Flashback Friday: Disney

Walt Disney World Orlando, Magic Kingdom Oct 26th, 2009

I can't believe it's been almost 10 months since we went to Disney! We went on my birthday since I got in for free(bday promo they held last year), and Kavi was free for being under 3 years old, so we only had to pay for my husband to get in. It was my husband's first time and Kavi's first time. I hadn't been in 10 years myself. I couldn't wait for my husband and son to experience some of the things I had when younger.

I remember telling my husband before the day of going that it's going to be magical. He said, "don't get my hopes up too high! What if it felt so magical to you because you were younger, or because it had been so long since you went. What if it doesn't feel the same anymore?"

Well, after we were at Disney for a couple hours I asked him, "So, does this feel magical to you?" And he said, "Yes!!! It really does." :)

It was such a fun day. We took Kavi on tons of rides and not just the toddler rides. We even went on Pirates of the Caribbean with him. I think he was still too young to know that skeletons are supposed to be creepy because they didn't phase him on that ride. I think now, he wouldn't like it at all and we wouldn't be able to take him on that. If you weren't a reader during that time, you could read up on our adventure that day here.

Flashback Friday: Dr's office - Waiting endurance challenge

The photo is from February of this year. Bad quality because again I am using a cell phone picture. Kavi had a check up appt at the pediatrician's office. He had a bad cold a few weeks earlier but was fine by the time we went for his follow up visit. He also had turned 2 years old the day before!

I like the pediatrician's office we go to except for one thing- the often long wait!! I really feel that taking your baby, toddler, or child to the doctor is an endurance challenge. That is how I think of it. I have it all thought out in my mind. I'm crazy! :) This could be a game show, if it weren't for the psychological damage that could possibly occur. :P So no, I don't actually support it being a real game show.

My challenge has often gone a little something like this:

Doctor's Office Endurance Challenge

Phase 1: wait in the main waiting room.
Everything goes fine. My son is entertained enough just looking at other children or at the fish tank in the wall(pretty cool) or the movie playing, if one is playing. I keep whatever toys I brought with us tucked away in my purse for later. We get called in after maybe 10-15 minutes. "Oh, not bad" I think in my head.

Phase 2: The first 30 minutes waiting in the small examination room.

It's time to bring out the toys! Maybe even one by one. Let's keep the distraction and fun going as long as possible. My son does things like in the photo above. Playing with cars, lining them up on the examining bed, pushing them over the curves, pushing them off onto the floor, etc.
But then...things start getting a little harder near the end of this 30 minutes. The toys lose their thrill, and your child wonders why you need to stay in this small windowless room forever.

Phase 3: Any minutes following the first 30, for a total of up to 60 minutes.(yes that has happened to me before).
Your child starts getting irritable, saying "out" or " door" every few minutes, trying to leave the room. Then they want to be held. You open the door to be a part of the outside world for a minute wondering if you were forgotten. You weren't. This is just how it is. Your blood pressure starts going up, you start sweating from trying to keep your toddler entertained(it's NOT working) or in your arms and you just want to lay down on the dirty floor and think of a happy place where children don't have to wait in a small examination room for so long. And now you are so hungry because you forgot to stick a banana in your purse to hold you over during the wait.

Suddenly, there is a knock at the door, and all the color comes back into your face and into the room as the Doctor enters. There is an end in sight! Now, if it's also the day for routine shots, you add one more level to this endurance challenge and you become a total warrior by the end. When you finally leave the office, you feel part of the world again and freeeeeeeeee.

If you can make it through this endurance challenge, you can do anything you set your mind to!!

And that is how I turn crazy long waits at Doctor's office into a
weird reality game show in my head. Thank God Kavi doesn't have
to go as often anymore after turning 2!

Do you have a zany, crazy, or sweet flashback to share? Join in! Click the button below!

Flashback Friday: Sink seat

Me and Kavi in one of the bathrooms, from a month ago. My husband thought it was funny to stick Kavi in the sink, and we took some pictures. I think Kavi ended up enjoying his sink basin seat. Kavi is smiling even though it looks a little like he is not happy! haha

We try to have fun around the house and my husband also loves doing goofy things with Kavi. If you remember a month or more ago when I posted the picture of us all wearing big glasses that were missing lenses, we do weird stuff like that a lot. :) Kavi is very entertaining, too.

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Flashback Friday: 80's Family

This would be probably 1985 but I am not totally sure. The fam! Look at my mom's perm hehe. And my hair(I'm on the right) is either pulled back into a hair clip or is one of those 80's mullets! My little sissy was so little. And my dad had a good 80's hair style going on too!

You can probably tell by this picture that he is a really good father. Even though it was just us two girls and no son for him to play with, he always said he was very happy to just have girls. I take after him in many ways. He plays guitar well. I learned to play when I as 16 and he taught me a lot about it. (But I am not good at all compared to him!! I never got around to learning the complicated chords, oops). He has always been a hard working, affectionate father. He is also a good example in life. He has been a preacher for almost my whole life. He is well liked and respected by so many people. I am very blessed to have a father like him!

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If you haven't yet, don't forget to enter the necklace giveaway!

I am heading to the Etsy Craft Party tonight! I will write about how it was! I am excited!

Flashback Friday: a cute foot

I took this picture on my cell phone a little less than a year ago. I was laying down with my son, trying to get him to relax and take a nap. He thought it was funny to wriggle around and then stick his foot on my face. He had done it many times before, getting such a kick out of it. So I had the phone with me and snapped a picture. I am laying on a pillow. And what baby/toddler doesn't enjoy being told they have stinky feet? My son loves it. And he likes to pretend like he is smelling our feet to and says "ooh stink". His feet are a lot bigger now! We can't play foot in face much anymore, or else I might have an eye go missing.

This little boy is a very difficult sleeper. Naps? Ha. Those are rare these days. He is 2 years and 4 months old. He resists naps and sleeping unless he is very very tired. He rarely sleeps completely through the night either. When he does, me and my husband find it unique enough to discuss it the next day. "He slept from 8-8, wow!" or whatever time frame it was. :P Thankfully if he does wake up during the night, he doesn't try to play or stay awake long. But, with such a cute face, how could I ever stay upset at him about the sleep issue?

You can join in with a Flashback Friday too! Link up at ChristopherandTia's blog!

Flashback Friday: Baby me

I don't think I have yet shared a baby picture of myself yet for a Flashback. I had to take a picture of a picture again, still no scanner. :P This would be probably when I was a couple months old or something? I forgot to ask my mom. Isn't it so 80's looking? I was born in October 1980, so it would be not long after that.

My mom said they had a photographer come to the house, something more common then, or at least where they lived. I should have asked her more before writing about it like I actually know haha. Maybe she can answer in a comment. Right, mom?

As you can see, even as babies me and my sister did not have blond hair. We have been brown eyed and brown haired since birth. I am pretty sure our hair got darker as we got older though. Right now my hair is it's natural color. I haven't dyed it in over a year. And that was when I dyed it black before going to India Spring 2009. I already find grey hair these days. Actually I have found stray greys for years now. It's not obvious, but I find more than I'd like to!! And what do I do? Take them out, of course. heehee.

Join in, visit ChristopherandTia's blog for more Flashbacks!

Oh oh oh! I also wanted to write on another topic. I plan to have some giveaways here soon! I haven't done one in a long time, and I have some things in mind. I am pretty sure I am going to do a jewelry giveaway very soon. And then after that, a sewn item giveaway(I haven't done one of those yet!).

Flashback Friday: me & my sister

This picture is from Christmas Day 2009. Me on the left, my younger sister Jenny on the right. Me, my hubby and son drove up to Alabama for Christmas. I had written about it here. It was my first time being out of Florida for a Christmas since moving to Florida as a toddler. It's just us two kids in the family. Two girls, I am 21 months older. I am also a lot taller! hehe My mom and sister are both...short. (shhh!)

I picked this photo because my sister is nice! Anyone remember last week when I mentioned things I wanted to buy?? One of them was this adorable magnet:
So two days ago my husband brings in the mail and says there is something here for you from such and such. I said, hmm that's weird, I didn't order anything from that place. So I open it and the magnet is in there! Along with some freebies. But no note. But then I figured it had to be sent by a family member or really close friend because they all call me Stina (instead of Christina) and it was addressed to Stina. I called my mom and found out that my lovely sister saw my blog post and wanted to surprise order it for me. Now isn't that sweet? :) Thank you Jenny!!

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Flashback Friday: Weird

A few months ago our son was playing with these bigger sunglasses and the lenses were falling out. So they were soon lense-less, but still fun for him to play with. One day I noticed how funny he looked and took a picture before we were heading out to a store. Then I made my husband wear them too and make a face, and then I did it too. The looks we were going for was weird, dorky, and strange. Mission accomplished I think! Of course our son looks like a cool hipster them! hehe ;)

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Flashback Friday: 2005

This picture is from 2005. (we got married in 2004). It used to be one of my favorite pictures of us together. I remember taking this picture(and others along with it) very well. I wanted some pictures of us, threw on some make up and earrings(I was just at home, hadn't gotten ready for going out) and we took the pictures. My face looks too pale in the shot and bigger. Sigh...The good news for me is that I weigh at least 20lbs less since this was taken. And you know what, when I lose more weight(yeah I am going to!), looking back on pictures taken right now will look different to me too.

But overall I still like this picture above, just the two of us, newly married! :) I know I shouldn't be negative about myself and if my mom reads this she is sure to say "don't say that Christina!!" because she is always very uplifting and encouraging. :) I am just keeping it real, yo!! ;) It's good to at least know that I am not at my highest weight anymore! And never going back.

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Flashback Friday: Mom!

The picture above is from May 9, 2009. Just under a year ago from today! Me and Kavi were visiting my family in Alabama. Kavi and his grandma! My mom is a wonderful mom and a wonderful grandmother! She is my friend, too. She is a spiritual leader, a kind person, and fun!

The pictures below were taken at a park area while we were visiting. They set these up for kids to take their pictures behind, but me and my mom wanted to be chickens too!

Kavi

Me

Mom

Happy Mother's Day, mom! We love you a lot and are very thankful to have you as a mom!

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Flashback Friday: homemade food

It's my first Flashback Friday post in ages it feels like! I haven't done one since before going to India.

The above picture is from March 2009, not long after our trip to India in 2009. I can't believe that was over a year ago already. Kavi was just over 1yrs old. We were eating at a cool restaurant(that we ate at again yesterday!). I took pictures from yesterday's visit too. It's part of an older lady's house. Her house is in the back and the restaurant is at the front. It's called Whole Note Acres and it's very country and cozy feeling. It's only open Tues-Fri 11am-1pm. This place has been in business since I was a little kid in the 80's! We used to live in the same city where this is, in New Port Richey, Florida. Now I live about 30 minutes north of there. So once in awhile when my family is visiting, we take a ride down to our dear old friend Whole Note Acres. The same lady lives there and owns/runs it. She is now in her 80's I believe.

The food options are limited, but are very special. The daily menu is quiche, salad, soup, desserts, breads, and drinks. Each day of the week is assigned a specific quiche and soup. I spend usually about $8 there. That would be for getting quiche and soup, plus as much bread, iced tea, lemonade, coffee, or tea you want. It's self serve, you just get what you want and tell her what you ate at the end! It's such a warm, personal environment. The inside seating area is a circle shaped room. Outside seating is in a screened in porch that curves around the circular building. The owner lets you walk through her house too, if you want to. All her rooms are circle shaped. It's almost like being in a hobbit home, but not exactly. hehe. These pictures are just from the inside eating area, last year. They don't at all capture the place. I took more pictures yesterday and will want to share some of those once I have them edited.

Fashion Inspiration from India

The first set I found is traditional Indian wear - Sarees. The other sets are more a mix of Indian and Western style. I will be wearing some of these types of beautiful Indian clothing while away.

Enjoy the colors and textiles that are inspired by India!

Jewel of India by ::Ms.Fabulosity:: featuring Amrita Singh jewelry

India by kht_nin featuring ASOS jewelry

14. Mumbai, India by ~ yasmine.* {♥} featuring Gola shoes

India Style by VmoniV featuring Rebecca Taylor tops

Flashback Friday: Friends

I wasn't sure what to share today. I kept changing my mind! So now it's settled. I am sharing a picture from 4th of July last year.
You can see me, my husband and son in this picture. The rest are all long time friends. We were visiting Alabama for the 4th of July, this was in their downtown area to watch the fireworks. Our good friends Danny, Jill, Dawn(with her baby), Jenn, and Andy with their daughter. My sister may have been taking the picture, since she isn't in it? And a couple other friends who were there aren't in the shot either. Our friends above either live in Alabama now or near Atlanta. We all used to live in Florida.

With the exception of one person in the picture, I have known the rest since I was a young teenager. Many memories! Funny stories, teen embarrassments, grown up excitements, marriages, children. We miss them!

I think you should join in to flashback Friday if you don't already, because it's fun!
Visit Christopher and Tia's blog to join in or to read more stories!

Flashback Friday: Lookout Mt

When: November 2001, Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, TN. I was 21 years old.

I posted a different pic in a flashback friday last November from this same trip. Here is just a solo picture of me. It was a very fun trip. Me, my sister, and another friend visited one of our friends who moved away to college. I really like visiting this area of Tennessee. I love the mountains. Living in flat Florida most of my life, seeing mountains is exciting to me. It was a cold, fall weather day hence the scarf and gloves! This weekend trip included lots of girl giggling, coffee shops, and walking around cute down towns.

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Flashback Friday: Me and My Mommy

I didn't have a black and white picture to use(which was this week's optional theme), but I have this cute old picture.
This would have been up north in New York City or somewhere else up there. (Mom will have to tell me! Not sure with the nice grassy scene, I doubt it's Queens?). I was born in Queens, NY. We moved to Florida when I was almost four.

My mom is a wonderful mom! She is one of my best friends and I am very blessed to have her. She grew up in a very stressful way, and she never thought she would grow up to have a happy normal life. My grandmother had mental problems and delusions about a lot of things. She treated my mom very nice and loved her, but treated everyone else badly due to paranoia that someone was always out to get her and such. That very badly affected my mother, as a child. The neighbors where she(and her older brother) grew up in Queens hated my grandmother because of this, and said rude comments to my mom about it (what kind of people say that stuff to a little kid??). After a series of God guided events in my mother's life, her father was back in her life at age 12 which helped change everything for the better, she found faith in God at age 18, and then she met my father while in college through a friend (he did not attend that college). They were later married and had me and my sister. We grew up in a safe and happy environment and were truly blessed by two good parents.

This picture captures some of the happiness and peace of growing up with my parents. And now I also have that feeling of motherhood with arms outreached towards Kavi to come to mama!

It's fun to participate in flashback Fridays, if you would like to join in leave your link at Tia's blog!

Flashback Friday: Pony Ride

Tia mentioned last week about doing a pet themed Flashback Friday today. I have never really been a pet person, so I thought "darn! I don't have any pictures like that". But then I remembered I took a picture of this picture recently (blurry sorry) to use one Friday! It's not my pet, but it's an animal at least.

Sorry about the horrible quality! I am pretty sure this was a pony. I was maybe 9 or 10 yrs old? On this day, we were invited to go over to the house of people we knew from church. They invited a bunch of people over, and us kids got to take a ride on the pony. I didn't grow up riding horses so I am pretty sure I was a little nervous even though it was not a big horse. Someone was in front of the pony, walking slowly and guiding it with reigns.

We attempted pets at different times in my childhood. Me and my sister were always scared of hyper dogs. My dad tried a couple times to bring a dog home but we didn't like it and they'd have to give the dogs to a new home. I remember me and my sis running and jumping onto the couch crying. It was for no reason! But to us it was scary haha. I am allergic to cats(so is my mom) so I never was around them too much unless we were at someone else's house. Then I'd get wheezy, sneezy, and itchy eyes.

We had a cute floppy eared bunny at one time, but it wouldn't really let us pet him! He lived in our back porch and hopped around a lot. Eventually he ate a hole in the screen and would leave during the day and return at night! Then one day, Thumper(how original right? hehehe) didn't return. I wasn't that young by the time that happened. We just always wondered what happened to the poor thing.

We did have hamsters at one time too. We had fish once in awhile too. My dad had birds sometimes. A lovebird once, who flew away when the door opened once, accidentally. :( A cockatiel. Some finches. I think my dad is the only one out of me, my mom, and sis who liked having a pet. I like animals, but I guess I just don't feel like being in charge of one. We have thought of getting a dog one day for Kavi. I don't want to until he is a few years older, IF we do. :P

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Flashback Friday: Love 2003

This picture is from October 2003, taken in India. I'm not sure if most reading remember or knew how me and my husband met. It was online. And actually we weren't expecting that to happen, I wasn't seeking someone online for a relationship and neither was he. It was just for chit chat, nothing more. But it turned into something else! If you want more of the story you can read this post.

Me and my dad went to India to I could meet up with Sujeet. So this picture is even before we were engaged, but we were engaged within days. That trip was definitely a trip of a lifetime. I went to New Delhi, India and also we went to Agra, India to see the Taj Mahal.

I remember feeling the happiest I had ever felt, in love, and on an adventure. Sometimes that trip seems like a dream, so long ago. But I know it was real since the same guy I went to go see is now living here in the US with me and we have been married over five years. :) We have been "in love" for about eight years. The separation we had because of being on opposite sides of the world was very hard for me back then. I used to wonder if we'd ever be together for good because it seemed so complicated - you can't just have someone move the US to marry you easily. It's a long immigration process. But now it's a distant memory.

If anyone wonders how he settled in to living here, I am happy to say very well. He works in computer software development and has a job only 9 miles from here. He used to have to drive over an hour to Tampa but a job came up nearby for the state and he's been there since October 2008. :)

By the way, tea is much more popular in India than coffee. So I thought this tea vintage image was a cute addition!!

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Flashback Friday: High School Grad 1998

(click above to read Tia's blog and participate!)

This is a group shot of me and most of my girl classmates the day we graduated High School. I snapped a picture of a picture, so it's low in quality. I don't remember how we had a limo, maybe we all chipped in? I don't recall, I just know I would not be paying for a limo on my own! I'm right near the middle in the white shirt and purple skirt.

We met up at our school then rode together to our graduation ceremony(at a local church) and then to the graduation group party afterward.

I graduated from a Christian school in 1998. It was a nice, safe environment. I liked it, because I got to be with so many friends. But don't let that make you think everyone who went there were saints! A friend of mine in this picture just reminded me about how when we were trying to exit our limo two of our guy classmates were mooning us. Icky! hehe

We were a graduating class of 12!! Yes, 12!! This was a new school back then, we were only the second graduating class ever.

I am still friendly with most of the girls in the picture. There is only one girl(far left) that I haven't really seen since High School. The rest I have either seen over the years or am friends with them on facebook. I have to say they were all very nice girls!! I really got lucky in my small class, being with nice people.

(ps I'd like to get back to the weight I was in the picture. I know that's not skinny but I'd be happy with it!)

Flashback Friday: 2 years ago, big and pregnant!

I wanted to join in to this week's theme, but I had no pics on the computer available for it! I definitely have similar pics as Tia, from around the same period of time! But not scanned. :(

So I am sharing one more mom/baby related picture for now! I'm sorry if the theme has been too often from me lately, but it's what I have. Since my son officially turns two on Monday, I thought it would be fun to share my last pregnancy picture before he was born! So it would have been almost two years ago exactly. I was 39 weeks pregnant.

I felt good overall, although this picture was only a week or less before Kavi was born. I always notice that women's noses get swollen during pregnancy and my whole face also looks swollen at this point but especially my nose, so funny to me! You don't even notice it until a couple months later when you look at the pics and think, wow my face looked different near the end! I am a self-conscious person so I kind of had to get brave to post this picture! It's the arm flab issue and fat face look that makes me go eee, but since I was pregnant I feel a little more brave about posting it and can blame being a little swollen and 9 months pregnant! ;) heehee. (What's my excuse these days?)

I liked my belly sticking out and having a nice reason to not worry about it sticking out. But I didn't have the perfect round belly thing going on until near the end when I was ready to pop!

I love participating in this, but I have to tell ya, I always feel like I am scrambling to find an old picture to use, because I don't have a scanner. I end up being able to use something. But soon I hope I can odd more photos onto the computer somehow from long ago yesteryears! :)

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Flashback Friday

As it says on the photo, this picture is from Feb 14th 2008. Kavi was 2 weeks old. :) What a little little baby. He weighed 6 lbs 2 oz at birth and even though he seemed small I still ended up with a c-section after really long back labor. So I was still healing up from that in this picture, and getting used to being a mom and not getting enough sleep. It was a very wonderful time but also a very hard time for me. I felt overwhelmed, really overwhelmed, for the first 3 weeks. I think it was hormones - the baby blues. But a weight seemed to lift from my shoulders when he was around 3 weeks old and I finally felt like yes I could do this job of being a mom. I always wanted to be a mom, I longed to be a mom, but I did find it very overwhelming to go from caring for myself to caring for another life that was entirely dependent on me.

This Sunday we are celebrating his 2nd birthday! Wow has life changed. I have learned so much about being a mother since this picture. So I just wanted to share!! :) Motherhood not an easy task at all and I sometimes wonder if I am a wimp at motherhood because I will feel tired and worn down sometimes. But I think most moms must feel that! :) I know I will become a more experienced mom with passing of time.

Visit ChristopherandTia's blog if you would like to participate in Flashback Friday! Or just go to check out others' flashbacks.