Keli bakes

While supervising Lena in March 2014 we decided to make cinnamon sugar pretzels. 

 yum! 

 I must say that they came out really well not as  great as the last time I made them. But still a fun activity. 

Keli celebrates Ralph's birthday age 42 March 2014

While out with my friend John in February. We somehow got on the subject of games. He said something about "tabletop games" and I said "oh like Warhammer" He said "how do you know"....well because of Ralph. John was getting rid of a whole army so I that is what I gave Ralph for his birthday. 

 Here it is. 

On the top of the box I wrote Happy Birthday in English, Mongolian and Korean. We went and got pizza and watched a movie. 

Keli celebrates Amber's baby shower March 2014

My friend Amber's baby shower was in March 2014. She had it in a charming old church that was seriously out in the middle of nowhere Faquier County. There was great food. A super cute cake and fun games some of which I got to be in charge of. Here are some of the pictures I took.

 the cake! it was so cute. That is Amber and Cody's son name, Colton. 

 me, Amber and her mom and my ffriend Linda. 

 Sara, Amber's cousin and I. 

 Taylor, Amber's cousin me and Destiny. 

Taylor and Destiny became BFF's 

 These two for real need a play date. They had so much fun playing together. Destiny is also Amber's cousin. 

 Amber, me and Cody. 

 me and Shirley- Amber's aunt. 

Thanks for inviting me Amber. I am sure you have used the diapers and Colton has worn the outfits I got him :) 

Beautiful Keli

I wanted to cut my hair in a pixie cut. I was inspired by Jennifer Lawrence and Ginnifer Goodwin. I met a lady named Liz and I loved her hair. So I asked who her stylist was. She introduced me to Lauren at PR Partners in Oakton. 

 Here I am with Lauren and her assistant before my hair cut.

 me before I cut my hair.

 and after! 

This was in March 2014. I have had it cut since then and need to do so again. I have gotten tons of compliments and I am very happy with it. 

Keli works

there are a lot of kids authors out there. For some reason it is popular to celebrate Dr. Seuss  B-day.. Maybe one year I will do a theme with kids where I give other authors equal attention. In Feb. 2014. I made Dr. Seuss hat's for the kids and took this amazing picture.

 Vivian, Sejin, Chloe, Jacob and Seyheok.

Chloe said that "hat is like a gentleman's hat" We read a story where a guy has a top hat and he is a "gentleman" so cute! 

 

Keli gets schooled

I have been taking classes with BYU-I ( Brigham Young University in Idaho online. I am doing a program called "Pathways" It is like a Pathways to getting your bachelors. I am in my second semester now. Last semester we had life skills and Book of Mormon part one. This semester we have Teachings of The Living Prophets and Writing. 

Last semester we each had to volunteer in sets of three to teach a class about whatever life skill that we learned that week. We had one about doing appropriate research. We talked about how to research and where and what you need to do to get better results. We also talked about sources. I talked about how I wanted to cut my hair in a pixie hair cut and how I was researching that. I signed up at the beginning of class on the first night. I did not know anyone then. I have met almost if not everyone in the class now and I have made some great friends. 

That night I taught with Maria/Mary and Isabel. We all just happened to sign up on the same day. I think that we made a pretty good team. 

This is blurry but the best picture of us all three.

This semester we have to just lead the class all by ourselves. I already did that glad I have that out of the way.

I am so grateful to meet such wonderful people and to go back to school. 

GO US !

Keli works

 I found an easel at the thrift store for only two dollars. Susan Teacher had about three other easels so I did easel painting with the kids in February 2014. At first they did not get to just paint on their paper. But pretty soon they got the hand of it and had a lot of fun.

 Jacob and Joon Woo paiting on an easel. 

 

Keli bakes

I think that we all have dreams that are well wild. Some people's dreams may be a lot more wilder than mine. One of my dreams is to be a LOT and I mean a lot more self-sufficient. That means I would have to be a LOT and I mean a LOT less lazy. I was looking on a homesteading blog and it gave a list of skills that you should have one of them was being able to bake an apple pie from scratch. I have made a pie crust before. I have made an apple pie before. I had never done both. I decided to do that for the church potluck in February 2014. 

My crust was delicious. The day before I had went to Michaels and I had gotten little cookie cutters and cut out shapes to put on my crust. 

 I did hearts. How cute are they? I also had a lot of crust left over so I just put it all on. Don't judge. 

My apple pie was a salted caramel apple pie. I got the recipe off this blog http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/07/04/salted-caramel-apple-pie/ I did not make her crust though. I made one of the homesteading site. 

I also decided to do my make-up and dress nice and do my hair that day. I need to realize that every goal I have can not be completed in one day. These things need time or I need to get up a lot earlier. I was an HOUR late to church. I am not even kidding you. I later told Ralph I was an hour late to church.He said why were you an hour late. I said well I made that pie. I mean I cut up three different kinds of apples. I MADE the caramel. I made the crust. AND I did my hair and make up and dressed cute. Yes I was an hour late.

I got in my car to go to church the pie on the front seat and I turned the corner out of my street and the pie leaked took a turn and part of it leaked all over my passenger door. I went back to my mom's and put it in a cake carrier. WHICH I KNEW THAT I SHOULD HAVE GOT AT THE THRIFT STORE EVEN THOUGH SOME PEOPLE THOUGHT IT WAS A WASTE OF SPACE! 

My pie was a HIT at the potluck! I brought some to Ralph after he said it was really good.He said that he thought a lot of apple pies had to much juice but that this one was just right. I thought um.. that is because that juice is now all over my car door. 

 Me at the church with my apple pie. February 2014. 

Today is another potluck. I am just bringing juice! 

Keli Travels

In February 2014. Michelle and I did some exploring in DC. We tried to go to the zoo but it was the first nice day in a LONG time and there was no parking there. We then drove by Duke Ellington's house 

For lunch we ended up at Dangerously Delicious Pie's in DC. This place is a MUST visit. 

I got this quiche to start with. 

 so many choices..

 I could not get a picture of all the flavors 

 I chose The Baltimore Bomb pie. It is made with Berger's cookies which are local to Baltimore. It was so yummy and I really want to go back. 

Keli Works

While helping out at the Korean Day care I realized that the kids LOVE to take selfies with me. In fact it is very entertaining to them ( and well me too)

 Vivian and me.

 Vivian and myself again.

 a little bit of Jihun and Jacob and me.

 Seyheok and me.. he is not overly into it.

 Sejin and me 

 I had Chloe and Vivian put together these puzzles and then took this picture. They insisted on having these beanie babies in the picture.

 I made badges for them, during a community helper week.. Chloe, Sejin, Jacob Sehyeok, Ian, Vivian and Joon Woo.

 Detective Sejin

 Detective Sehyeok

 I love this picture of Sehyeok and Vivian. I told Ralph it is "Little Korean us" Vivian is just talking away and Sehyeok looks unsure.. ahahahah .. but he is still there and has a ghost of a smile..

 there was SO MUCH SNOW OUTSIDE.. I brought some in ( in my mom's vintage Tupperware) for Vivian and Chloe to play with. 

 and Vivian and me..

and the best part of all this.. I introduced a whole other generation to Beanie Babies.I have a whole bag of them I bring with me every time. Every time there is a new on. They have so much fun finding the new one and doing all sorts of things with the other ones. 

Here is the first one I brought in Derby the horse.

all of these were in February 2014. I am going over there today, I will make sure to get another selfie of Vivian and myself. 

Keli does not celebrate Valentines Day 2014

You know what SUCKS when you are single VALENTINES DAY! .. which comes not long after New Years Eve.. which ALSO SUCKS when you are single.. 

It is also COLD then. It is also DARK then.. those thing also suck when you are single.. 

I also got "snowed in" too many times to count winter 2013/2014. Being snowed in SUCKS when you are single.

 I did nothing on Valentines Day 2014. I meant to ask Ralph to do something. He was going on and on about studying for he bar so I did not. Then it snowed a lot so I could not do anything, anyway so I spent the day doing stuff like that. 

 posting stuff like this..

 or this ..

 or this.. my mom says " If you want to know what sexy is, look at this man" 

I say feel free to look at this one too..

 oh my goodness...

So here is too a better Valentines Day 2015. Also if you are in a relationship now and you read this and say " oh Keli it is not that bad!" 

well... I just don't even know..

Random Keli

It snowed so much winter 2013-2014. SO MUCH. I was SO DONE! I had no heat in my car. I barely worked because school's were cancelled. I also felt like I had to shovel my driveway way more than I would have cared to do. 

One time it was so deep I thought I was in Utah. I am very blessed to have great neighbors that were willing to help me out. I am also grateful for my home teacher Cody who came over twice with his large truck and helped me shovel. 

 Myself and one of my neighbors Feb 2014. 

I seriously want a snow blower or something I don't know. 

I did try and make a snow house one day. No picure because it took me so long to clean the driveway that the neighbor kids were inside by that time. Another time I had a small snowball fight with them. Another time I tried to do the food coloring in the snow did not really work.

So yeah winter 2014.kind of a bust. 

random Keli

In February 2014 I went over to my friend Monica's house and while the snow came down like CRAZY... I played Monopoly with her children Lexie and Nate and her nephew Johnny. 

Lexie, Johnny and Nate. 

It was so fun! I used to play this with my friends all the time when I was a kid and teaching it to another generation was so fun. 

It was so fun to see them buy and sell and make choices just like I did. We played for a couple of hours  and then the snow was getting crazy so I drove home. 

I need to go over and do something with them again. 

Also check out the game pieces from the version we played 

Keli Celebrates Lunar New Year 2014 Year of The Horse

I work at a Korean pre-school. It is very part-time and it is in my neighborhood so that is convenient. The kids are so cute and so nice. I love going over there and seeing them. 

Last year we had a Relief Society thing about "Chinese New Year"  This year I learned that it is not just Chinese New Year. It is really "Lunar New Year" 2014 is the year of the horse. Basically it is big in most of Asia. 

The kids dressed up in Hanbok. ( Korean formal wear) and we did different traditional games and songs and ate certain food. I need/want to make this a tradition and do this every year. 

 Chloe in her hanbok 

 Jihun and Sejin in their hanbok. This is traditional game where you throw those things in the air a few times and see how many X's land a certain way. 

SO CUTE! 

I look forward to celebrating 2015, the year of the sheep/ram/goat whatever! 

Keli Eats

Recently my friend from HS, John Wu got in touch with me. He lives in Frederick County, Maryland but was going to be in town because he was dropping off his wife at Dulles Airport. 

He said he wanted to take me and our friend Beth out to dinner. Beth was not available to go. I wish she had gone, because the food was delicious. I did not have a phone at this time. John was kind enough to take all these pictures and send them to me. 

I found the restaurant Mokomandy online. it is Modern Korean and Cajun food, plus the name Mandy. They asked us if we had a reservation. We did not. I had no idea that restaurants in Sterling even needed reservations on a weeknight. We had to sit at the bar. I did not mind the food was delicious. It did not feel like we were in Sterling it felt like we were in DC or Old Town Alexandria or something.

 John was trying all these fancy beers. So I asked for a signature non-alcoholic drink. I got this. It was a fancy lemondade with flavored ice cubes. I loved it. It was really cool to watch the bartender make it. 

 These devilled eggs were delicious. 

 my first time trying Kobe beef! 

 my first time trying foie gras. You can also see John's beer in the back ground. 

 rabbit and venison sausage. My first time trying rabbit. in the background you can see our Wild Boar Kimchi something. My first time trying wild boar. 

John said that we are suppossed to pierce the egg and let the yolk mingle with the flavors. My first time trying that too. 

 dessert creme brulee with lavender whip cream

 this was on our whip cream.

They also had a hand washing machine there. It was so cool. John took a video hopefully he can get it on Facebook. 

Great food! Great experience. Time to go out again. This time I hope that I can meet his wife.