House

Fake Wood Never Looked So Good

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I stole D’s facebook line for the title of this post. We had a busy weekend. I went to a Sally Clarkson motherhood conference. It was a great time for renewal and encouragement. While I was gone, we had new flooring put in our downstairs living areas. I was nervous about the color we chose, but I like how it turned out. First, I will show some “before” pictures. The carpet is old, but it was in fairly good shape when we bought our place in 2009. I remember not wanting to replace the carpet when we first moved because n was still crawling on the floor.

Fast forward 2.5 years of hard living with two little ones…Despite the Rug Doctor and various other cleaning attempts, there were certain sections that we just could not do anything about.

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Here are a couple of “after” photos.

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Actually, I think it looks better in person, because you can see more of the subtle detail that the camera does not capture. I would highly recommend the company that did the work, so if anyone needs a recommendation in Orange County, let me know.

Putting in the new flooring makes me want to paint our walls even more! I guess that will be our next project.

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Weekend Update

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Today is National Baked Alaska Day, but I’m not that ambitious. Instead, I will recap our weekend.

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We went to an art-themed birthday party for this cute little 4 year old girl.

The kids had fun working on the mural.
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n enjoyed the chocolate cupcakes, especially the chocolate chips

On Sunday, D helped organize an udon luncheon for 300+ people at our church.
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(pre-broth)

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Our pastor’s niece is in the women’s choir at Azusa Pacific University, Bel Canto.
They gave a concert after the luncheon, which the kids and I enjoyed. It was a good weekend.

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National Food Holidays

Happy National Popcorn Day

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Apparently, there is some dispute as to whether national popcorn day is today (January 31) or January 19. We’re just going with today to keep up the momentum.

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I made kettle corn on the stove using the recipe here. k was squealing with delight when the corn started popping.
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n missed out on the pop corn popping, but he ate some when he woke up from his nap.
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National Food Holidays

Happy National Croissant Day

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I have decided to have our family celebrate national food holidays. I think it will help inspire me to try new things with the kids and break up the monotony. We’ll see how long I can stick with it.

Today, January 30th happens to be National Croissant Day, which is a nice way to start.
croissant sandwich
Ralphs has 18 ct. packages of mini croissants for $5.99. Just thought that might be helpful for someone to know. They would be perfect for a tea party.

Unrelated to National Croissant Day: Someone thought it would be a good idea to drink his yogurt (k gave him the idea).

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Celebrations, Restaurant Reviews

Gohan Bistro

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My sister is now a quarter century old. To celebrate we went to a new restaurant called Gohan Bistro (parents had a Groupon). The interior is much nicer than its strip mall location. The regular waitress was not there, so service was a little bumpy in the beginning. I think it is described as “home-style” Japanese cooking, so no funky fusion rolls here. I ordered the tuna donburi, which is out of the ordinary for me. I just felt like trying something different.
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They give you a LOT of tuna. Both D and I could not even finish it. It had a nice kick to it, added by the dollop of wasabi “salsa”.

My mom had the tempura don. I thought it was good overall (I had some of D’s tempura), but there were some unidentifiable pieces that were kind of strange.
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D had the salmon combo. The piece of salmon was kind of on the small side, but with everything else (and the miso soup), it was a good amount for lunch.
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The kids split a chicken teriyaki meal, and it was not enough for them. I thought it was interesting that it comes with macaroni salad. n is very unpredictable in his eating habits, so I never know if he is going to barely eat a few morsels or fight k for the last piece.

Just realized that I neglected to take pictures of my family. I need to work harder on that. 🙂

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2011 Football

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Out of the three teams I follow, two had better seasons than in 2010.

Cal Golden Bears were 7-6 in 2011, two games better than in 2010 (5-7).
San Francisco 49ers made it to the NFC Championship game and were 13-3 in the regular season, 7 games better than in 2010 (6-10).

Only the Indiana Hoosiers had a worse season. They were four games worse in 2011 than 2010. 1-11 in 2011, vs 5-7 in 2010.

So not bad overall. The 49ers are back!!. However, the Hoosiers are as bad as ever. But one good thing is that they have no where to go but up!

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Smoke Detectors and Tasti D Lite

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We had a low key MLK weekend. I was complaining to D that we didn’t do anything “blog-worthy”. D jokingly told me to post about him replacing four smoke detectors (yes 4!). So, here you go:
smoke detector
Too bad I don’t have a picture of him actually installing it. This one in particular, in our bedroom, was difficult because the ceiling goes up higher than a normal ceiling. I heard some sounds of frustration, but it ended with success.

We tried out a new place called Tasti D Lite. Their claim is that it is not ice cream, and it is not yogurt. That leaves me to wonder what exactly it is.
Tasty D Lite
This picture reminds me that we need to cut n’s hair. 🙂

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We shared chocolate macaroon and mango yogurt (I guess they do serve yogurt also). The employee helping us was very enthusiastic/friendly, and directed us to a big sign and told us to look at all of their low calorie options. D was more interested in the sign so he could pick out one of the most high-calorie options (the yogurt)!

Have you noticed the trend of menus listing the calories next to all of the entrees? It is supposed to make everyone more health-conscious, right? Well, it has the opposite effect for D. Last week, D scanned the calorie counts on a restaurant menu just so he could pick out one of the more calorie-rich entrees. Oh, to be a runner!

The rest of the weekend was filled with going to the park, researching flooring options and watching television (football for D and Golden Globes for me).

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Family Field Trips

Chino Hills State Park

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This morning we went to Chino Hills State Park. I caused a bit of a mix-up because I didn’t realize that the address listed as the entrance is not really family-accessible. D was able to ask some friendly walkers for directions, so we found our way to the entrance off of Carbon Canyon. There is a new Discovery Center which is a nice building, but not open to the public. (There are nice restroom facilities available, however). We had a sneak peak of the facility via a friendly park ranger who helped us plan our hike.

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Someone still likes to be carried.

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Some more pictures of locks for you, Erin. I’m not sure why, but rows of locks fascinate me. I think I’m going to start a flickr set!
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I wonder if Taylor said “yes”?

We were headed back to the car when an exuberant dog ran up to k and n and pounced on them. They are not used to dogs, and it was quite frightening for them. They were in tears, and n was knocked over! Actually, it was scary for me too, since I wasn’t sure what the dog was going to do to them. The owner was quite apologetic, but I really wish she had kept him on a leash. Hopefully the kids are not scarred for life! Also, there were a lot of bicyclists on the trail, so we had to be on the lookout. I think we may have been better off at the adjacent Carbon Canyon Regional Park, which we passed by on our way to lunch.

Speaking of lunch, we ended up at a mini chain called Senor Baja. They are known for their fish tacos, and we could see why. At $1.89 each, they are reasonable, but on Wednesdays they are $1, which would be a real bargain! D said if there was one by his work, he would eat there every week. So, maybe it’s a good thing there is not one too close by. We also tried the carne asada taco, but the fish taco stole the show.
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