WW - Phromthep Cape, Phuket, Thailand

The view of Phromthep Cape in Phuket. It's the most photographed location in Phuket. We took this picture during our trip to Thailand over 4 years ago. I can't wait to go back there again.

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Building Houses with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity

This past Saturday Mr. Rojo and I were childless. We left the monkeys with the grandparents while we were out building the Habitat for Humanity house. This is our 2nd year volunteering with the Habitat through our company. It was such a great experience. Last year we helped built a home for a single mom with 2 children. This year we helped built one of the first townhouse in Atlanta. Typically, Habitat built mainly single family home in the Atlanta area. But as we all know the rising cost of land, it has become more expensive to find more afforadable land. So this year the Habitat starts a new project to build townhouse. I am so glad to be a part of this great project.

The day started early at 8am. The site was in the downtown area so for us we had to leave at around 6:30am. There was a paving project on I-75/I-85 that closed 4 left lane.. so we avoided the traffic by going on the local street thanks to our faithful Magellen. We got there right at 8am. Our company and a few other companies worked together on these townhomes. They also provided breakfast, snacks and lunch. After a quick breakfast, we met up with the home leaders who were there to facilitate and assign tasks to all the volunteers.

Before we started, they gave us the safety drill and the background on each of the homeowner. One of the main thing that a lot of people might have the misconception about the Habitat is that the house is free. But it's NOT. Homeowner, not only has to go through strict background check and financial check, they also have to put in sweat equity of 250 hours with the Habitat. The homeowner is paying for the mortgage themselves. The house is NOT free. However, the price is more affordable due to the help from volunteers to help lower the cost of labor which typically accounts for more than 60% of the home price.

This week was week 6 in the building phase. Each home typically takes about 7 weeks from start to finish. So most of our tasks this day were painting inside and outside, putting up the shingles on the roof and touch up on the porch. Mr. Rojo who afraids of height actually volunteered for the roofing task. And I was so proud of him since he did it! I was working on various painting tasks mostly outside touch up. It was hot. I was in pain after the long hot summer day outside. But there is this sense of accomplishment knowing that what I did today makes a difference in a family life. We will sign up again next year. We are addicted. It's very addictive doing the work with the Habitat. It was a great Saturday!

So how was your weekend?

13 Organic Food We Eat

I have started buying more organic food for several months now. I know.. I am one of those people who like to follow the trend especially if it's a good trend. So here are food that I have replaced with Organic items.

1. Milk - This was my first priority when we started out. Since the kids drink a lot of milk.

2. Egg - I originally went with Cage Free eggs but then my more-informed friend told me that it wasn't that much different between Cage Free and non-Cage Free since the definition of Cage Free means chicken get certain hours of cage free. So I decided to go all the way Organic instead of paying premium for Cage Free.

3. Strawberries - Miss J loves strawberries! And it's one of the top Dirty Dozen list of fruits and vegetables.

4. Grapes - I admitted sometimes it's hard to find organic grapes. But whenever I found one, I grap it.

5. Apples - Apples are great for lunch box. And again it's one of the Dirty Dozen.

6. Salad - I bought Organic salad from BJ. A large box for $4.79 isn't bad. The price is very comparable to normal salad bag from Publix.

7. Pancake - I made pancake in a big batch from organic flour. It's actually cheaper than buying frozen pancake from Eggo.

8. Pasta sauce - I scored a good buy from Big Lots for Organic Pasta Sauces. It is a good quick and easy dinner for us.

9. Blueberries - I bought a big frozen blueberries from Costco and used it for pancake. Sometimes Mr. Z just munched on it like a snack..

10. Frozen Green beans - Costco has such a great selection of organic food and one of my favorite is frozen green bean. I swear it tastes better than conventional one.

11. Strawberries Jam - Ok.. I admitted I bought this on a whim at Whole Food Market but I think it's a good buy. Since strawberry is on the list, I figured the jam will be too. Plus we don't use it a lot so one bottle last us for a while.

12. Chicken Broth - The price for conventional chicken broth vs organic one is very comparable. I think it's worth the investment.

13. Diced Tomato - With great coupons and sale, I stocked up on Muir Glen Organic Diced Tomato. We used that in a lot of our recipes so it's a really good buy. After all, I paid less than buying conventional diced tomato.

Movie, Moonlight and Starry Night

What could have been more fun than to watch a movie under the moonlight and the stars. We did just that last Saturday. In our town, we had an annual North Georgia Film Fest which is a part of Georgia Movies in a Park series that was sponsored by Northside Forsyth Hospital. It was an outdoor family-friendly movie festival over a course of 3 days in Cumming. Each night was featuring a free movie on a huge 70 foot Airscreen inflatable movie screen. Along with various pre-movie activities like Clown Circus show, face painting, inflatables jumping slides and moonwalk. There were also various vendors on-site selling drinks, ice cream and hot dogs.. It was a really fun family night.

I have heard about this since last year. We didn't make it last year. This year one of the movie was 'Horton Hears a Who!'. We haven't seen this movie so I thought it would be a great family outing. Plus it was on the Saturday night. Perfect!!

The pre-movie activities started at 7pm and the movie started at dusk. I *was* planning to get there by 7-ish.. But as typical, we didn't make it there till 8:30pm. It was a little humid in the evening so I thought in hindsight it was good that we didn't go there too early. Or we might have packed up and left before the movie even started. After getting the kids in their PJs and packed up our car, we got to the park. The parking lot was almost full. I packed a lot of candies, popcorn, snack and drinks. But I forgot the most important thing - Insect Repellent. So after we settled down, I went to get the kids their Slushee.. and then headed out to the drugstore to pick up Off!.

I got back just right in time for the movie to get started. The weather was so perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, not humid.. with breeze throughout the night. We enjoyed our popcorn, drinks and movie under the moonlight. What a perfect Summer night! Before we knew it, the movie was ended and it was time to head home. I was expected that Mr. Z would fall asleep as soon as the movie started. But he wasn't. He stayed up and watched the whole movie. And after the movie, there was also a Guitar Hero competition. It seemed like a fun night for the teens to hang out as well.

It was a fun fun night. We will make this our annual summer activity. Maybe next year we will make it to pre-movie activities. Also note to self, don't need to bring the whole pantry of snacks with me.

WW - Sunset in Paradise

During our recent Carnival Cruise, we enjoyed our last day on the cruise with this beautiful view of the Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean...

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Handyman In a Making Part 2

This past Saturday we took Miss J and Mr. Z to Lowe's Build and Grow clinic. It's Lowe's bi-weekly program for kids. It's similar to our previous visit to Home Depot Kids Workshop. Lowe's provides tool, apron and all parts for parents to work on a small project with their children.

We got there about a quarter after 10. There were a lot of people already there working on their projects. We handed the gentleman who supervised the whole thing our paperwork that I printed and signed online. Basically, it's the waiver form just to make sure that we won't sue them if we happen to bang on our own thumb. The gentleman then handed us the building kit, children size hammer and Lowe's apron.. Gosh.. I love this. I wish I could get one for myself.

We found the empty space and started our project. This week project was the race car. It looked a bit complicate but they did have an instruction and model for us to follow.

Well, I'm not a handyman by trade so I made a small mistake by putting it one of the panel for the car off from the original plan. No biggie.. We were able to pull it out and started it over again. The project didn't take long to complete. We got it done within 45 mins. I'm sure you can do it faster with bigger kids. But we just wanted them to do it themselves and enjoyed the process.

After we had finished, we (the kids) received their certification and badge for this week project. It would have been even better if the badge has self-adhesive sticker. Now I would need to sew it on their apron. Me and crafty stuff doesn't really go well together.

So if you have no other plan on Saturday morning, be sure to check out Home Depot Kids Workshop or Lowe's Build and Grow Clinics for low cost and fun activity for the whole family.