My Purse Has Been Memed!

Welcome to Thursday, y'all. Both my kids are coming out of some sort of Ucky Bug, so I have a whole renewed sense of oomph today! In light of that...this is a pretty lightweight blog post today. Isn't that what Memes are for? (Except for those 7 Wacky Things memes that went around a while ago. I got tagged twice for that one, and haven't completed it yet - it's hard to come up with just 7 things!)

I was tagged forever ago by Laural at Laural Out Loud to do a Purse Meme! Since she is currently out of the country visiting her in-laws in a country where she doesn't really speak a lot of the language...I thought she'd appreciate seeing the inside of my purse.

Yeah. Doesn't that make sense to you? (Laural, hope you're having fun out there!!!)

Here goes nothing!


1) "Post a picture of whatever bag you are carrying as of late. No, you cannot go up to your closet and pull out that cute little purse you used back before you had kids. I want to know what you carried today or the last time you left the house."



Now for the inside.



(That little brown bag is a diaper envelope that Wonder Woman made for me. The red wallet matches my Vera Bradley purse that I was carrying around before Valentine's Day - that purse was a Push Present when Siu Jeun was born)

(Only the essentials! A girl's got to have a pen, wherever she goes, and lipgloss is a must!)

2) " I want to know how much it cost:) And this is not to judge. This is for entertainment purposes only. So spill it. And if there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, I’d love to hear it."

Hmm..this bag was just a smidge over $100. It's a Coach bag, from an outlet store near us, and it was 50% off. Lo Gung picked the bag out for me in January, and it was my Valentine's Day present this year! I love it. I love the color, and I love how big it is! I can fit everything I need in this baby. Granted, it doesn't look nearly so stylish with a Baby Bjorn peeking out of the top, but...a Mama's got to do what a Mama's got to do!

3) "Tag some chicks. And link back to this post so people know why the heck you’re showing everyone your diaper bag/non-diaper bag."

Hmm...I wanna tag:

Wonder Woman ('cause I know she just made herself a stylin' new purse!)
Weezy ('cause the girl's got class!)

I think I'll stop there - those are all the W names I can think of! :-D (Why W? Because Siu Jeun just started to fuss, and that effectively short circuits my brain - I can't think of any more names!)

A "4th" Meme

Oh, goodness...the memes are piling up!


I've been saving these memes for a rainy day...or just one where I couldn't think of what to blog. Today is one of those days!

Alright. It's not a COMPLETELY dry blogging day...but I am watching a movie with Lo Gung, and that hasn't happened in a while...so here's my offering for the morning. :-)

This one is courtesy of Katz of Endless Days



The idea is to go to your photo folder, select the fourth folder, and then the fourth picture...and post it. Ooh...this could be scary!

Hmm...what have we here? It seems that, shortly after moving across the country and away from all friends, family, weather, grass, animals, neighbors and streets that BBJ has EVER known...at 18 months, she finally took a pacifier. Funny, that.

Now, as we all know...I get to TAG someone. You can participate, or not...it's up to you. I won't be offended.

Hmm...I'd like to see random photos from...

I, Wonder Woman...ooh, and Halligator and Maia Papaya's Mama...and the sweet Mama from Little Adventures...and.....ooh, Kimbo. You know who you are. ;-) (Sorry if I couldn't pull out y'alls correct online aliases. My memory's pretty shabby. :-))

Taking care of business, or - I got Memed!

So, way back on, oh...June 27, Tonggu Mama tagged me for a meme. (I still don't know how to pronounce it...but, you know, since it's all about ME, I guess it's appropriate to call it a me-me!) Since I was asked to, I'll tell you that Tonggu Mama was tagged by Beachy Mimi

This isn't just any meme, though, y'all...it's a meme where I have to come up with my own 6 word summary of MY LIFE. Crazy, right? I know it's been a few weeks, but..honestly...how do I sum up my life in 6 words? This has been really good for me - I've taken a good look at my life, seeing what it is I DO all day that fills up my time. I think my friend Kim summed it up very well yesterday. We had all our babies in their complex' kiddie pool (yes, BBJ got in the pool all. By. Herself. I was shocked, and so proud of her!) Her phone rang, and it was her husband (who works in the same building as Lo Gung.) She saw the caller ID and said, "Oh no...these calls are so hard. I hate telling him I'm at the pool with the kids, because then at night when I tell him I'm tired and my day was hard, he never believes me!"

So...my life...well, first off, I'm a Mama and a housewife. I spend the majority of my time raising BBJ, growing my new little gummy bear, and cooking and cleaning the house (more cooking than cleaning..thank goodness for Lo Gung and his mad cleaning skilz!) In order of sheer time consumed, I suppose Church would come next. I spend three hours in church every Sunday, plus another hour every week preparing the lesson I teach in Primary to the 5 year olds. (I tend the 5 year olds for the last two hours of church, spending one hour of that time alone with them, in a classroom, trying to impart The Word of God....using mostly crayons and cookies, since that seems to be all they're interested in for now.) Add in the possibility of a choir rehearsal on Sundays after church, and maybe a women's activity during the week, and that's a fairly significant chunk of my week, all things considered.

We also spend a lot of energy around here trying to be as Chinese As Possible in Italian/American Food Land. Most of the other Asian kids I see around here are firmly glued to their mother's very Caucasian hands, as BBJ is glued to mine. That being understood, there aren't a lot of grocers or activities around here that cater to the Asian population...since none of them are raised with the culture. (Have I mentioned that we live in the middle of NOWHERE East Coast? What we've got is the largest mall in the state, lots of pizza joints, lots of lakes and an astounding assortment of bugs, critters and things that light up at night.) BBJ and I get dirty looks, occasionally, when we speak Chinese in public. (My favorite was a woman who said, as she walked past me, to her friend, "Goodness...this is America. Speak English!" If I had had my wits about me, I would have asked her how she would prefer that I taught my daughter a foreign language? Wait until she's in college? As it was, I simply looked after her and asked her several times if she was talking to me. She shut her mouth, sped up her walk and never looked back. I don't think she realized I'm fluent in both Chinese and Jerk.) Usually, the looks are more concerned/puzzled as passers-by try to figure out what on EARTH I'm saying to my daughter. My white skin does not immediately make it obvious that I'm speaking Chinese! Her fair skin and light brown hair doesn't help matters, either.

So, that's the long version...how about a short one? The best I could come up with was this:

Growing Up Baby in Two Worlds

I'll leave it at that. Take it however you'd like to. Our church tells us to be "in the world, but not of the world." That's one way. We need to live here, not move to some Zion and barricade ourselves in. At the same time, we simply cannot adopt everything that The World tells us is normal, healthy and desirable. Isn't that the point of conquering the Natural Man?

On the flip side, I'm trying my darndest to make sure my daughter (and future children) will be at LEAST as comfortable with one set of grandparents as they are with the other. Last night we had ribs for dinner. Tonight, it's traditional Chinese fried rice. Last week, BBJ spent the whole week playing with her Chinese side of the family, learning from them and demonstrating how bi-lingual she really is. (This morning, she cocked her head to the side, looked at me, and said, in Chinese, "BBJ is so cute!") On Monday, part of her American side of the family will arrive, and BBJ, I'm sure, will pick up more English from them!

I've been so blessed to be able to live in all these worlds, and I want my children to have the opportunity to be whoever they'd like to be when they grow up.

My last experience with tagging people didn't go so well (I tagged several sweet friends to talk about their husbands...and forgot that half of the girls I tagged were single! Yeah, I'm one bright li'l lightbulb.) So, I'll just open this up. The rules are simple:

1. Write your own six word memoir.


2. Post it to your blog and link back to the person who tagged you on your post with the link that is posted above.

3. Choose 5 bloggers with links and comment on their blog inviting them to participate.