That dreadful conversation

This afternoon, I have an unexpected delivery. A flower company delivered a nice flower from an Animal Hospital. It was such a nice gesture from them. As I'm sure they understand the loss of a pet. But I'm not yet ready to talk to my kids about Dakota yet. Plus my husband wasn't home. How am I to be able to do this myself.

I was hoping that my daughter won't notice it. But that will be too easy, won't it? She noticed and asked where it came from. I can't lie so I told her that it came from the Animal Hospital. Immediately, she said 'For Dakota?'... Gosh!!! Why she has to be so smart!

So here is the conversation we had a few minutes ago.

Mom: 'Honey, I have something to tell you. Do you know that Dakota has been sick and he is old? He is even older than Grandpa. So it's time for him to go to Heaven and be with God.'

Miss J: 'He died?'

Immediately, Mr. Z (my little boy) went to the basement door and opened it up and said.. 'Dakota is not there'...

Silence.... I just don't know what else to do but gave them a big hug!!!

Mr. Z said he wants Dakota back. I told him.. We can't. He is in a better place now. So now he ran upstairs and said he wants to go visit Dakota in Heaven!

On the good note, it took them about 10 minutes later to get back to play game on their computer. They didn't get to spend as much time as us with Dakota so that's one good thing that the attachment isn't that strong yet. But we will never know when they might be thinking of him again.

Must eat steak...

It has been a while since we have been out for a nice meal in a restaurant. You know.. Like a lot of families with tight budget. Eating out is not a norm here. But last week, we have had a plan to go out with a few of our friends but it didn't work out as some of them are sick. I can't help but think about it after looking at where and what we want to eat.

We have heard so much about Stoney River Steakhouse and figure it's time to take a test drive there. At first I wasn't sure if it's one of those upscale restaurants that we should leave the kids locked down in the basement.. OK.. It's a joke here don't call Social service on me now. :) I called and found out that they don't mind children since they do have kid menu.

We could have called ahead to reserve priority seating but figured that we weren't that hungry and we could wait. So we headed there around 5:30pm. And the place was already packed. When we got there, we saw a few customers were already done with their meal. Come on!!! Does that mean they eat at 4pm? Huh.. They might combine lunch and dinner in one meal. Just my guess.

The wait was 40-50 minutes.. It wasn't bad if we didn't forget to pack a Leapster for our kids. But in the end, they did pretty well. Just had to bribe them with a diet coke and game on my cell phone. Whew!! Save the evening. We figured if they started to act up we could just walk across the street to the Waffle House.

We started off with Crabcake appetizer. Too bad for my husband, he just started developing the allergic reaction to shell-fish and turned out crab cake is one of them. Sorry, honey.. The Crabcake was gooooooood.. But I think what's better is their dinner rolls. Not only, the taste is out there but you don't have to pay for it.

I ordered Coffee Cured Steak - medium rare. Hmm hmm.. I have no word to describe it. You just have to try it yourself!

My husband ordered Ribeyes.. Gosh!! Thank God I cooked our ribeye 2 night before. Otherwise, we won't be touching that after we have tasted this Ribeye.

We finished with no room to spare for any dessert. But it was a good night out and worth every penny.

Guess this was our highlighted activity for our weekend. It has been a while since we take a trip. So a restaurant trip is counted as one of the weekend trip on my book!

Friday afternoon in a park

This afternoon after the kids got home from school we headed to Central Park (not to be confused with NY city's Central Park). A few of the neighbors headed there and we thought it was a good way for us to distract ourselves from our sadness. It's hard not to think about Dakota so the best thing for us to do right now is to try to focus on the kids.

Central Park is a huge park in our area. I hardly visit there before. I have never been to the playground area before. But I think after today I will make it my routine to visit there more often. Might even make it a Pizza in a Park friday thing.

The playground area is fenced in and they had 2 main areas. One for smaller kids and another section is for bigger kids. In the middle that separate the two areas is the cover area with picnic tables and bathroom. Very convenient!!! One thing that I notice is that since this park is relatively new (built in 2001) so there aren't that many shade area. But for us, we probably won't be out when it's too hot anyway.

After spending quite some times in the playground, we hit the walking/runing/biking trail. It's a very nice trail for biking with small kids. They rode around the trail along the baseball fields. Pretty good work out for a nice afternoon.

The Sun started to come down and the temp cooled down pretty quickly. So it's time to head home.

In Memory of Our Beloved Dakota...

It was not the Valentine that we expected. It was a really really sad Valentine indeed for us. Our dog - Dakota Hopper - passed away last night. He was just over 9 years old. We will remember a good time we have had together with him. He had been with us for 9 years and 1 day.

We got him on Feb 13, 1999. He was a really sweet and energetic dog. He was always happy to see and interact with anyone. We almost named him 'Hopper'. When he was little, he always hopped instead of walking. We thought it might be because the grass in FL was too high for such a little big dog like him.

Last night he wasn't eating and moving much. We thought we will take him to the vet in the morning. But this morning he has already gone to Heaven. At least we can think that he has gone in a peaceful way..

We know that he will be in Heaven and has all the good time right now. But we will always miss him. Good bye, Dakota. Thank you for such a good years that we have had. I wish we would have more. You will always be in our heart!!!

My Coupon Clipping experiment...

Well, I have been reading WFMW carnival for a while. But I have never participated. But I think this time I have something to contribute. So here it goes..

After 3 weeks on clipping coupon experiment, I admitted that I'm pretty addicted to it. How so? Well, one Sat's night I woke up and panic that I forgot to buy Sunday's newspaper but it was just Saturday!!!

How did I do with my experiment so far?

Well, first week was a disaster. I spent a lot of time sorting it and cutting it. But the money saving has kept me going and figured that as a newbie I'm allowed extra time for learning curve.

Second week, I save over $30 in total (more than 1 trip to the grocery though). I mainly shopped at Publix. So I just shopped based on whatever on sale on that week.

So I have to say.. So far so good. Still buying newspaper on Sunday and cutting coupon as my therapeutic afternoon activity (how sad is that?)

There are a few things that I find work best for me.

1) Buy the double version of Sunday newspaper. Normally it will cost about 50 cents more and you will get 2 sets of your coupon which comes handy when you shop.

2) Always look for BOGO (Buy One Get One Free) deal and use 2 coupons. This will pretty much guarantee your saving

3) Use the check-size accordion wallet. I just create category based on the aisle in the grocery store and sort the coupon as I clip them. It takes no time to do so.

4) Attach a paper clip on the front and use that when I go shopping for the stuff from your shopping list.

Well, here you go.. my first WFMW. Hope it will work for you too! Also check out other useful tips from other bloggers here!

What has become of Valentine?

I didn't grow up here so I don't know what my childhood's Valentine would have been liked in school. But when I was young, our Valentine basically consisted of collecting the most heart-shape stickers on our uniform and maybe (just maybe) a few roses or flowers.

Nowaday, with one kid in Elementary school and another one in Daycare I didn't realize how much it has become such an event. Last year we weren't in the country so I didn't know about this. This year boy... I wasn't prepared for all the preparation I had to make. Granted it's nothing as major as Christmas season. But still.. It's just a Valentine day!

For my daughter, I came up with a simple and economic solution for her valentine for her friends. A heart shape paper with her handwriting for her friend sticking to a lollipop. Add a little bow then we got a heart flower. Then today we worked on making her a mailbox so that she can bring the valentine to her class and also possibly collect one (or many) from her friends.

For my son, since there is no instruction and probably they wouldn't care how and what we bring. I just got a bag of lollipop and a Valentine plastic tub for him. I have never thought that I will be needing a tub just like Easter and Halloween. Now I have one more tub to keep track of for the Holiday.

I seriously think that it's a plan drafted up by dentist, candy companies, and card companies... ;) Just my 2 cents.

Check out other tips here.