I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas with their loved ones. This year, Christmas was a little different for us. No Christmas tree or decorations, no visit to Santa, no special wrappings. I was so out of it. Did not get into it at all. Oh well. Next year, I’ll make up for it for sure. I just feel bad for Max since he had high expectations, and knows more this year than last. Max did receive plenty of presents from our families, so thanks everyone.

Mike and I didn’t exchange gifts this year. Wait, let me take that back. I got a house, but Mike didn’t get jack.  He’s kind of mad at me that we didn’t buy a house in the city, but what’s done is done. He thinks we’ll be moving in 3 years, but I’m not having it. Anyway, we’re closing on our new house on Thursday, and hopefully will move in this weekend. As much as I am appreciative for my family’s generosity, I am ready to have my own space again. It’s been four long weeks.  Our new place is twice the size of our beloved Minneapolis home, so it will be nice to have more breathing room. It’s definitely a cookie cutter house, that’s for sure, but I’m going to try my hardest to make it different from our neighbors. Really looking forward to designing each room.

Anyway, be back later to post more…

Another guest post from Mike. This time I am not drunk, but according to WebMD I might be suffering some sort of breakdown.

Darn you Obama.

When I am drunk, really drunk, I like to tell people how much I love Michele Bachmann. I tell people of my 2012 dream ticket of Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin (I am not a Democrat or Republican. In 08 I actually wrote in Tina Fey for President, Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin for Vice President, and I voted for Minna for sheriff and in the elections before that I voted for Nader. Yes, even when Nader went all crazy), and how I am investing in gold bars, Hormel canned chili and guns in preparation for the eventual collapse of the US. When my friends are also drunk, or when Minna is in any state of inebriation, this drives them into a crazy frenzy that you would only think is reserved for drunken debates about Brett Farve on the Vikings, Kierkegaard, if Jesus could beat Xenu, or good old discussions about why changes in allele frequencies over time freaks out some much of the US population.

New Stimulus Plan.

Sadly, I have come to some of the same conclusions when I am sober as when I am drunk. I am not Bachman crazy, but when I am I filling out those retirement planning risk assessments, I really am thinking about what ETF I should buy to hedge against the collapse of the United States as we know it. Ok, maybe that is on the crazy spectrum, but how the heck are we going to pay back so much money?

Instead of being all whiny about the collapse of our country, I have a plan. I am going to get one person off of welfare a month. I started with my friend from High School. He wanted to go to technical college, so he could do some sort of electronics stuff. You were probably reading that and humming some sappy inspirational song in your head, and you are probably thinking this is some sort of Christmas wish story where I pay for his schooling. Forget that. That is what Obama has all my money and all those Chinese people’s money for. And, before my friend can start college he had to finish his GED. My plan is more hands on. Since time is critical, I went into Billy Madison mode, and I took his GED test for him.

The good news is I passed. Yippeeee! The bad news is that even with my $180 calculator, being 2 classes shy of completing a Math major, and tons of Physics classes in college, I only scored a 80 something on the Math part of the test. Doh! On the English, Science and Social Studies parts I did ok. Some questions were very strange though. Here is one question that I had to guess on:

In 1959, rebel forces led by Fidel Castro overthrew the government of Cuba. Castro’s communist dictatorship seized privately owned farms and factories. People who spoke out against the government were imprisoned. From the 1960s through the 1980s, many people fled from Cuba to the United States.

Question:

Based on these conditions, the reasons for this migration were:

A. Health concerns.

B. Economic concerns.

C. Racial concerns.

D. Environmental concerns.

The answer was “a”.  I imagine the test creator was thinking, “People were thrown in jail, and they died in there, and other people did not want to die in jail so they moved.” Summing up the Cuban plight for freedom  as “Health Concerns” is a little weird to me, so I just did not get it.

Ultimatum for Minna.

Oh well, I passed, and we are one person closer to economic recovery. Unfortunately, now, I am down on my luck and I need a housing bailout from you, Minna. We have been living with your parents since Dec 1st, and I have self diagnosed myself as going fucking bonkers, Your parents are great. The problem is where we are living. I will not name the city, because it is actually pretty nice. It is just not for me.

- I cannot take driving an hour one way to get anywhere but this city.
- I cannot take being cooped up in the middle of nowhere. I need trails, or at least a sidewalk, or at least a dirt path, to run on. I cannot run on the side of some county highway, or I will be on the news for getting hit by a pickup truck. And I cannot run between people’s barbed wire fences, or I will be on the news for getting kidnapped by some locals.
- I cannot take eating TGI Fridays $20 special anymore. It is a great value, I grant you that, but I have had my fill of Tuscan Spinach Dip.
- I cannot take hanging out at Cabellas anymore. Cabellas is far from the city, because you are only meant to go to it once in a while. You go there during hunting season or when you need to get supplies for fishing. We cannot have date night there anymore. I will not have another romantic caribou burger in their cafeteria with you.

Minna, your parent’s house is in the Bachman district, so here is my ultimatum. While you have been looking for big ass brand new looks-like-the-suburbs barfed up cookie cutter houses, I have been searching for houses in good old Minneapolis. It turns out we can get pretty close to Lake Harriet or the creek. Agree to move back to Minneapolis *now* - or at least the part of Edina that is West of 100. If my demands are not met, I am going to stay with your Mom and Dad until 2012 and vote for Bachman. If you also meet my demands by the end of Dec, I will remove the car’s radio preset for 100.3 (100.3 is the channel Rush and Hannity are on), and you will never have to listen to Rush for 3 hours straight again (3 hours is about the time it takes to get Max to school and back).

Deal?

A couple weekends ago, we met up with Yeng for a photo session. It’s always nice to meet online friends, so thanks again Yeng for taking our pictures. She did a great job, and I am very happy with our pictures. We’ll be using a couple for our annual holiday card this year. Check out her work @ yenglorphoto.com.

I love featuring creative Hmong women on my blog, and showing their artistic skills. It’s really inspiring & motivates me to try harder in my own endeavors. Enjoy!

As I promised, here are some homes that we have seen. I think we’ve seen around 20 homes so far? I haven’t been keeping track. [Click on the pictures for a larger view.] These homes are nice, but we didn’t love them, I wish I could find the pictures of the one we offered on, but no luck. We are actually considering the top one on the right. It’s brand new & the lot is decent. If we buy that house, I am planning on changing out all the light fixtures, paint & tile though. We’re planning to meet some builders this week to talk about having a home built for us. Anyone who’s done this before, please give me any advice or tips. Appreciate it.

It’s been a crazy week, let alone month. I am feeling depressed & displaced. It has been 3 days since we moved out of our first home. We listed & sold our house in 2 months, which is what I wanted, but be careful what you wish for, because now I’m a little sad & regretful. I actually gave my house a hug when we left. Should have took a picture. I loved that house & the neighborhood. I mean, I felt like we lived in the center of the Twin Cities. Everything was close by. You want a good bowl of pho? Got it. Eat Street is only 5 miles away. You want some shopping? Got it. Mall of America is 10 minutes away. You want to go people watching on the lake? Got it. Lake Calhoun & Lake Harriet are less than 4 miles away. For interior design fans like me, shopping at Galleria & all those furniture stores like Crate&Barrel, Room&Board, West Elm, Restoration Hardware & Pottery Barn are all less than 10 minutes away. There also tons of non-chain restaurants & boutiques nearby which we will dearly miss. Anyway, we must make sacrifices for the betterment of our offspring, so that’s the reason we are leaving all this greatness behind to live in the ‘burbs.

We finally hooked up internet at my parents’ place, so that eased the pain a little. So far, I have not been asked to feed the chickens & ducks, or birdsit, which I am grateful for. (My parents have a huge coop in the backyard, where they have been raising some 30+ birds on a 3 acre lot, although I think there are less than 10 birds now.) We basically live far out in the boonies with my parents & youngest sister who’s still in grade school. I call it the boonies, but the hubby likes to call it Azerbaijan. Today, we drove into the city, and when we came back, our gas was down half a tank. Krikeez… Max seems to be doing well with the change, although he does wonder sometimes why we can’t go home. Poor kid.

Well, the inspection on “our house” was yesterday. Things don’t look good. I mean, the house was built in ‘64, so what did we expect? If you’re a Facebook buddy, you should have seen stove I posted up from the house. Commercial gas range with an amazing exhaust hood. That kitchen is pretty much my dream kitchen. Top of the line appliances, huge island with a marble counter top, tons of natural light, white cabinets, and storage space galore. That kitchen will make me a better cook, I think. I also think I only want the house because of the kitchen.

Maybe this week, I will try to post up pictures of some of the homes we’ve seen. Not too many good ones, but I’ll try to find something interesting. I know I haven’t been on here much, but selling a house & moving is a big pain in the butt, so please bare with me. I’m also feeling homeless & nomadic, so it’s throwing me off kilter.

I can’t wait to have a home again.

+ Shanghai fell through. Apparently, Mike’s work will only let him go for 2 months, or else they have to officially transfer him to their office there (something to do with taxes). To officially transfer him, it will take another 2 to 4 months to get the paperwork in order. We didn’t want to wait that long, so we just decided not to go. It sucks, but it’s more important that we find a house before Max starts kindergarten. I was disappointed since I was really looking forward to it, but I’m over it now.

+ Since Shanghai ain’t happening anymore, we have been looking at houses. We’re not first time home buyers, so we know exactly what we want, but that makes it a little more difficult to find a home. I guess we’re pickier now. Some things we are looking for in a home: great school district, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths or more, large kitchen, formal dining room, at least 2000 sq ft in finished living space, attached garage, outdoor living space, hardwood floors, updated kitchen & bathrooms. We’re planning to stay in our next home for at least 10 years, so we have to really love it. Last week, we found a house that we really really like, and put in an offer on it. We are waiting to hear from the sellers, so wish us luck.

+ Max has two girlfriends at school, and their names are Gwen & Natasha. He asked Gwen to come over to play and she said yes! It’s so cute. I’m gonna have to call her Mommy to arrange a play date.

+ You know how I was going to help decorate the Governor’s Mansion for Christmas? Well, since we thought we were going to China, I declined the invitation. Maybe next year, I’ll get invited again. Bummer.

+ We started packing our things since we’re closing on our house next Monday. I think I may just work better under pressure because I don’t know why I always stall on this sort of thing.

+ Anyway, looking forward to eating turkey with our families. Might stop by the Hmong New Year too.

So much to do in the next few weeks. Just applied for our passports so hopefully they get here soon because we’re going to have to drive down to Chicago to apply for our Chinese Visas at the consulate there. We decided on Shanghai btw. Why Shanghai? I don’t know. We want to go somewhere different, but still have the modern necessities. We would have loved Tokyo, but I think it’ll be too expensive. We don’t really want to live in a studio.

Another thing we have to take care of is the furnace. The inspection turned up cracks in our furnace, and the buyer wants a new one. We aren’t too happy about it, but if we say no, it’s just going to come up again in another offer anyway. It’s going to cost us about $2500 to replace the furnace. Yikes! At least there’s a tax rebate for it. All in all, we pretty much sold our home for what’s left on our loan, which was our goal. I swear, never selling a home again. Too stressful & lots of work even though it did sell quickly.

We have looked at eight or nine homes so far, and haven’t found anything we really liked. I have a feeling we won’t find anything this winter. There are more ugly than nice homes in our price range. If only we were millionaires. We’re closing on our house at the end of the month, so we’ll probably stay with my parents until we leave for Shanghai. Help my mom feed her chickens. Really looking forward to that.

Apparently in Shanghai, we can get a decent condo that comes furnished close to what we’re paying for our mortgage. The one pictured below is actually less than what we’re paying right now. So all we’ll need are dishes & a rice cooker. We’ll probably stay in a hotel until we find the right place though. Our main concerns are proximity to the subway, safety & kid-friendliness.

I have been putting several things up on Craigslist for free. Like 60 plastic hangers. A new booster seat. A baby carrier. Curtains. People really like free stuff. I did sell our dining set. Made $125 off of it. Yesss. I have more stuff to sell like a vacuum cleaner, a high chair, a car seat… Lots of stuff I can get rid of. I think I may end up giving it all away to Goodwill because I don’t have time or want to deal with the emails & people not emailing back.

We also might sell our car because we don’t have anywhere to store it. Buy another one when we come back. I guess there’s more than just letting a car sit in a garage. You have to prepare it for storage like take the battery out, make sure the air isn’t too humid, etc. We don’t know anyone who’ll have time or space to take care of it.

I haven’t cooked a real meal in weeks, so it was nice to eat a home-cooked meal two days in a row. Yesterday, we had pho for my sister May’s birthday at her inlaws. Then my mother-inlaw cooked a dinner for my birthday tonight. So yummy. Thanks again Vicky! We are mostly eating sandwiches & ramen noodles for lunch, and then going out to eat for dinner. I swear, it’s really hard to eat for under $15 without resorting to fast food.

[click on image to enlarge]

It was my Golden 30th on Friday, so we hosted my siblings, best friend & their spouses at my favorite restaurant La Belle Vie. We were all served the 5 course tasting menu which took about 2 hours. I thought the food was just delicious, and was really happy with service. I had been planning this event for 2 months, so it was fun to see everyone dressed up & enjoying top-notched food & service. Thanks to everyone who made my birthday special. You know who you are. We missed you Meetas! I love you all & am so grateful to have people like you in my life. Also a big thanks to my wonderful & dear honey.

After dinner, we headed over to Karma for John’s Halloween party. I did plan to dress up, but I decided not to at the last minute. I just didn’t have time to get a costume together. It was fun to see everyone’s costumes though. Thank goodness we decided to get a VIP table at the club because it was packed. I also had a little too much to drink so I was more than tipsy. Luckily, didn’t get kicked out of the club, nor did I throw up the whole night. It was just the perfect amount of drinks. Will have to remember for next time. Thanks Nancy, Hong & Angela for coming up here to party with me. We miss you guys already.

I don’t feel very different now that I’m 30. Just happy to be here.  I love my life. It’s not perfect, but I get to spend it everyday with my two boys who I love to pieces. I couldn’t ask for more.

Gosh, it’s been awhile since the last time I posted something on here, but it’s been a crazy two weeks. We have been cleaning & fixing the house from top to bottom & decluttering/packing all our junk.  Thanks to Meetas, May, Teng & Adam for helping us.  Couldn’t have done it without them. I can’t believe we got our house ready & on the market in a week & a half. Best thing about it so far: our house has never been so clean. I love it. The house was listed on Wednesday, and we got an offer last night, so not bad eh? The offer was so-so, so we countered & it was accepted. Now we just have to do the inspection & fix some minor things. Closing will be at the end of November, so keeping my fingers crossed that everything works out.

Since receiving the offer on the house, the chance of living in a different country has suddenly become real & possible.  We decided on these countries/cities: Korea, Sydney, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong or Tokyo. If none of those work out, we’ll try Vancouver. If that doesn’t work out, we’ll stay in the U.S.: Hawaii, NYC, Seattle or San Francisco.

Anyway, while working on the house, I got a chance to babysit my cute little nephew. (I bet you’re so jealous Meetas!) It gave me a peek at what it’s like to have two kids. It seems like a lot of work & life with one is pretty easy right now. Why ruin it? Maybe in a couple of years I might change my mind.
Max can’t seem to make up his mind about his Halloween costume, so it’s gonna be last minute this year. I may have to just decide for him. Planning to dress up myself since we are planning to hit up John’s Halloween party at Karma on Friday. Should be lots of fun. Looking forward to relaxing & celebrating my big three-oh with my loved ones.

Weekend:
Saturday - Had our first showing (this lady is the one who ended up offering), so cleaned the house real quick again & was gone by 1pm. Stopped by Nou’s house for her little girl’s blessing ceremony. Stuffed my face with too much good food. Spent the rest of the night at 2men’s house watching UFC (which the main fight was the lamest ever).

Sunday - Had an Open House at 12pm, so woke up & started cleaning again & straightening up. We were hungry so we went to Barbette for brunch. First time there. The food was alright, but service was super slow. I don’t like that at all. Don’t think we’ll be heading back any time soon. Later, one of our agents stopped by with paperwork to sign for the offer on the house.

[Photography by Trev Fenner]

Here are some pictures from Helly & Yimeem’s wedding that we went to last month. Helly’s bouquet consisted of cream roses, green hypericum berries & orange Vanda orchids. I’m really happy with the way the bouquets turned out, and even happier that Helly loved them. The centerpieces were Vanda orchids submerged in water. Very pretty.

Guess what? I was selected to help decorate the Governor’s Mansion for the holidays. I’m pretty excited for this opportunity, as it will give me a chance to learn directly from the professionals & see them in action. In addition, this will also be great for my portfolio.

We have interviewed five realtors, so it’s time to make a decision on who we want to help us sell our home. If we sell our house, we were thinking it would be fun to visit another country for a couple of months before buying our next home. Max starts kindergarten next year, so it’s the best time to do it. If moving to another country isn’t feasible, we’re thinking about going back to Portland & spend the winter there instead. I know, you’re probably thinking, “Why not somewhere warm like California or Florida?” Well, we just love Portland so much, we don’t mind the rain.

Well, what we’ve been up to, besides trying to get our house ready?

+ Celebrated my little sister Kaileeh’s 10th birthday at Grand Slam in Coon Rapids on Saturday. She’s growing up so fast.

+ Celebrated my father-in-law’s birthday tonight. Happy 60th Neil! Adam cooked a yummy dinner as usual.

+ I’ve been trying to find a dress for my 30th birthday dinner at the end of this month. Really looking forward to that. It’s going to be so much fun.

+ Going to a spa with my sister Meetas for her birthday next week.

+ Pajjar & her hubby Johan came over for dinner the other night. It was so fun to have them over. I knew Pajjar a long time ago (from junior high school), and we lost touch the past 10 years, so it was lovely to reunite with an old friend.