+ Yay, my rug is here! Here’s my foyer. I know there’s a lot of brown, but I’m planning to paint the walls whenever I decide on a color. For now I’m leaning on a muted bluish gray. Trying to also find a stylin’ chandelier or cool light fixture for the entryway too.

+ Max will be starting his new school (fifth one) next week. We went to visit last week, and it seems like a nice place. He’ll be taking the bus again, so he’s really happy about that. A little sad to leave his current class since the teachers & staff are really sweet, but we need to go somewhere a little closer to home. Planning to bring treats for his classmates & small gifts for his teachers on his last day.

+ Max developed croup over the weekend. We had to go to the ER at three in the morning on Saturday. His breathing was wheezy & he sounded like a barking seal when he coughed, so the nurse had us go in. They gave him a nebulizer & some sort of steroid medication to control the virus. Doing a lot better now.

+ We watched Daybreakers & Lovely Bones over the weekend. Both movies were so-so in my book. Several weeks ago, we also saw Avatar & took Max and his cousins to see Alvin & the Chipmunks. Ok, I will say this about Avatar, the graphics were impressive, but I thought the story was unoriginal & reminded me too much of Last Samurai, Dances with Wolves, etc. What’s up with the white man saving the heathens from devastation?

+ Still no cable, and I’m afraid I’m gonna have to cave in. I can only take watching news & soaps for so long. I already missed Real Housewives and now Project Runway. Looking forward to the last season of Lost, even though I have a feeling the ending is going to be a disappointment & we are most likely not going to get all our questions answered.

Is this doormat clever or what? I might get it. I <3 well designed things.

For my foyer. Hope it gets here soon to catch all the slush & snow.

Just got three of these pendant lights to go above my kitchen island.

Ok, I can’t get this right now, but how awesome would it be in the powder room with a modern, geometric wallpaper? Somebody borrow me $800 please.

Many of you have requested to see pictures of our new home, so I will slowly put up pictures here & there, but honestly, there isn’t really much to see. It looks pretty basic, so I think you guys will just be bored. I am redoing my kitchen (a little), so I will definitely do before & after pics for that project. Above is a view of our backyard from the master bedroom. Typical backyard for new construction homes. Hopefully we’ll be able to have some privacy trees put in this spring.

Here is Max in his bedroom, posing with some Xmas presents. His last room only had a small closet, so what will we do with the extra closet? Probably throw junk in there. I’m planning to have a cushion made for his window seat. The house next door is only half way done, so I’m sure Max will enjoy seeing it built from his window.


We had dinner at India Palace in Plymouth tonight. We ordered veggie samosas (not pictured), shrimp vindaloo, chicken masala, and garlic naan. All really good. And service was great too.

So what else have we been up to? Nothing much. Trying to settle in & get used to this new house. Sleeping on an air mattress. No home cooked meals yet. No cable tv. Boxes & stuff everywhere. Slowly, but surely, it will all be back to normal. Still driving Max to school in Minneapolis, but that will probably end in a couple of weeks.

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.