Are you enjoying the ride?

My family financial situation is in really bad shape right now. And it's getting worse by the minute as we are draining out our savings to survive. These are the times when I start to stress out about just everything. I've been reading people's blogs lately because I really don't know what to write and too stress out to write anything basically. But reading people's blogs are fun. It takes my mind off things for a while. Some blogs are even refreshing and encouraging. I'm not saying reading blogs can just magically remove all my problems, but it just gives me new insights.

My last post was about 'enjoying the ride'. Well, not so easy to do when we are in a really bad shape, isn't it? How the heck we can enjoy the ride when everything seems to stumble down right in front of your eyes? Well, we can ... if we allow ourselves to find the good things in life. For me, I'm just trying to be thankful with what I have today. Remember the sayings 'you never know what you've got until it's gone'? Well, if possible, I don't want to experience that. I want to know what I've got before it's gone. So from now on, I'm going to try to be thankful. And I say 'try', because sometimes being thankful is not so easy either. Sometimes, we need to look a little harder for things to be thankful about. I read in someone's blog (can't remember whose because I read so much lately), but in this blog, she (I think it's a she) lists things she's grateful about each day. I thought it was a wonderful idea. So today, I am going to be thankful for:
- being able to drive my daughter to school myself (because I didn't know how to drive before)
- having a very good friend (who didn't run away because we're broke)
- still having a home to go too (because although we're selling the house, no one's interested yet)
- having a husband who I trust completely (because I know he is working really really hard to get us out of this whole situation)
- having an internet connection so I can still blog and meet fellow bloggers (who helped me although they probably didn't realize it)

Returning on 'enjoying the ride' topic ... well, I'm going to enjoy all these things that I have today. I don't know if I'm going to still have a car or a house tomorrow, but while I do, I'm going to just enjoy them as much as I can. And I hope that tomorrow is a better day and I will have even more things to be thankful about.

Unexpected Lesson

How about that Susan Boyle from Britain's Got Talent, eh? A few months ago, nobody knew her name. And now? She is the new superstar. People all over the world is now reminded again and again: don't judge a book by its cover. Well, that's one lesson we can definitely learn from Susan Boyle.

But another thing that taught me is that life is unpredictable. I don't think she expects to be this famous at the age 48. I don't follow the story of her life to be honest, but I'm taking a lesson for her experience. Sometimes, things happen. Things that we don't expect to happen can happen and bring us something unexpected. Does that make sense at all? What I'm trying to say is that we never know where life takes us. We can plan all we want, but life can steer us to a much different path.

So, for me, instead of being sad about our not-so-good life right now, I am going to try to just enjoy the ride. Expecting the worst but always crossing my fingers and hoping for the best to come. Of course, we still need to fight and do our best in what we do right now. But let's not forget the possibility of the unexpected. After all, there is a greater power than us humans :)

Too Many Roles

We always play different roles in life. We play a role as a son/daughter, a sister/brother, a husband/wife, a father/mother, a friend ... the list goes on and one. I always think that we should play the role as best as we can, or at least to try to do that, by being the best person we can be. Finding the balance, I always thought. But lately it seems to be harder and harder, especially when there are more roles to play. As a single woman, I turn into a wife when I got married (one more role added) and also be somebody's in-law (another role added). As a daughter, I turn into a mother when I have my first child (yet another role added). So there it is ... 3 more roles to play.

One more thing ... I know we're not supposed to keep everyone's happy, but I was raised as a sort of 'peace-maker'. My mom always taught me not to fight with relatives (although the person can be so annoying at times) and always try to be nice to everyone.

What's bugging me lately is how I should 'play' the role as in-law. My husband is having sort of a fight with his family, and I feel like I'm caught in the middle. I tried to just be me with his mother and siblings, but it's odd going to their houses without my hubbie. And although my husband didn't say this directly, I feel like he didn't like it if I hang out too much with his siblings anymore. I know my mother in law expects me to be the one to tell my husband to stop fighting, but she also knows how hard-headed his son is when he thinks he is right. So there I am ... trying to be a good wife and be a good daughter in law at the same time. I wanted to be both, but I know I can't.

Am I getting too personal again? Arghh, I hope not. My lesson is just that I have to stop trying to make everyone happy. It's just not possible. I need to forget what other people expect of me, and be what I expect of myself.

Surprised Surprised ... it's the Friends Award

Wow ... I just received an exciting award, and believe me or not, I got it from Knight Writer at Life as a Layperson and The Laughing Idiot at The Goofy Gardener. Thank you both so much. I just feel so honored especially because I'm still new with this blogging life. I mean, I'm even happy with just having one more follower :)

Well anyway, there are rules in accepting this award: Deliver this award to eight bloggers who then must choose and deliver the award to eight more and include the following text into the award.

"These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers."

So, I would like to pass this award to the following bloggers. I hope I can one day call them friends and encourage everyone to visit and read their blogs. And they are ...

1. Afternoon Tea Break @ Career Changing in the Credit Crunch
2. Jane @ Days Of Our Lives
3. The Laughing Idiot @ Life Makes Me Laugh . . .
4. Laura Cococcia @ Laura Reviews...
5. - bxn @ In My Sad Little Opinion
6. The Drifter @ My Sanctuary
7. latin_girl87 @ Comedy Stylings of a 3yr Old
8. Super Groovy Girlie @ Super Groovy Girlie's Blogs

Okay, so there's my chosen 8 bloggers. Each has his/her own ways of teaching me, making me smile when I'm a little down, even making me laugh so hard that I forgot my problems for a while ...

How strong is your family bond?

Everything seems to have to be tested and challenged nowadays. We can't say we are faithful until our loyalty is tested. We can't say we are wise until our wisdom is needed. We can't say a friend is a friend indeed until that person has proven to be so. And we can't say our family has a strong bond until that bond is put to the real test.

I don't mean to get too personal here, but I just learned this the hard way. When everything is alright, when there is no problem/trouble, we can find friends anywhere. Because those are the guys we hang out with, go to movies together, eat out together, people we do fun stuffs with. But when we are in trouble (say, financial trouble) and we don't have the money to spend for fun anymore, those 'friends' suddenly disappear. Okay, that's not too odd. What I find really odd is even brothers/sisters can disappear too. It's odd because I always thought a family is a family. Whatever trouble you are in, you're supposed to back each other up. Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about financial aid or anything like that. I am not asking for that at all. What makes me wonder is that they never ask about our situation, knowing that we really are in financial trouble. None of them ever call to ask, 'hey, how's it going with the new business?' or just a simple 'how are you?'. I just find it fascinating weird, because I used to think this is a family with the strongest bond that no one can ever break. I was totally wrong. Honestly, we are like strangers now.

Well anyway, I really don't want to be over-sensitive about this. I just want to share the lesson I learned. We never know how strong a relationship is (even siblings-relationship) until there are waves come crashing down on it. But now that I know, I say to myself: I will not do this to my friends or my families who are in need. I will not turn my back on them. I might not have the money to help out, but I still have words of encouragement that I can share.

I hope you guys have a stronger family than mine. And please be good to your family and friends. They're all you've got after all.

Strength Within

Finding the strength within us is not as simple as it sounds. And it's definitely is not as easy. Sometimes we got to do what we got to do simply because we have to. Although it may be scary or hard, sometimes there are just things that need to be done, there are just situations that we must go through. I guess when we finally did it or when we finally went through whatever hard situation we were placed at, that's the moment where we could finally say: "yes, I have that strength within me".

For me, we never know how strong we are until we are faced with difficulties in our lives, until we are really challenged to face those difficulties. Situations may force us to be strong, for ourselves and sometimes for others. So I'm grateful, that until today, I still have that strength within me to fight and to survive. That along the way, there were people who gave me words of encouragement when I was down. Even a stranger's blogspot post can be meaningful and cheer me up at times :)

I've been tagged!!

I’ve been tagged by Jane. Sorry for the late response though, kind of busy lately. It’s so wonderful knowing that you like me enough to tag me, Jane. I’m being a good sport so I’m going to keep this ball rolling.

Okay, first thing first. The Rules:
First, you need to mention the person who tagged you.
Second, you need to tell 7 facts about yourself.
And thirdly, you need to tag another 7 bloggers, let us know what you tag them, and let those bloggers know that they’ve been tagged.

So … have I followed the rules? Let’s see …

Number 1: mentioning the person who tagged me. Checked! It was Jane at Days Of Our Lives .

Number 2: 7 facts about me, eh? Here it goes …

1) I only have one best friend who I can share everything with. Some people may think that’s weird, but she’s the only person who I can confide in without worrying whether she’s going to tell or back-stab me later hahaha … I think I’m lucky that I can be friends with her for more than 15 years now . I have other good friends but my really really best friend is only one.

2)I much prefer western food than asian/chinese. My family thinks this is odd because I'm chinese and have been living in Asia forever, but that's the truth. I can't resist a burger/pizza hahaha ...

3) I just started learning how to drive at the age of 31 ;p

4) I need a cup of coffee in the morning and one in the afternoon to keep me going.

5) I always name my pet either Marco or Polo or Marcopolo. Weird weird ...

6) My idea of exercise is cleaning up the house and taking care of my daughter.

7) I have a fear of drowning and that's why I've never been on a cruise.

Number 3: Who should I tag, eh? Thinking thinking … alright, made my decision. The 7 person I’m tagging are:

1) bxn at In My Sad Little Opinion – because he got opinions on a variety of topics, and his opinion is neither sad nor little.

2) zeththebest at ~i picture what i see~ - because he posted so many different pictures and not afraid to after what he wants.

3) The Laughing Idiot at Life Makes Me Laugh . . . – because she made me laughs to hard that I forgot my problems for a while. You guys should really check her out.

4) SquirrelQueen at The Road to Here – because I really like her posts. She got many uplifting words that keep your spirit up. Btw, SQ, I know you’ve been tagged before. Sorry about this, but I know you’re having fun and I kind of want to know the 7 facts about you ;)

5) Small Footprints at Reduce Footprints - simply because it's a very meaningful and caring blogspot.

6) Sharon J at Finding Simplicity - because she's a wonderful bargain hunter, and all for the good stuff :)

7) The Drifter at My Sanctuary - because it's just interesting.

Yeahh I'm done. And now I'm off to letting these people know that they've been tagged.

Just a pic

Honestly, SquirrelQueen kind of inspire me to share beautiful pictures. I took this picture when I was in Canada like 9 years ago. But I still love it everytime I look at it, and it makes me want to visit Canada again. It also reminds me how wonderful, majestic, and great our God is. Please enjoy ...