Shopping for kids could be hard sometimes. In general, you will not go wrong with books. And that’s how I reward my daughter for doing good. So these are the recent book I purchased for the little girl:

The truck for the little boy because he adores trucks, specially garbage trucks. I don’t need to wait to shop for their birthday cause everyday is meant to be special and gifts can be given throughout the year.

I had a chance to try this and I adore this camera!!! I like it but I don’t have funds to buy a new one.. the body currently cost $1500. And the new Nikon D4 is almost $6000. Yaaay! I wish I have funds to splurge on things like this. Below are the snapshots from D7000 with 50mm lens.

Lianne knows how to browse online and even look for stuff she wants me to buy. She recently requested the yakima bike racks at cracksandracks.com. I don’t know where did she get the idea to ask for this. I was actually surprised that it was not toys or books. I think my baby girl, my little girl, is turning to be a little lady.. lol Anyway, below is the most recent photo taken last Saturday.

I’m trying to cut back on time I spend watching TV shows or Korean drama, but here I am wanting to buy an XBOX 360. Yikes! My husband should buy it and he is not giving in with my wants. It’s actually good that he is not listening to my plea to buy this. lol

Money is a big issue in our family and it’s mostly because my husband doesn’t think I’m good at managing it. I wanted to prove to him that he was wrong so I started cutting back everywhere I could so I could stash some savings and make him realize he didn’t know what he was talking about. It was actually kind of fun – I started getting coupons and looking for sales on things like toiletries and I even looked into TexasElectrictyProviders Rates and Deals in our area to get our utilities down to where they needed to be. I love being frugal, as it turns out, and I haven’t gone shopping for shoes (my kryptonite) in over three weeks which is a huge accomplishment for me. I love my husband so much and I know that if he’s proud of me when I show him how much I’ve saved I’m going to keep doing this forever. It’s good for our family, too, to have a bigger nest egg to rest upon at the end of the day.

Thanks for the guest post by Donn Schroeder

Latest photo of Gabriel. He turned three last October and he look so grown up now. We no longer have babies at home.

We have a family friend that died recently because of cancer. I don’t know but every time someone close to us die, it connects the loss I had with my father.

It has been 24 long years when he died.. but I still cry every time I think how sad not to have a father to call. It’s the empty feeling that I think will never go away till I die. I’m thankful that I have faith to see him on resurrection. I’m glad that I have God to call as my father despite the loss of my biological father. I know He is incomparable with human, but the guidance and sure hope he given is more than any human can give.

I’m thinking if alcohol rehab treatment centers were already available that time, we could have save my dad. I missed him.

I felt good while taking the exam. I thought I did it well. I thought I knew most of the questions. I thought I did my best to nail it down. However, it didn’t happen that way. I missed 10 points from the passing mark of 75. I’m hoping to make it happen on January 2012. I need to get this done. I’m so tired of this exam process.

I’m eyeing for the north face backpack for my brother. I know that there will be a lot of after holiday sale offer, and I want to take advantage of the savings.

Most of my close family members doesn’t celebrate Christmas or New Year. This is the reason why we’re free from the stress of panic buying before Christmas and saving our bank for big expenses. My husband reminded that gift giving on holidays like this is not an “obligation” and I totally understand. But I think not all people have the same thought about it. Anyway, I’m not against of the people who have tradition of this kind. The tradition is what I don’t agree and the effect of the offense it can bring to the kids, and also to God. I don’t hate gift giving, I’m happy when I received one and my hands are not short in giving gift too.

That’s how I describe my feelings today. Tired from working, Lianne’s doctor appointment, and change of our weekday meeting at the KH. Excited that I will be soon done with my CPA exams and will start to be a full time volunteer in preaching the good news beginning next year.  Hopeful to the upcoming 2012 year. I need to FOCUS. Focus. Focus. Focus on the most important thing in life. Things that money can’t buy.