What to expect from this blog?

I've been reflecting on myself, since we came to the US, I've made alot of changes to myself, my lifestyle, my interests, my character.

What I never used to do, never used to take note of, never spared a thought on, has currently taken over me, and I've been working on all of them constantly.

I'm currently a housewife, moved to USA with my husband, and will be here for 2 more years. We have no kids yet, and with so much time currently in my hands, I was able to explore different interests and learn new stuff.

Currently I'm into:
-Trading -  Thanks to Dad.

I've been into it for sometime now.  Its the most challenging and difficult to learn, yet, its also the most rewarding. I own alot of books on trading, and as I read and improve on my own skills, I hope to be able to share them on this blog too.

-Cooking & Baking - Thanks to hubby.

As a housewife, having my hubby to be out working hard all day, in a place with 4 seasons. Seeing my husband going to work everyday and taking a beating from the weather, while freezing in winter, and sunburnt in summer, has made me want to reward him every single day that I'm able to. I guess food is the #1 way to reward a tired man. I wanted to be able to cook with love, and fill his stomach with food that we miss from back home. Of cuz, food is also the key to a man's heart. ;) As Asians living in the USA, we're not able to get Singapore food as easily as back home, and I have been studying recipes and trial-ing and erroring both our mummy's recipes, & if u're keen on learning how those hawker food were cooked, or if u're like me, living abroad, and want to learn how to please your tastebuds, the recipes with photos will be coming up soon!

-Traveling - Thanks to my parents & my husband

Since young, my parents always used my grades as a gauge to where I would go on my holiday. The more 'A's I got, the higher the budget for my holiday. It got me excited about scoring well, to get out to have fun. Traveling was always exciting, you get to see different culture, different living standards, you actually experience alot and grow from there. While hubs and me were dating, we travelled a little bit to nearby countries and each experience was different. We enjoyed exploring different places together, and till now, we're still doing that. Its evident in our road trips to our nearby states. And we've only been here for half a year. I can only imagine more travelling to come our way.

-Photography. This is really thanks to Glen.

I used to be crazy about photos and I always believed photos are the best memories of special moments in life. I've kept most of our dating photos since 8 years ago till now, and we're still adding on to our collection. Since young, I've always loved what Mother Nature has to offer us, and I love beautiful scenery and animals, and insects and all the living things in this world. I would take photos of them with my cheapo compact cameras and never thought of going for higher end cameras for fear of not having the knowledge to use them. Thanks to Glen, his passion, and him sharing his knowledge with me, pushed me to get myself a Lumix FZ-35, a super zoom, that hopefully will allow me to take great pics of landscape and nature, for me to share with u guys.

Fitness - Thanks to USA, for having such high elevations compared to Singapore, and causing my chest pains.

I first started exercising in winter, to keep myself warm, cuz I needed to sweat. 2ndly, when we first drove down to Utah. where the elevation was higher, and it was winter, I had trouble walking to our car in the car park. I had terrible chest pains and I was breathless from just walking. I had to hold on to hubs to stable myself. Since then, I've pushed myself, telling myself I don't want to go back there, and I want to enjoy this journey with hubs as far as we can.

-Marriage, Love, & relationships - Thanks to hubs and people around me.

You can still call me a newly-wed (at least that's how I feel!), even though I'm almost approaching my 1 year anniversary. I enjoy reading self improvement books, and I believe in making changes to improve oneself. Therefore, you can expect alot of self reflection, and alot of thoughts on life. Jotting out my thoughts and thinking through them allows me to reflect on myself, and thus, improve myself to become a better person to my hubby, my family, buddies, and the people around me.  You'll get tips on being a loving wife, housework short cuts, and much more!

I love sharing, and I love jotting the little bits of info every now and then, so that I can come back to them in the future and go thru them again.

Would you enjoy these topics? Or am I too boring for u? What would u like to see posted here?

3 weeks without alcohol...

We've been here for quite awhile now. 7 months passed, and I must say, this place is still as boring as it is, the only difference is, the company you have with you.

Its true that being in the USA, where alcohol is cheap and no "kopitiams" around, the tendency to end the day with a bottle in hand on the sofa is often very tempting.

By cheap alcohol, I'm talking about maybe 50 cents a can of beer here? Its about the same price with coca cola back home in SG. Here being mostly surrounded by hubby's friends, all beer loving guys, its inevitable that myself, would start frequently drinking too.

I started drinking alot when we just came back on our last trip from Vegas. I drank alot at Vegas, there was hardly a moment after 1pm I was sober. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. And since that trip, I was drinking and buying alcohol every few days. I would drink everyday, some light cocktails which I bought for $3 for 4 bottles. They tasted great, made me feel happy. I called them my happy juice.

The furthest I ever gone was 2 days without it, and I would make up those 2 days with drinking extra bottles of BJ. That's the brand of my favorite alcohol drink here. I sometimes would go up to 4 bottles a day. get quite high and happy, thinking that it was helping me to get to bed.

However, drinking that amount, also made me wake up in the middle of the night, needing to pee. While it never gave me hangovers, it made me wake up the next day with slight aches in the body. I know alcohol isn't good for me, but I thought that it was good to help me doze in bed faster, and it kept me feeling happy!

With my recent craze in health and exercise, I've been reading up alot, and trying to get active in my lifestyle. It started when 3 weeks ago, I started doing my exercises more frequently, about 4 days a week, and I read that drinking alcohol would hinder muscle development. That would make all my exercising put to waste. And if I drank, it would make the next day terrible for me to exercise, since I would be aching. So I put aside the drinks and tried to go as far as I could without it.

So here I am, at week 3 and I know I'll be breaking the rules shortly, like this weekend, where I will be on my road trip cum vacation, which I will not be exercising, and will be stuffing my face with delicious food. And will end up at Vegas on the last day of the trip, where the casinos serve Cosmo on the rocks for $1. Something I can't avoid.

I'm not a strict diet person, I'm thinking of going for more nutrition in my food choices and all, but I'm someone who enjoys her food and choclates, and I will never go on a diet to starve myself. I eat about 5 meals a day, get a bloated tummy, but i still love myself & my body.

Hopefully this vacation I will still manage to get some "active" in. I know i will be taking alot of great photos and those "lunges" and "squats" to get those great shots, should help my bum somehow. ;)

Update: Did not exercise since Sunday, which I've been feeling guilty about. But I will definately push myself to workout tomorrow to clock some for this week before I leave for the trip.

Break your limits, unleash yourself..

You can bet there will be more blogging coming up. I really want to share the photos we have took on our road trips and our life here. Be it to family or friends..

I want to share our travel road trips and our experience living in another country outside our own..


But at this moment, here's a touching video I want to share with everyone..
  
Limitations are set by yourself. Push your limits to achieve higher than you thought u can. You can fail 100 times but if u succeed that 1 time, u still succeed. Love this video. Too inspirational. Watch it and understand why.. I hope it changes your perception the way it did for me.