This Is How We PHO It

Favorite Place:  Pho 99 on Walnut & Jeffrey in Irvine, 5 minutes from home

Mike

Large #8 with tripe, tendon, rare beef, other beef

Additives: basil leaves, but no sauce to soup  (to keep the flavor pure)

Dips beef and tripe, etc. into dish with mixture of sriracha & hoisin

For sides: raw jalepenos and onion mixture (refer to recipe below)

Technique:  eats all noodles first, then orders extra side of noodles to add to bowl while soup is still hot.

Sue

Large #2 with rare beef

Additives:  extra cilantro & sprouts, one basil torn up into pieces, no sauce

Dips beef into dish with 1/2 sriracha 1/2 hoisin, but not mixed together

Sides: sprouts & onion mixture

Technique:  eats noodles & beef together while adding sprouts continuously to add crunchiness

Audrey

Small bowl of Mommy's #2

Additives: sprouts

Sides: none

Technique:  tries to eat noodles with fork but then gives up and uses her hands, places end of noodles into mouth and then slurps the rest, lifts bowl to mouth to drink the soup occasionally and then asks for more.

Onion Mixture

Ask for extra side of sliced white onions

Add juice of 1 or 2 sliced limes

Add few spoonfuls of pho broth

Squirt lots of sriracha on top and mix well with chopsticks

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Our family pho history/background:

When Mike was a bachelor, he fell in love with pho.  The broth & noodle combination really satiated his appetite for a "home-cooked" meal.  It being inexpensive also encouraged him to buy pho several times a week, and sometimes twice a day.  He's been hooked ever since.  Now, as a family, pho is one of our favorite things to eat together.

During this pregnancy, pho has not tasted as good, so we haven't had it as often as before.  In fact, Mike had gone a whole 2 months without pho for my sake.  (What a husband!)  However, last weekend, while I was away for most of the day, he had bonding time with Audrey at the beach and then they had a pho date for lunch.

Audrey is truly a girl after her daddy's heart.

Like Father



Like Daughter



For those of you who don't really like pho, I recommend persevering.  Keep at it, try new (clean) places, and I guarantee you'll fall in love.  Even Pastor James likes it now!  Come on, Sanchez_Familia, you can pho it too!

Attack of the Lizard Part 3 & Other Family Updates

It's confirmed.  Lizard Jr. has a death wish on our household and wants to avenge his father's death.

He was lurking behind the bushes by our front door when Audrey and I got back from the grocery store today.  As I let Audrey into the house, I saw him jet inside.  This lizard gained some weight since we last saw him.  Not only was he bigger, but wilder, faster, and more feisty. Glory and praise to our sovereign God who providentially had a neighbor walk by just as I screamed.  He asked if he could come inside to help, to which I responded with a desperate "yes!" and then I got him a broom.  As I watched him battle the lizard, I don't know what I looked or sounded like, but Audrey could sense my fear and asked me to hold her.  So the two of us hid out in the kitchen while my neighbor tried to sweep the creature out the front door.  It was quite a fight, though, because this guy did NOT want to leave.  After a few minutes, my neighbor (who worked up a sweat) got the lizard out and I thankfully shook his hand and expressed my deepest gratitude.

Whew!  What would I have done if my neighbor had not walked by?  I am SO thankful to the Lord for two things today:  helpful neighbors & brooms.

I wonder when Lizard Jr. will make his next siege on our house.  What if next time he has kids and brings them too?  I must not be anxious.  The Lord has delivered me 3 times already.  I must trust in Him.

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My doctor told me today that Baby's head is down now (which explains some of my achiness) and that he's a pretty good-sized one.  He's due to arrive next month, so I guess God is putting his finishing touches on him before he joins the family.  We're really excited to meet him!  I'm a little anxious about sharing a room with him in the beginning, especially since Mike has to go to work.  But hopefully, Mike's selective hearing (which all father's have) will kick in and he'll get enough rest for his work day.

Mike's mom came to visit from Maryland and spent the past 2 weeks with us.  She left this morning and thankfully I was wearing my sunglasses when I dropped her off, because I got teary when we said our good-byes.  Before marriage, I never thought that I would cry when saying bye to my mother-in-law, but God has blessed me with such a godly, loving, selfless, considerate mother-in-law, that it's always hard to part with each other especially after a long time together.  Thinking about Mother's Day coming up, I'm so thankful for my own mom and for Mike's mom, who are both such blessings to our family.

Here are some pictures of our time together:

Grandma Lee's favorite activity - feeding Audrey.



Newport Beach



Sporting the new shades that Gomo got her.



Sunday at church with beef jerky



Redondo Beach Crabhouse a.k.a. Korea



Next month, we get to see my mom who will come from Hawaii to spend time with TWO grandkids.  Yay!

A Funny from Flock Last Night

Since people are sharing the kid funnies they've heard, here's one.  It comes from a conversation Anna Bulis (age 5) and I had during the fellowship time at bible study last night.  Don't know if it will sound as funny as it did last night, but I'll share anyway.

Anna:  Um, Mrs. Sue?

Me:  Yes, Anna.  Hi!

Anna:  Uh, Noelle (her baby sister) had one of Audrey's crackers.

Me:  Oh, that's great!

Anna:  (Very concerned.)  And after she ate it, I smelled her breath and it didn't smell good at all.

Me:  Oh...really?

Anna:  (Very perplexed.)  What kind of crackers ARE those?

Me:  Oh, they're a cereal called Mighty Bites (one of those Kashi cereals).

Anna: Well, we have Cheerios at home and they don't make your breath smell bad.  (I could tell she was trying to be sincerely helpful.)

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On a side-note, this will be of no interest to many of you, so you may elect not to read on.  But as a mom, I have a dilemma.  My 20-month old is now in size 5 diapers!  I was in denial for a long time, but after leaking every single day (sometimes twice a day) even after diligently changing her diapers about every 2 hours or so, I finally had to graduate her to a size 5 to wear at least during her naps and overnight. And people, diapers only go up to size 6 and she's not even 2 years-old yet!  I guess poddy-training will have to come sooner than expected.  Either that, or I may have to resort to cloth ones once she grows out of a size 6!

I don't get it.  I feed her whole grains, no junk food (except on rare occasions or when other people feed it to her without me knowing), no juice, and I've put her on lowfat milk.  She eats the regular 3 meals and two snacks (of whole grain crackers or fruits/veggies) a day, and we often say "no" to her when she says "more", which she says about 20 times daily.  She doesn't sit still, gets sweaty from running around the house in circles, but she has always been in the 90th percentile of weight and height since she was born.  Everyone says "Oh, she'll lose the baby fat soon...oh, she'll thin out before you know it."  But oh my, she is a little giant. If you opened her up, she'd be pure, solid, dense, heavy chocolate.  Not just a hollow shell like those Cadbury bunnies.

So, this little 30-pounder is now forced to walk herself everywhere b/c Mommy can't carry her PLUS the extra 20 pounds of baby weight up and down the stairs anymore.  If only I can somehow teach her to get into her carseat and into the shopping carts by herself, I'd be set.

But don't get me wrong, I adore every last ounce of my little, I mean, big sweetheart.  Even if she is harder to carry than a huge bag of rice.  So if you want a workout, just come over and do lunges with Audrey.  That will firm you up like no other!

Here she is, doing what she does best:



Question:  ARE there some of you out there who feed her junk food every sunday behind my back?  Is it because of you?

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

Tea: The Women's Sport

Back in August 2005, we had our first Irvine Flock Women's Tea.  This past weekend, we had the 2nd one at our house.  Seven of us got together and it was a blast! We all brought yummy sandwiches, desserts, and pastries, enjoyed tea together and talked.  I remember one of the sister's husbands quoted as saying, "So....you just sit around a table and drink tea for hours and just...TALK?"  Well, of course!

Having tea (or gathering around any type of food) is much like sports for men.  It's a means for women to gather together for fellowship and bonding.  It's been said that a sports injury is equivalent to a woman not being able to talk, because that's how women bond.  All men need is a ball...any kind of ball.  All women need is food...any kind of food.  But of course it's more fun when it's a bunch of yummy treats on a pretty table.  The upside for women is that we can't get injured and potentially need surgery and then be out of fellowship for a while.  However, we do run the risk of getting fat, but I think that's a risk we're all willing to take.  Anyhow, I'm glad that we women of Irvine Flock love to gather together to talk and eat because I've thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each of them better.

We met for about 2 hours and our conversation was facilitate by each of us answering questions such as:

Who or what makes you laugh the most?  How has growing up in your family influenced who you are today?  What is one goal you have for 2007?  If you could choose one yummy treat to eat everyday and it would have zero calories, what would it be?  What is your biggest social defect (such as not being a good listener, talking too much, etc.)?

Everyone was so transparent and I think we all left with a better understanding and greater fondness for each other.  Here are some pictures of the tea times we've had.



By the way, Christine brought her huge and yummy trifle, for which I was very thankful.  It also caused a bit of conflict in our family because I forgot to save some for my husband.  Uh oh!

Trip to San Diego

Since we went away on a little vacation this past weekend, we missed church and didn't get to hear Pastor Marcus's sermon on Titus 2 (older women).  We heard great things about the sermon, so I was listening to it online today while I was drinking my daily after-lunch coffee with chocolate.  (After hearing the part on gluttony,  I decided to leave 2 chocolates in the box.)

While uploading photos from our trip as I was listening to the sermon, it occured to me that about half of the pictures were of food, or of us eating our food.

For example, here's what we had for breakfast.



We went to the SD zoo, but Audrey was more interested in her raisins than in the animals.



Another meal.



One night, I thought I'd have a salad as a light dinner.  If I had only known that I would get 1 prawn, a sliver of avocado, 4 leaves, and 1 thinly sliced raisin, for only $1 less than Mike's huge carne asada nachos.  It was really weird & disappointing.



Finally, some non-food pics...



I know we Lees love food, but Pastor Marcus' message was so good.  There is a difference between enjoying our food (and everything else He's given us) to the glory of God, and being ruled by it or indulging in it in excess.  Wow...and that was just one point in the sermon.  So much more to reflect on and examine.

A New Year Already!

It feels like just a few months ago that 2006 started, but now we're already in the 4th day of 2007.  I feel like time goes faster as I get older.  I was staring at Mike one morning as I woke up and I couldn't believe that I met him when we were just silly, very immature teenagers, and now we're married, having kids together, and living out our thirties (well, not me yet)!  By God's grace, we're 2 very different people now than we were when we met, and hopefully growing more mature every year.  I'm very thankful.

In C.J Mahaney's book Humility: True Greatness, he quotes another man who said, "Thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow."  That's so true.  When I'm ungrateful, moaning, griping, complaining, discontent, I know I'm a very ugly person and hardened by pride.  That's so scary.  I want to cultivate greater thankfulness this year so that I can be more humble.  I'm sure the Lord will provide many opportunities to practice it during difficult situations.  Lord, give me grace!

A couple things I'm currently thankful for  (besides God, the Bible, etc.):

1. Health:  our family battled colds, the flu + a stomach virus this past month (just like the rest of our church!).  It's good to have all 3 of us relatively healthy again.  Praise God!  I'm actually also grateful for the chance to depend on God during those times.

2. Cornerstone:  Every week, being with my brothers and sisters at church is SO sweet.  Hearing our elders speak to our church during 2nd hour recently has also been a huge blessing.  So thankful for them and all our other leaders who labor for us and love us so much.

3. Family:  A source of much grace...can't even put it in words.  Too long for xanga.  Random side-note:  I started feeling the baby move on Sunday and he/she's been non-stop ever since.

4. Breyer's strawberry ice cream:  a perfect after-dinner snack.

5. Funny things on our xanga blogring...although it's been a little slow lately.  Can you all do something about that?

I leave you with an example of how we spend our time at home.  No, we don't eat pho and have worship practice all day.  We just do this:


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