to the shores of freedom

Sometime mid-February, I hauled my sizable butt to Dallas.

Indulge me and let me talk about the weather for a second. The weather was marvelous. No seriously the weather was so pleasant I'm actually pulling out old school words like marvelous. I arrived to a very nippy (but expected) 35F so I was prepared for 2 weeks of frigidity and snow boots. Much to my surprise, it started to warm up and by day 3 it was all easy breezy 75F and sunny skies all day errrday. In Mid-February! Time to break out the party sun hats!

Anyhoo. One of my biggest goals for my trip was to get Bryce to finally call me 小姨. Yes, I'm that annoying Aunt that refuses to let her nephew call her 'Aunty' because it makes me sound old. AND IT DOES. I'M HOLDING ON TO MY LAST SHRED OF YOUTH JUST LET ME BE WON'T YOU.

Ahem.

So one morning our big B comes traipsing down the stairs and his chirpy voice goes "Mommy!" to my sister. He proceeds to look at me and I swear a knowing look came over his face and I just knew it I just knew this was the moment my little nephew was going to put 2 and 2 together and call me....

"Sally!"

......

Not quite what I was hoping for but it was close enough. This sally 小姨 was pleased as punch.

B fascinated by the gumball machines


happy 3rd month bliss!
(please note bryce - who was well into strawberry #2 that we used to decorate the cake)


bryce & marissa after lunch


well worth all the 30 hour journeys in the world ♥ ♥ ♥




小姨 had some trouble trying to pacify lil B...



family time with the Chuas


let it be known that the mass of hair bliss is smiling at is me
SHE LOVES ME *desperate whimper*

Amidst all the training to be a good wife, I also did an absurd amount of shopping. I bought more makeup than I care to admit and I still don't know how I ended up with 5 bottles of handwash..... The photographs (thankfully) tell the story of a diligent sister that traveled 9,727 miles to spend time with the people she holds nearest and dearest but the bank account tells a very different story.

Double ahem.

Did I mention we cooked? Because boy, did we ever.

hainanese chicken rice | wontons
yusang | chocolate cake for bliss' 3rd month bday
prepwork for zucchini lasagna | completed lasagna
prepwork for carrot cake | completed carrot cake ^_^

We actually prepared a lot more food but we didn't get to capture most of it on camera. You'll just have to take my word for it that for 10 days, I felt like I was possessed by Giada herself. Sans the heaving chesticles and random peppering of Italian words of course.

It feels like the world is ripping apart at the seams these days and now, more than ever, our fragility is so frighteningly apparent. What else is there to do but appreciate what we have now? To be thankful for what we've been blessed with and cross our fingers and hearts?

makes everything worthwhile ♥