me. He said it would be easier for him if there is one when he cleans the carpet – vacuum, deodorize and shampoo. What we need is professional carpet odor removal austin. I told him to make do with how we have been doing when we had 3 dogs. Hah, that really kept him quiet.
This week is the last week for camping. Camp grounds will be closed after this weekend. Some state parks will be open for hikers but not all. I am pumped for this weekend.
DB found a tooth in the kitchen, right next to Ranger’s food bowl.
We think it’s this guy….
He has been eating slower for a while but then I didn’t pay much attention to him eating. He always eats fast but not as fast as Chase. I was paying attention to Cooper then because Cooper definitely was eating slower. Now I have Ranger and Chase, Chase inhales his food. Ranger I can see he is actually chewing his food.
I tried to see if the tooth came from Ranger’s mouth, well, that guy’s has a steal trap of a mouth. It’s as if he has diamonds in his mouth, man!!!
I know someone is going to ask if I brush the boys’ teeth, the answer is not anymore. Only Cooper allowed me. The other two, difficult cases – once the toothbrush with the pork/chicken flavored toothpaste is in their mouth, they will use their tougues to lick the paste as much as they can and clamp their mouth shut even with my fingers inside. Buggers!! After a few months of having my fingers chomped, I gave up. So, me bad dog owner.
I really ran out of ideas how to brush their teeth!! Ideas, anyone?
I have been working on my sewing again, not every day though. I am thinking of bidding for some printed knit fabric from eBay. My friend has done it before and she said it is addictive! Nadine’s hubby is a cigar smoker, he gets his cigars from cigar auction online. And since I got Nadine into sewing, though she sews crafty stuff, her hubs told her to bid her fabris on eBay instead of paying the full price on Etsy. He just has to becareful what he tells the wife, because Nadine is the type who is easily influenced!
Summer flew by which was no big deal for me since I don’t spend any time outside per se. I was looking forward to fall and now it’s here. Love fall for the cooler weather and of course, the changing of the colors on the trees.
As usual my walks with Ranger are longer, too. This old guy loves his walks although he comes home with a slight limp if he walks very fast. He, too, is slowing down when he is eating but will forever be a chow hound. He really knows how to hound you for food which I am sure part of it is due to the medication he is taking that increases the appetite.
Ranger had a yeast infection on his ear two weeks ago. Took him and Chase in to the Vet. Ranger was checked out for his weight and the fatty lumps growing around his stomach and hips. The vet said those lumps are alright as long as they are not hindering Ranger’s mobility. The vet had to flush out both his ears, gave him an antibiotic jab, treat his major gigantic hotspot below his ear and gave him a thorough check.
Chase went in for his annual jabs and heartworm check. This dog weighs in 98 pounds. The vet says he is one very fine specimen. He has hardly any fat on him, he is just one big guy. All the running and jumping during his frisbee sessions is making him slimmer but bigger muscles. I think that’s why he is so much heavier. His ribs are showing a little and has a waist, so I’m not worried about his weight. We even increased his food intake per meal.
The dry weather is playing some crazy games on my skin these past month. I’m now adding essential oil (camellia seed oil) for extra hydration to my skincare routine. I starting adding this step a week ago. As far as I can tell, it’s helping. After doing some research on the oil, the said oil also helps with uneven skin tone. Again, I should have taken a “before” picture, but I didn’t, forgot about the blogging material! Anyways, I am going to get additional different essential oils, i.e. Rosehip (rich in omega, helps rejuvenate aged and sun-damaged skin, and penetrates the skin quickly), apricot kernel and Jojoba to add to the Camellia. It’s way cheaper to DIY than to spend $80+ plus (or some are around $50) for a bottle. The raw ingredients I am going to get will cost me $30, if more. This is just an experiment which I’m giving myself 2 months to see the results since I have super bad hyper pigmentation on my cheeks. Obviously I cannot put too much on the face…I don’t want to look like an oil bucket! If it does not work, meaning no changes to the discoloration at all on the dark spts, zits galore and increase of oil seeds, I can still use the oils as body oil since I am already using body oil, I’m not wasting them.
Remember I went for a waitressing job interviewed few weeks ago? There is no news from the owner and I didn’t even bother to call him. He said he would call me whether it’s yay or nay, but not a phone call from him. I am leaving it as it. I have second thoughts of getting a second job coz our tax returns came back for 2010 and it’s not good. We have to pay federal and state, a lot. I can’t believe we had to pay back since the man only worked a few months. But then I thought about what I changed on my deductions so I could get more on every paycheck plus the extra income from this blog!!!!! Shit lah!!!! The man needs to get a job pronto.
Alright, I better end this post. I’m rambling on too much. Till the next couple of weeks…..
Are they not the same – iPad, Tablets? It is just the brand name that is different. Nadine is back from her trip to Japan, short little vacation with her family. She bought a Samsung Transformer Tablet TF101, nice looking tablet. I told her it is like iPad just the brand is different. She said it is not. To me both are just a tablet that functions the same. If I have the extra dough I would buy one of these tablets to play around, too. Who knows, I might one day! 
LOL
It’s time of the year again the company telling us employees to be more giving. This year there are prize drawings for employees who have participated by a certain date and will also receive trophies for early pledge…something along those lines. I seriously had to sleep on this employee giving thingy. Yes, it’s good to contribute out of my paycheck to those less fortunate or assist whatever contribution I can for medical research or saving some animals. I myself need to save myself from drowning. However, if I don’t chip in, it will affect my tax returns.
Now that the weather is starting to get cooler, it is time to bring out my long sleeves shirts and long pants. Funny how I love to wear long sleeves and long pants, but only if it’s cool and cold! I went to the consignment shop yesterday after work to check out their fall clothing. I want to get some cheap ray bans but had second thoughts, it’s better to spend the cash on what I really NEED. However, I didn’t find any pants that are in my size. I was also looking out for a white cotton shirt, and again, not a single that caught my eye. I suppose I have to go to another store this weekend.
Finally, the temperature is not hovering around the 80′s anymore. The air conditioning is taking a break, although it had a couple days of rest last week. The rest of the week’s temperature will hit upper 60′s. That’s just perfect walking weather. No rain in sight.
Funny how the two dogs has more energy now that the weather is cooling off in the evening when I take them for their walks. Ranger walks fast, so fast that I’m actually lagging behind him! Chase’s frisbee fetching sessions are longer instead of 10 minutes where he will pretty much shows me the body language he is dying from the heat. Now he keeps wanting to fetch that seems like forever to me.
Yes, I still misses Cooper every time we are outside on our walks and frisbee time. My tug-of-war and obedience champion! It will be 4 weeks this coming Friday that he left us. Time is just flying by and we are already towards the end of 3rd quarter. Looking forward to my trip back to Spore/M’sia end of November/December, but not the shopping before I leave! If my sister reads this she will give me a earful. Hehehehe.
I went for a part time waitressing job interview last weekend. It’s a Chinese restaurant out in Edina, owned by a Ipoh guy. It’s about 40 minutes drive, 27 miles one way. Will hear from the owner this week if he will hire me. Although getting a part time job is good for the pocket money, however, with the sky rocketing price of gas, I am not too sure now. Just thinking of the drive kinda puts me off, but who knows, I might not get the job since I am not the only one they are interviewing. But in order to go on vacation at the end of November, I need extra cash…..that leaves me thinking if I should apply for a stocker position at one of these places: Home Depot, Menards, Fleet Farm – they are closer to home especially winter is just around the corner!
Bible study starts this Thursday. So the novelty of working part time is slowly drifting out of my system, may as well hope I DON’T pass the waitressing interview! I really am looking forward to bible study. It’s not money making but it gets me to read the bible! 
Need the motivation to jump start the engines. Will have to sleep on the idea of working PT.
And I’m surprise I’m able to rid of FB games, well, take that back, I did responded to some friends requests and I sent out some requests but I got tired of it. I told DB it is a good thing my PC is taking its sweet blardy time to process each click. It’s because of that slowness with my PC that made me kick those darn games out. Even going into FB checking friends’ stats takes time for the PC to “churn”. Major sian. The good thing is I’m working on my sewing albeit slow.
Last is….. I really want to run a 10K or half marathon. Team Ortho has a Monster Dash run in October. I know I can register for 5K, but 5K don’t seem to motivate me. Will have to see how the wallet leaves me with this month to register for one of the longer runs. 10K is a challege, however, half marathon (13 miles) is even better, it motivates and drives me harder to “get her done” under 2 plus hours. That’s my goal.
K, that’s all for now till I feel like update again! Ta ta for now….
Mom’s Wonderful
Author: Omar Schwartz
My mom is great and we’ve always been really close but when she suggested we start our own clothing company together I was more than a little worried. I didn’t want our working relationship to come in the way of our regular relationship and to be honest, I had no idea what kind of business partner she would turn out to be. It’s been three years since we opened the doors of the boutique and business is actually booming. Booming! Mom totally knows what to do and she’s got a really savvy head for business things like bank card processing companies and talking to vendors which is one less thing I have to worry about. I’m better at hanging out with the clients and really getting the store aesthetically where it should be so our talents work well to balance each other out in the environment of the store. I hope we’re able to keep this business going for a long time to come and maybe we’ll pass it down to my own daughters someday!
Since I returned home from my faith healing retreat last month, I have been vigilant with my rosary, again! Yes, I have not been praying the rosary for many, many, many months. I can’t even remember when I stopped my nightly rosary.
Anyway, During the retreat, a team member (A) gave me her rosary, a very beautiful rosary from Medjugorje that was blessed by Mary Mother. I have to say holding on to the rosary has a different feeling, it’s as if, Mary is there. The rosary was given to A by her friend who returned from a Medjugorje pilgrimage (something I really want to do one day). A has gone a couple trips herself and has brought home rosaries blessed my Mary. She said the rosary she is giving me has brought her a lot of luck. She gave it to me as she knows I need it.
Now I only wish DB will do the rosary with me. He said he does it every day umpteenth years ago. I am hoping he would say a decade, at least, it’s a good start to get his faith back to help him heal. The retreat program members told me about Christian Rehab Centers DB can go to if he truly wants Jesus Christ to help him. I believe if he wants to be healed, he will accept humility and ask for help. Right now he is in denial that he needs help. Having an addiction is a disease. An alcoholic needs outside, professional help. I have never heard any stories of an addict get clean by doing it him/herself.
The Christian Addiction Treatment is based on healing scriptures, knowing Jesus Christ, the transcendent healer of all. I have not gone to a rehab center, however, I want to say that the Catholic healing retreat I have above has opened up my heart to our Savior and the need to read scriptures is deepening in me. I have healed from my “wounds” and I am glad I went.
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