.:Buddha:Belle:.

Thankful...yes I am

2008-11-25T19:36:00.002-06:00

I especially welcome Thanksgiving this year because a break is needed. I'm currently living in the snowbelt...I wish someone told me that it starts snowing in October here, this lake effect snow is a real drag. I remember last year I was hoping for a white Christmas, but this year I have a white-out Thanksgiving.

I like the food and sleeping part of this special thursday....but who really isn't thinking about the Black Friday that follows after...right? Ladies? :) This year, I want to say I most thankful for change, I'm thankful for good friends, and...................

You ask me what I'm thankful for....
I hope I don't sound jerky,
But I'm really, truly thankful that I wasn't born a turkey!

THANKFUL
by
Gregory K.

I lost my spoon

2008-10-07T02:23:00.002-05:00

Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfieffer played in a '99 movie called "Story of Us". It's one of my favorite movies - have you seen it? The story unravels a 15 year marriage and its problems, and how they resolve it...it features all the cliche problems all relationships go through. The fundamental difference between men and women leading to the classic clashes.

Well, there's a part in there I'd like to write about. The two characters apparently shared some wonton soup in the park on their first date. And Bruce had saved the plastic spoon they ate out of as a memoir of that first date, because it was just that special. Well, he was so afraid that he had lost it, and Michelle remembers how she gave him a plastic spoon for their first anniversary present, and how his face had lit up at the sight of it.

She then asks, at what point does it happen in a relationship, when a spoon becomes just a spoon?

I truly believe the essence of youth is the idealism it upholds. We are so full of dreams, envisioning the perfection in all...wanting to be what we ought to be, and striving for a life we ought to have. This is true in the careers we choose, friendships, loves, marriage, our lifestyle.

But the basic trait that all races, genders, and ages share is imperfection. That's where reality comes in...and it's absolutely nothing we imagined, merely a trace that won't satisfy our understanding. Romantic people such as I fall in this hole. We are so stuck thinking of the great love and life that were to fill the short time we were given on this earth. And trumped when reality hits us in the face. I say idealism + realism = disappointments.

How do you deal with others' and your own shortcomings? The hardest lesson to learn in this life is that you shouldn't even try to understand. Or try to explain yourself. What is is what is... My father told me that... There's no use in wanting something from someone else which they can't give...or won't. There's no point in giving all your effort towards something that just has so many barriers..like my whole MD thing. Yes, maybe what stopped me was the money...but I then think - I didn't have the grades, I didn't study as hard as my classmates, I just wasn't good enough.

Seriously, how many times have you told someone or heard it said to you - "You just don't understand." No, unfortunately, they don't and probably never will. Ok, so you got this part, somehow you inject that into your stubborn brain...but the heart has troubles letting go. There's always that {if only} Passion becomes temper - then poison, words that were out of spite become spikes, and the spoon becomes just a spoon which should be thrown out with all the other free chinese takeout crap that came with it. How to deal with becoming spiritless...with losing your "sparkle"?

a blurb about Blurb

2008-10-02T20:25:00.004-05:00

Two posts ago I talked about blogging, how long we would all be maybe doing it for, and what it takes to keep it up. I think everyone was united on the fact that when blogging is no longer fun, that'll probably be the end of it. I've had the info on this post for a while, but what a perfect opportunity to share now that this subject is at hand.

So, what happens if you do decide to shut down your blog? You'll go into the backend, and hit CANCEL this blog. Poof, and all the months (or years) of spending difficult-to-find free time writing all those cool personal stories, the great discussion going on with your readers, the memories - can you imagine all that just being sucked away into a black hole of internet oblivion?

Of course not...we have to get it down on hard copy, on some old-school, non-digital PAPER. How about a blog-book? Not some cheesy, cheap looking, printed at Kinko's kind, but a real hard-cover, dust-jacket, kinda book that looks like it belongs on a Barnes & Noble shelf? No, I'm not being paid to say this :)

Just take a look at that, that's a beauty! These are images of REAL books made by people. My girlfriend told me about this site {www.Blurb.com} because she was making a wedding photo book for her newlywed friends. She actually saw the real thing from someone else who used this site to make a book - and the quality was high-class! On the site, you can actually view books made by others with their flip-through feature. I was thinking about making a baby book for LC like this one below using this site...but haven't gotten to it YET.

But they have this blogbook feature which has some very cool layouts and styles. Please, if you have some time - check out this demo video! It's very impressive and so automated, it's hard to mess up. It works with Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress, and others but I forgot all of them. When that day comes, I'm definitely going to use this site to capture my blog onto a book so I can look back. Oh yes, almost forgot, it also imports in all your comments so you'll have the comments in your book!

But besides blogbooks, you can make photography books, cookbooks, I saw one children's book, I mean there's no limit. And of course, lastly, the pricing is very reasonable, I think, for the quality that you're getting. So check it out and let me know what you think ok?

I should really be paying attention

2008-09-30T08:26:00.003-05:00

There's always that one class on your schedule where your ears kinda turn down, you're spending more time socializing in the back corner giggling, and just not paying attention. It's bad but what can you do...maybe you don't like the teacher, or maybe it's that the class seems lower on the importance scale because we're not tested on any of the material...the material just sucks anyway. Good time for posting, I say.

So I wanna talk about something I haven't yet. How is nursing school? What's it like... It's different in that I see the same people every single day. Before in my undergrad, I saw different people in every single class except towards the end when it came time to graduate...I really didn't make a lot of friends. There wasn't any chance given to develop those relationships.

Here, there are 22 of us in the program, we're all on the exact same schedule, and we're all standing in line behind and in front of each other so we can stick our finger in the prosthetic butt[hole] to feel for prostates. Right... But there is n0 choice other than to be close to each other because we're grouping up together in labs practicing various things on each other before we actually go and do them on REAL people. I'll be actually injecting someone with a flu shot soon...bless that poor soul, in advance.

I remember telling my hubs before I started school that I'd probably be the only one with a child. Surprise...I don't know why I was thinking this. All of these people are from all walks of life, they're all very intelligent, many have children, some the same age as my daughter...I think I click more with this group than anyone else I ever did throughout my years in college. More so because we've been narrowed down due to our interests and similar abilities. This ability gives us a healthy competitive streak and definitely emotional support during these hectic 3 semesters.

Who's beating us?

2008-09-27T22:02:00.006-05:00

The first thing people...um, women...must do when they move to a new town is check out all the shopping available. By the end of our first month here in town...I'm glad to announce we've checked them ALL out...several times, even. Hey, there ARE three girls living here, might I add. We went to a gynormous outlet mall today - Prime Outlets at Grove City - which we reached after quite a long drive. But it was worth it, we had a nice time out of the house.

But this post is not about that is it. I had another thing tickling my funny bone today. The three of us look like we're being abused somehow - and it's so hilarious. You know how sometimes you just happen to notice a bruise somewhere, maybe you bumped yourself on something and didn't notice, then you find it and think, how did that happen? It's happening to me all the time and then I turn to whoever sitting next to me (the hubs) and say - Dude! Are you beating me when I'm sleeping?

The other night we were eating a particularly crunchy dinner and mom bit on something hard - she got a toothache for couple days and one of her teeth was seriously wiggling! Then some crazy bruise showed up on her hand with no recollection of bumps to that area that turned blue, green, and the rest of the rainbow colors.

Then, LC went and drove her head right into my front teeth while playing, resulting in a lot of crying and ouching. Poor thing, but what about me, right? I have bugs bunny front teeth and imagine the nightmare because MY TOOTH WAS ALSO WIGGLING! Well, slightly...for a short while, but still. Then LC got a red bump on her forehead.

From an outsider's perspective - several missing teeth, bruises, and a toddler with a shishkabob on her forehead. Quite pretty. Don't call social services though :0)

Image credit 1 2

Blog of the Future

2008-09-24T16:57:00.003-05:00

Last night I was laying in my bed thinking of the testing I had today, and just thinking about all the different things I have to do or want to do. It seems sometimes that's the only quiet time for us to actually get our thoughts together, doesn't it?

As usual, one of my regular thoughts is what should I blog about. There are, I guess, many possibilities but none are elaborated enough in my mind to sit down and put it into words. Like with many things in my life it seems, I spend more time thinking about it than doing!

Anyway this often leads me down the path of....what if I just shut down the blog? Sometimes it's a pull between pleasure vs. pressure. And deep in my mind, I know that it IS there for my pleasure and hopefully for others...but I just can't help feel that pressure of having to post all the time about SOMETHING so that it's just not sitting there empty. It makes me feel like I'll lose my friends because I don't keep in touch with them. And that's happened loads of time - absence drifts people apart.

You know how you have a closet full of clothes and later at the end of the season, or a couple, you swear to yourself that the clothes you don't wear at least once are going to Goodwill or to the trash? Then every time you open that drawer and see it, you WANT to give it a wear but it doesn't go with anything or the event doesn't come up, and you feel a pang of guilt because you felt so good buying it and sucky that you wore it only once. LOL- it's kinda like that!

But really - how long will YOU keep blogging? Do you imagine yourself still keeping up your blog in ten, twenty years - AND YOU'RE BLOGGING ABOUT YOUR GRANDCHILDREN??? If you blog for business, it's completely irrelevant but personal blogs are different. I just can't imagine sitting in front of my computer uploading pictures of LC's college graduation pictures and then seeing all the same emails pop up - "Kel has left a comment on...", then Amy, Kellie, Angela, Hosoo. How I love to see those names and others coming back again.

So am I shutting down BuddhaBelle - not today, baby!

What's a bad haircut?

2008-09-19T18:53:00.005-05:00

As you can plainly see...I am an Asian person. Asian people have certain hair. Yes, some maybe have thinner hair BUT most I know, including myself, have pretty thick hair. We have thick, straight hair...unfortunately it'll never lay like Jennifer Aniston's.

Now if I go to a salon and ask for my hair to be thinned out so that my neck doesn't break - I don't expect to leave the salon with half of my head looking all butch! Right? Bitch...have you ever heard of thinning shears? Heck, I didn't go to cosmetology school and I sure as hell don't know what they teach you there - YOU DO!

But as my luck has it, YES, I ended up with THAT hairdresser who cuts bangs right in the middle of your forehead below the hairline, and cuts the lowest layers for shoulder-length hair BY YOUR EARS! But the real kicker in the story is that her method of thinning means lifting up a part of the long hair, and then just cutting a part off by the damn skull. Look! Observe those pathetic strands and snort...Can you imagine how ridiculous it's going to look when those little hairs grow and poke through the long ones!? I went home...thought about it for a couple of days and then went back to complain. Long story short, someone else kindly attempted to fix the fiasco... I went in and said just cut it off, maybe like Katie Holmes please! So I ended up with this. I guess it's better than the previous illustration right?

But I am glad that you can't see the back...oy

Backtrack to B'Day

2008-09-16T14:23:00.008-05:00

So before we had moved from IL, we had LC's first birthday party and I had promised to update about that. It was just so cute to see my daughter all dressed up and wondering why everyone was making such a fuss! Of course being that actual guests were invited to our house...I had to C.L.E.A.N. and you know how I feel about that. But all in all, we pulled it together, cooked up a storm, and had fun ~~drinking~~ eating it all up.

It seems that first birthday parties are usually for the adults in the baby's life, well...because she's not social enough to make her own friends (j/k!). But there was a certain guest that came the day before the party to bestow a certain something on my baby --->

The ladybug cake turned out pretty cool and with the extra batter, I even made little ladybug baby cupcakes to surround the mommy. You guys were so right about that damn red food coloring. My fingers were red for days! But the recipe for the cake was so perfect for LC and everyone else, it was buttery and not too sweet. We lit a single sparkler for the birthday singing and hopefully she made a little baby wish.

The day after the party (Monday) was her actual birthday, so we just went out to a restaurant for dinner where our waitress kindly brought out a cute little cupcake with a candle and everybody sang happy birthday to her. Koala brains commented last time on the birthday post about giving one-year-olds a "smash" cake so they can mush it up to their little heart's desire. I didn't know about this before but since I saw her comment, we figured we would let that cupcake be the "smash" cake......and boy, did she smash it good! Thanks, KB!

Then for Labor Day weekend, LC took her first trip to the beach...you see how she's sitting on the sand / um, bunch of little rocks there? Wouldn't you know it - she grabbed a handful while I was trying to take the picture and just put it in her mouth!!! What am I going to do with her...

So anyway, obviously she's been a busy bee: getting her first kiss, first birthday party, first cake, and first tan. We're looking forward for her first Halloween now and attending a ZooBoo! at the local zoo here with her new friends (children of my classmates). Tell me! Are you planning anything special for Halloween?

Missing Blogger Found

2008-09-13T16:32:00.003-05:00

Hello my friends! I've missed you all...hope you haven't forgotten about me because...uh, I've been gone SO long.. I know!

Here I am in a little PA town finding myself getting up early in the morning, fighting with some youngin's for parking spots and having homework. Even though I was a college student not so long ago...being off for a year to be a stay-at-home-mom still proves to be long enough to get pretty darn comfortable sitting around the house!

I love blogging...absolutely!...but priority is a biz-natch - unfortunately. It took us over FIFTEEN hours to drive here, with a lot of crying and whining. And wouldn't ya know it - when we arrived, the apartment we secured SINCE MAY wasn't ready because of various issues with maintenance. In short, our bathroom commode was on the living room floor. And I thought I was the worst procrastinator ever? HA!

Setting up a life somewhere new is a lot of work - I'd like to thank God, the Academy, and IKEA for making the transition easier and affordable. Watching my husband drive away back home was harder than I thought it would be. My throat definitely tightened up, but what could I do. LC had a hard couple of days adjusting to a new home and to her mommy leaving her - the separation anxiety got the best of us for awhile, but it's gotten much better now.

The program I'm in is accelerated, so everything is crammed in. The material is not that hard, but the amount is overwhelming. I was getting a little lazy at first having to handle school, home, new surroundings...but I'm trying to balance everything so I can get my personal interests up in there, i.e. writing my blog and reading up on yours too.

A Quickie Post

2008-08-20T00:51:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone! Thanks to everyone who wished LC Happy Birthday last time ~ The cake turned out great and the party was intimate & fun. She was such a princess! I'm going to write a proper post next time. Since the party sunday, last two days have been full of last minute preps for the move - TOMORROW MORNING.

520 miles is going to be so tough, I'm very nervous...LC can't even sit still in the car for an hour let alone a dozen. Wish us luck! When we get there, it'll probably take a couple of days to hook up with internet and settle in, so I'll be missing you guys. I can't believe I'm going back to school after all this time.

Nosy Birthdays and stuff

2008-08-16T00:56:00.007-05:00

I'm soo excited about this weekend. Yesterday early morning, my mommy arrived from Mongolia to help out with LC while I'm in school - man, it's so nice to have her around. I haven't seen her in 6 months and everything (the whole moving thing) seems like it'll be less intimidating because I have her around.

Ok, on to this weekend. Tomorrow, we're on Mission Preparation for Ms. Elsie's 1st Birthday EVER. Yea maybe she won't remember it and be excited just for a moment - but the point is, she is the sunshine in our lives and we want to give her a proper celebration. When she'll grow up, I want her to look at pictures and videos to see that her parents tried their best to make everything special.

I'm planning to bake a ladybug cake (for good luck!) sitting in fresh-cut flowers and maybe a sparkler for a candle - but it might be a simple candle too. I'm going to bake the cake tomorrow, so it'll be easy to frost for Sunday. Here's a snippet of what I'm hoping [cross fingers] I'll end up with!
We'll have balloons, ribbons...ok, you get the idea - I don't know, I'm just so excited!

There's only one problem....a HUGE problem.

My nose! It's enormous and RED. I've been telling you guys that we all have been sick for the past week and I'm going through a box of kleenex every day. A nasty thing that happens is you blow your nose SO much, that it turns rudolph-red and I developed some cold sores on my right nostril. I've been religiously applying Abreva on it and it's now bumpy but "browning" over. I forgot the word so browning must do.

A birthday party is for your friends and loved ones to get together and give their attention fully to the birthday kid. Not my freaking nose....I'm so depressed about this because it's just SO unfair that this has to happen now. I'll have a wad of concealer on my nose and when you see the birthday pics, you'll see some serious discoloration, mounds, ugly things happening in the center of my face. Ok I'm paranoid, but still...I want people leaving saying "That's a great party!" and "LC's mommy made such a cool cake", AND NOT "Did you see the volcano on her nose?"

Talk to ya guys after the party - woohoo!!!

Mongolia the "Underdog"

2008-08-14T13:27:00.002-05:00

The smaller countries participating in the Beijing Olympics are all "underdog" nations compared to the big teams from the U.S. or China, etc. We, all the citizens living in Mongolia and in other nations, all root for our brothers and sisters with one heart to bring medals and honor to our country.

Tuvshinbayar Naidan won Mongolia its first Gold medal EVER, in men's 100kg judo. Also the other day, Otryad Gundegmaa won a Silver medal in women's 25m pistol event.

News spreading like wildfire, my friends mass-mailing/texting/IM-ing each other to share in the joy. I read that Mongolians came out in the streets of Ulaanbaatar (our capital) to celebrate for this first Gold medal in our history of participating in the Olympics.

Good going! We're all so proud of you!

I'm the old me again!

2008-08-13T01:13:00.007-05:00

So whatever happened to the Slim in 6 challenge I bestowed upon myself back in June eh? I was promising high and low about the pictures, updates, etc. Well here you go, yes my BEFORE (at 140ish), I'm a bit embarrassed and the image HAS been resized but you get the "picture" right? Ta-da!

Today, I'm proudly weighing in at 133 lbs. and in the beginning of the challenge I think (I truly forgot), I think I was 140 or 142 or something. But this was not the whole deal...actually my whole plan to lose my baby weight started at a grand 156 pounds.

Did the Slim in 6 work? Yes, it truly does work - but with a lot of commitment needed in time and dedication. It is undoubtedly hard to push yourself like that, and working out close to an hour every day, six days a week WILL take a toll on you. Did I finish the whole 6 weeks? Honestly, no. Towards the end, I was finding it harder and harder to fit in an hour during the day. My body was sore and tired all the time, I was constantly hungry, breastfeeding my child and trying not to starve myself.

To counter that hunger, I ate - I knew I wouldn't shed the pounds easily this way, but I listened to my body. When I saw only 2 pounds come off the scale number after tons of hard work, I was a little disappointed. But when I saw the muscle in the mirror, the tone in my arms, ass, and abs - it was worth it. Plus, all the workouts helped me with endurance during my last 5K.

Then, I started counting calories - briefly. But brief enough to learn exactly what my meal portions should look like, and listening to my body's hunger times. While doing this, I lost about 3 pounds and came down to my pre-baby weight of 135 pounds. I felt great!

After this, I wasn't counting calories OR working out...but the months and months of training my body for movement and training my mind on eating, I finally felt in control. Life had become more busy, my child more active and sleeping less. With less and less time for myself during the days, I just had to let go of that strictness. Even though I'm not working out right now, I find that I'm constantly moving anyway - playing with LC or cleaning, going up and down our stairs, etc.

But like I said before, no matter how much you move, it's what you put in your mouth that makes 90% of the difference. I only ate when I was hungry. Every person is different, and diets and others will tell you that you should time your meals so to not put your metabolism on a roller coaster. I tried that too. I tried to eat 5 small meals every 3-4 hours. It didn't work.

I learned that MY body is not that hungry in the morning and afternoon, and as I move towards the end of the day, I really need to be nourished more. If I force myself to eat per schedule in the morning...then I end up eating more in the evening ANYWAY, because that's just how my body programmed itself over the years. Then I feel guilty, and the whole mess starts all over again. When I tried to be in control all the time, it backfired on me. When I didn't care about weight or eating, then I found that I ate less anyway. Weird, huh?

After I totally stopped any kind of control on dieting, I went and lost 2 pounds, without doing anything special. The point is, don't think and stress about it too much! Still my final goal is 125...but with this new knowledge, I'm not giving it any certain time or deadline. I know that I will reach it, because I've already lost a total of 23 pounds in the last 5 months and proved to myself that I have the will and determination to get there. So up there, I put a picture of me, my new baby, and my milk stains when I was WAY BEFORE. And then that's me standing next to my fabulous car (I wish...) as an AFTER.

Thank you guys so much for your support and encouragement over the months, you all spur me on!

I sound like Moulin Rouge

2008-08-11T03:04:00.004-05:00

When I first grandly announced about the letters to my daughter thing and was like it's WEEKLY...well you, by now, know how I am...and thus, this has become one of those sporadic things. Because well...you can't pass on great life lessons weekly, besides, I'm only in my twenties myself - I still don't know the half of it. If I wrote life lessons to my daughter every week, I'd be some kind of guru by now and making serious buckaroos.

There are a few indulgences in life...like chocolate and supertastic metabolism of youth. Your mommy is no wise woman, and at this point - well, we're basically raising each other. But what I do know is that the greatest gift in human life are two things: love and freedom.

Be like you are, my dear child. I don't know what kind of person you will become in the future, and I do know I will have something to do with that. I will try my best to teach you that you will only be happy when you have the freedom to be who you really are, and be loved for it. There is no greater feeling than be accepted for the unique spirit that you are without additional demands or wants.

People don't change...they may (and my baby, you will have to) compromise on situations, but the foundation doesn't change. You are turning 1 soon....and I know that who you are at 1 is who you are at 100. Don't curtail your freedom and act under pretenses to earn love. It may seem simple all written down and maybe a little cliche, because you'll hear it from other places...but it takes a long time to actually learn this in real life.

10 days left

2008-08-09T15:49:00.002-05:00

I don't think I've ever gone this long without posting. Honestly, I really haven't been able to. LC and I both have sinus infections, we're moving in 10 days - and busy packing. I've been going through some difficult times in my personal life and have some decisions that need to be made.

It's funny though...you always imagine that the great epiphany in your life will come to you at a moment of peace, when everything is tranquil and laid out to you. But no, it comes to you within all the chaos surrounding you. When you have a feverish, teething, crying child in one arm...beyond tired yourself, sweating and without a break to wash the sweat and dirt away, or sleep.

This is the time you take it all in perspective and realize just what isn't working in your life. You think, I don't have to take this and realize somehow in all of this that you lost yourself and what you stood for.

One of my favorite movies is Riding in Cars with Boys starring Drew Barrymore. If you didn't see it, I really hope you do. There's a scene where she's reading to her son from her manuscript. She says, "One day can make your life. One day can break your life. All life is, is a couple of days that change everything." (Ok, this is from my memory, so I don't know if the exact wording is right...but you get the gist) How true are these phrases? I guess I'm just having one of those bad days...

Heartbreak Cliffhanger

2008-08-01T13:37:00.004-05:00

You guys were all calling out "Cliffhanger!" on the news from the last post, so I just had to name this post as such.

My husband and I were together for 21 months before we "officially" started living together...mind you, by this time we already had a 3 month old daughter. We spent our summer vacations and holidays together, but the rest of the time we were playing the long distance thing. I went to school here in IL and he went to school in PA. We were separated by 520 miles of space...an enormous space full of missing, yearning, and counting the days until we were united.

I thought that after all this waiting, we would be together and inseparable for the rest of our lives.

Until now...

It's funny how life is and kinda ironic what things you must do to PROGRESS your life. LC and I must leave our daddy and face those 520 miles yet again. This time, we're basically switching places, because now he stays in IL while I head off to school in PA. Why? Because the nursing program there is better, shorter, the school is affordable for us, and IL doesn't have programs like that. The problem with nursing school is that there is such a huge demand for nurses, every school I looked into has an endless waiting list. And this is just for RN (a 2 year program).

The program I'm entering is especially for people who already have a Bachelor's degree - a second baccalaureate degree. This means, I will be getting a BSN (normally 4 years) in only 3 semesters. Three intense semesters. The pay-off is worth it because the salary is decent, the job supply is plentiful, and health care has always been my calling. We gotta grit our teeth and stick it out. My mother is coming to help watch LC, thank goodness...

But our long-distance situation is not as before, the additional thing is now we have a little baby. I watch LC as her face lights up with pure delight when she's playing with her daddy, when she hears the garage door open as he comes home from work. She's not going to understand this sudden absense...she's going to wonder where he is, and miss him in her own way. I can never be both mommy and daddy to her...this saddens me beyond my capability to explain, and her father too. I don't know how we'll get through this, but we have to.

If you guys are wondering why he can't just move with us...well, it's just not that simple, there are many issues which I can't discuss in detail, but mostly the school is in a little college town and there just are no jobs there. He has a pretty good position here, so it would be a shame to just leave it. Besides, after graduation we're moving back here so everything will be back in its place. Well here it all is in black and white.

I kick the AH out of SAHM...

2008-07-31T19:16:00.003-05:00

Hello my little darlings, I hope everyone is doing well! Time flies...you never realize this until you have a child. Before, you're basically a child yourself and you're too busy, too naive to know the magnitude of time. When your child is growing up day by day, learning new amazing things, you realize that you grow just as old alongside them. But no worries...live for today, I say - who cares about the future.

My MIL is leaving in a week, and I'm definitely going to miss her company. Before I became a mom, I was always working, studying...my schedule was filled with things I must do and (boys I must flirt with - j/k!) Then, I became a stay-at-home mom. Of course, I love spending this time with my daughter...when she needs me most. On the other hand, you guys know we live here in the States all by ourselves. Both of our parents and family live in Mongolia, so there is really no one to come around and give you hand or babysit so you can get yourself together.

As much as I love this...sometimes it truly is boring. From morning to sundown, all we do is just basically try to spend away the time and wait for daddy to come home. The three of us then can have a blast. Now, time just melts away seemingly...I realize how I missed just having a conversation with an adult, SHOPPING with another woman in tow, someone to watch and cry with to an awesomely sappy love story. Oy....

Anyway...in little over two weeks, my dear child is turning 1. We already picked out a fabulous frilly dress for her birthday and I'm still racking my brain on what kind of cake I should make her (any suggestions? it can't have eggs, nuts, or chocolate in it) Then I'm off to nursing school and I'm no longer a SAHM (stay-at-home mom) but will be a SM (student mom)! The change will be good for me, good for our future...but it will be heartbreaking, and you'll soon know why. Keep tuned!

The Exclusive Package

2008-07-28T17:05:00.003-05:00

I've been absent from the blogosphere for several days now...why? Because I've been relaxing, kicking up my feet and having a good ol' time. Sorry though that I haven't been around all my bloggy friends' blogs :(

My mother-in-law is in town visiting us and it's her first time to see LC - they are just having such a blast together. And me...wow, I sometimes feel childless! I can get up in the morning and just sit around in peace knowing my daughter is in such loved company. Believe it or not, we went out the other night to shoot some pool with our friends, and I got all dolled up too!

Do you guys know the Schick Quattro commercial for women where the legs are twigs with needles and then turns into flowers when the razor touches the leg and then smooth, sexy legs are revealed? Then at the end of the commercial, the tag-line is the razor "is so good, you can skip a day or two"???

Well, this part is hilarious because then my husband says, "Jojo, it says you can skip a day or two, not a WEEK or two!" Yea maybe I let that part of me go, but I figure, he already married me and no one is looking at my legs anyway.

Since my MIL arrived in town, I re-realized the awesomeness of being able to get up in the morning and actually SHOWER! So now I'm going to tell you an event that happens in our house:

The Exclusive Package - shit, shave, and shower. If you go to the bathroom and an hour later you come out after the exclusive package treatment, you're as good as spic & span. You're basically shining...can't ya just tell I'm being brought back from wherever I let myself go?

What does LC mean?

2008-07-24T14:34:00.004-05:00

Recently, my pal Karen at Busy Mamas wrote a post about how her son's middle name came to be - appropriately called "the Name". (I wanted to show some linky love, but their site was down...) Her post inspired me to write about my own daughter's name because there is an interesting story behind it.

Here at BuddhaBelle, you've all come to know my girl as LC. This is what we call her all the time too, but actually her initials are S.E.B. and obviously there is no L or C in site...so what does LC mean?

Well, it all started with these lucky seven magnets --->

We conceived our angel on our Thanksgiving school breaks and before my hubby came back from school (he was in another state), I strategically placed these magnets on our fridge so that we could have a good laugh together. The set of magnets I had were from Best Buy's Geek Squad...they just gave it to me for free and they were sitting around the house forever. All the words in that set had something to do with computer/tech words. So, I did my best to convey the meaning that we were going to DO IT, and DO IT again, to make a human being - "We will slam to make a civilian".

Then when we had the baby in the belly, I wanted to call "it" something other than baby. We still didn't know the gender, so there was no reference to "he" or "she". We went off of our magnets and called our baby the "Little Civilian", hence, LC.

For nine months, our little LC grew into a cute little girl and when finally we had to come up with the name, we knew that after all this time calling her LC - it had to be somehow incorporated into her official name. It was important for both of us to give her a Mongolian first name, but I was intent on giving her an American middle name. I thought....LC....how to put that sound into her middle name - I searched the net and the baby name book at B&N (my second home).

Until one day...I realized the name was staring me in the face the whole time. LC became Elsie...and that is my daughter's middle name.

Brit Chair for My Bum

2008-07-23T17:40:00.004-05:00

Last night we were up watching a movie called Miss Conception, starring Heather Graham…who’s British in this movie. Well, there was a scene during the film where Georgina (Heather’s character) and her mom go shopping for a stroller to give to her boyfriend’s sister’s new baby. They’re called prams over there, by the way.

Oh my gosh, those were the most beautiful and stylish strollers I’ve ever seen…no wonder – the Brits have got it going on! Is it just me, or are European styled things just prettier and more contemporary-looking. You better KNOW it – I have stroller envy! But unfortunately, I already have two strollers now and have no need for another one…(hmmm second baby putting dibs on that?)

But this post is not about prams, it’s more about what I’m looking for lately, because like I told you guys before, I’m starting school again in about a month. Nursing school, to be exact. This translates to spending a lot of time behind books and in clinicals, sticking needles. I need a good space that would be perfect for studying. We have an extra room that’s perfect for an “office” setting. And the only thing that’s missing is some pretty office furniture.

Since I know Brits have always got it going on with innovative designs, I was just browsing around the net and found the Office Supermarket, who specialize in office furniture. When looking for furniture, I always look for comfort first – I learned it’s called ergonomic. Plus if there’s style, more boo-yah for me! Just look at this office desk, that’s a pretty baby right?

It’s manufactured from tempered glass with a silver framework and it has such a smart design where you can just swivel around and reach everything without standing up. I love clear, sleek-style things because it’s perfect for small rooms like the one we have, and it makes the room look spacious without darkening the space up.

The other important thing to prepare for, in my situation, is sitting for long periods of time. Over the last weekend while I was renovating the site, I noticed my tail-bone was about ready to come through my butt. It hurt! It’s important to have a comfy chair to hang out in – look at one of these ergonomic office chairs! The backseat is mesh, so you’re not getting hot and the seat has molded foam, so your butt doesn’t hurt.

Sorry, I know it’s supposed to be Wordless Wednesday and all, but I just wanted to share some cool things I found. Cheers, mate!

Tree-hugger

2008-07-23T12:44:00.006-05:00

Finally finished

2008-07-22T15:21:00.005-05:00

...and boy, am I tired. You want my advice, friends - before starting out in the blogging world, pick the template that you REALLY want, and stick with it.

This whole weekend, plus Monday, I spent day and night working on installing a new template, AND I spent my nights thinking about what to add, delete, and how to place. From the get-go, I knew I desperately wanted 3 columns, because I had too much stuff on the right side of my old template. I spent many hours looking for that special template that would correctly represent me.

And I had thought that I found it:This polaroid template was originally made for WordPress, but this dude converted it to work with Blogger. From the little screenshot, I fell in love with it but in reality...it just didn't work. I know some of you came in and saw this template up and running while I worked on it.

First of all, all the columns were too narrow. Like I said before, content and its easy readability is the most important aspect of your blog...when I saw that my posts had become all crunched up, I didn't like that. Plus, all the red just wasn't that pretty. Stretching the columns in the back-end xml was too daunting of a task. So, I thought "what can I do?"

I reverted back to my Minima Stretch template that I had before, because the width covered the whole screen, and dug around the net for coding to make an additional column on the left (as you see here). Now, I got what I had wanted in the first place and plus, my post area became wide enough to highlight my writing.

I really liked the polaroid concept and used that in my new header, which took 4 hours to make, not including all the brainstorming time. I worked with PhotoFiltre to make the header, and as you can see - there are some pixel problems...because the software quality isn't as great as Photoshop. I'm not proficient in Photoshop, so I had to take it and did the best I could. But I think I'll be trying to fix the header in the future sometime. There aren't too many changes, just additions like the glossy buttons for Email and RSS, and the cool little FeedFlare stuff on the bottom of all posts (don't forget to Digg and Del.icio.us me!)

All in all, it was a great learning experience. Oh, and one more tip: if you are considering changing the look of your blog and want to install a custom template, try it out first on a separate blog like I did here at Jojo's Test Site (the current template there is called Charcoal, isn't it cool?) If you want any additional information about templates, buttons, or anything else I've done here - give me a holler!

P.S. Thanks B. for helping me out! You're the best <3

test

2008-07-20T18:21:00.001-05:00

hello hello test test test

Coming Soon - Buddha Belle v.2.0

2008-07-18T14:25:00.001-05:00

Hi everybody,

I love change, adore it...especially a change for the better. I think I'm ready to take Buddha Belle to the next level and therefore I'll be renovating my site this weekend. There will be no new posts but there WILL be a new look. I hope you all embrace the new look of my blog and enjoy it as much as before. Hope everyone has a great weekend and see you all next week at Buddha Belle v.2.0!!!

I'm so excited!
If you happen to come in, don't be surprised if everything is jumbled up :)

Satellite Internet - now, how bout that?

2008-07-17T12:44:00.005-05:00

Recently I wrote about the article featured on Money magazine about saving money through cutting out cable TV - because the incessant commercials were causing more “wants”, adding to the family’s expenses. With YouTube, Hulu, and the ability to watch free TV online through the big networks’ websites, one should question whether cable TV is really a necessary expense anymore. Obviously you would need the internet to access this free media content…but you need high speed internet to see them without stopping every few seconds to buffer.

The catch here is that you can’t get high speed internet (namely, broadband) because it comes through your cable, and in order to get the internet, you must pay for cable service too. The bill usually ends up being in the upwards of $90 bucks including taxes, etc. – or at least that’s what we’re paying.

If you have a phone line, you can get dial-up…but hello? Unless you’re living in the ancient times, you know that nowadays you really have the need for speed in order for fast downloading times…we are a society wanting things done yesterday! If you don’t want dial-up, you don’t want to pay for cable in addition to the internet…and fiber optics is not the choice for you - what does that leave you?

Ta-Da!….the clouds clear from the sky, angels sing in harmony while you make the discovery of Satellite Internet! If you have a clear view of the southern sky (if you’re living in the U.S.), there is a company that can offer you a broadband internet access solution that’s available everywhere – the key here is that the access is available in areas where fiber, cable, or DSL are not available. If you live in the middle of nowhere like me, this is perfect for you too. This company is HughesNet and they use advanced two-way satellite technology to give you the speed you need without all the extras.

I know back home in Mongolia, satellite internet has come in and provided internet for many people. Aside from the main capital city of Ulaanbaatar, most outer rural areas don’t have cable lines or even water pipes going through. But hey, no running water in your pooper? No problemo….because at least you can watch the upcoming Olympics on your computer through the magic of satellite.

I think HughesNet definitely has some reasonable prices for what it can offer…you can choose different plans depending on what kind of internet you need. If you run a small business from your home, they have professional packages that can match the demand you create through your website or e-commerce store. It’s definitely worth checking out.