Monday night I met up Natalie at the Brea Mall to hang-out and shop for a Father’s Day gift. Originally we were going to eat at Nordstrom café, but it was closed. We seem to always end up at CPK and so to go along with tradition we dined there again. I had totally forgotten we went there after both our surgeries last year until she reminded me. Natalie had knee surgery and was dying to get out of the house and I was just given the OK from the doctor to drive again and here we are almost a year later. Crazy how fast time flies.
I met Natalie in front of Nordstrom where she was talking with a guy. It was her cousin who was selling some all natural creams and lotions in a middle cart. He was a riot as he went through his script while we exfoliated our skin and saw the dirty water afterwards of our dead skin and toxins. Our hands left so smooth afterwards and he even gave us complimentary scrubs to take home. What a nice guy!!
So we hit the mall for gifts ideas and then headed to CPK. But before we went in Natalie treated us to some smoothies. I had a java, peanut butter, banana smoothie and the girl taking our order kept asking me “are you sure you want it like that?” … “it sounds weird” … “if you don’t like it, I’ll make you another one.” She wanted me to try it at the station to make sure I like it and she looked some what grossed out when I tasted it, but hey it I liked it.
For dinner we both tried something different then the regular. I tried the Kung Pao Spaghetti with classic Kung Pao sauce with garlic, green onions, peanuts, chicken and red chilies and Natalie the Four Cheese Ravioli. YUM!
So tonight starts an early celebration of her b-day. She is having a bon fire and I'm bring the s'more stuff.
p/s. Not sure what's happening BUT... do you notice the time I am blogging? Yup, it's in the day and I am doing it from work AND see other blogs AND see photos on Cindy's blog. IT must have taken the restriction off.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Kid magnet
Before the move I took Jayla to the local park to have some exercise. She met a little girl named Halie and soon they started playing all sorts of imaginary games. Halie wasn’t the most well behaved kid and kept stealing other kids soccer balls. I don’t know why, but some how I became the playground mediator, as Halie would run over to me and ask ME (not her dad or other kids) to play catch with her or hold the ball. Then Sebastian would come crying to ME (not his mom or Halie’s dad) asking for his ball. This happened like three times!!! When Halie had a “boo-boo” she didn’t run to her dad, she ran to me to show me it. Then, she later hugged me. It’s a little awkward when a kid you don’t know just randomly hugs you. I didn’t know what to do, so said thank you and stood up and told her to go play with Jayla.
Yup, so now at the new house Jayla and I went for a walk (more like a climb up the hill) to the park about 6 blocks away. Shortly after we got there Mom Amy and her son Michael and daughter Alison showed up. Jayla is a friendly gal and soon the kids were playing together. The kids totally ignored Mom Amy and kept coming ME. They would run around me literally, show me all the pine needles they collected, the girls came to me looking for safety from the monster (Michael) and Michael kept wanting to tell me his colors and the type of monster he was. I don’t mind that interaction at all. I was sitting on the edge of the park and next thing I knew Jayla and the two kids I just met were hugging me for what seemed like a VERY long time and wouldn’t let go. Mom Amy just looked at me and I thought quickly and told the kids to have a race on who could get to the slide the fastest.
There must be some kid sign on me that we adults can’t see that reads huggable kid mediator or something.
Yup, so now at the new house Jayla and I went for a walk (more like a climb up the hill) to the park about 6 blocks away. Shortly after we got there Mom Amy and her son Michael and daughter Alison showed up. Jayla is a friendly gal and soon the kids were playing together. The kids totally ignored Mom Amy and kept coming ME. They would run around me literally, show me all the pine needles they collected, the girls came to me looking for safety from the monster (Michael) and Michael kept wanting to tell me his colors and the type of monster he was. I don’t mind that interaction at all. I was sitting on the edge of the park and next thing I knew Jayla and the two kids I just met were hugging me for what seemed like a VERY long time and wouldn’t let go. Mom Amy just looked at me and I thought quickly and told the kids to have a race on who could get to the slide the fastest.
There must be some kid sign on me that we adults can’t see that reads huggable kid mediator or something.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Our new home
Well, the last two weeks have been filled with packing, moving out of the old place and into the new place, cleaning, fighting a cold, and finals, along with the normal work schedule and getting Jayla for the summer. It was a lot to go through, but finally we are in our new place and starting to settle in. Tah dah... here's our lil piece of Cali!
We bought the house that was in a short-sale so it was sold "as is" which means we inherited some problems and the house was not move-in ready:
1. We fixed the leaking faucet in both the front and the back of the house where you attach your hose to, plus the kitchen sink faucet . Well... that must have put some pressure back in the pipes because when the painters flushed the toilets the toilets flooded. We got that fixed ASAP.
2. We had the inside painted. You will see why in just a little bit.
3. We had new bedroom and bathroom doors installed.
4. There were two previous leaks on the water heater which caused the floor below it to rot and water heater to cave in. Jay and the handyman replaced the floor, scraped the closet of the popcorn and painted it, plus replaced the water heater.
5. We had a guy come out and remove the popcorn from the hallway and bedrooms.
6. We replaced the wooded garage door we a metal automatic one that rolls up.
7. Jay and the handyman closed up two door ways, one from the master bedroom to the garage and another from the entry way to the kitchen.
8. Plumbers came out to snake the bathroom tub and their camera guy came to see where some obstruction was occurring. Pretty cool that they can stick a camera down the pipes and record for us to see.
9. We had carpet and base boards installed in the bedrooms. Which meant almost a week of Jay pulling up tile in the rooms and sanding the concrete foundation and long days!!
10. We had a guy haul away a truck and half full of a whole bunch of crap that the previous people left behind.
11. Ordered shutters for the living room and bedrooms. In 6-8 weeks they should be in and installed.
And this is where the work pays off with before and afters
BEFORE: This is what you call running out of paint and never caring. Can you believe this was a little girl's room?
AFTER: This is now our guest bedroom. New baseboards, painting and carpet. We used Behr paint in all the rooms and this one is Peanut Butter color. We ordered shutters so have temporary shades up.
BEFORE: This is the master bedroom's closets, tile and door that we closed off to the garage.
AFTER: We need to add closet doors and rods, but it looks SO much better already. The paint is Quiet Veranda. Jay was too cute and said I could pick out the color to our room. Thanks LOVE!!
BEFORE: This is still the master. I can't even begin to explain how much dirt was in this house. i kept saying over and over again "how do people live like this???"
AFTER: But now it's in good hands that are giving it much TLC! I love our room!!!
BEFORE: This was another little girls room. There was a huge Rot and Mastiff outdoors that left dirt and paw prints on the outside window.
AFTER: But now it's out office to be. Once we get furniture in here. This room is Peanut Butter too. The painter's tape was just touch up spots for the painter, but now all fixed.
BEFORE: This room house a older son that was the last one to move out. He didn't have a job, smoked pot back here and waited until the eleventh hour to remove the dogs from the property. Arrggg! Seriously, we closed Escrow late because he couldn't find a place to live.
AFTER: This is Jayla's room now and we still need to put a closet rod up and closet doors in each room. Her room is a little darker because she is young and will touch the walls, so we didn't want to have marks all over, so thought it would be safer to have a darker color. It's called Burnt Almond. What a difference from the top, huh?
BEFORE: Living room before, was this dark Tera cotta with yellow mustard ceiling with dirt EVERYWHERE!!! Even gum on the floor and dead flies...GROSS!!!
AFTER (in progress): We removed the greasy and filthy ceiling fan and painted. Excuse the mess.. we still haven't unpacked. Next weekend we are replacing the sliding door.
We bought the house that was in a short-sale so it was sold "as is" which means we inherited some problems and the house was not move-in ready:
1. We fixed the leaking faucet in both the front and the back of the house where you attach your hose to, plus the kitchen sink faucet . Well... that must have put some pressure back in the pipes because when the painters flushed the toilets the toilets flooded. We got that fixed ASAP.
2. We had the inside painted. You will see why in just a little bit.
3. We had new bedroom and bathroom doors installed.
4. There were two previous leaks on the water heater which caused the floor below it to rot and water heater to cave in. Jay and the handyman replaced the floor, scraped the closet of the popcorn and painted it, plus replaced the water heater.
5. We had a guy come out and remove the popcorn from the hallway and bedrooms.
6. We replaced the wooded garage door we a metal automatic one that rolls up.
7. Jay and the handyman closed up two door ways, one from the master bedroom to the garage and another from the entry way to the kitchen.
8. Plumbers came out to snake the bathroom tub and their camera guy came to see where some obstruction was occurring. Pretty cool that they can stick a camera down the pipes and record for us to see.
9. We had carpet and base boards installed in the bedrooms. Which meant almost a week of Jay pulling up tile in the rooms and sanding the concrete foundation and long days!!
10. We had a guy haul away a truck and half full of a whole bunch of crap that the previous people left behind.
11. Ordered shutters for the living room and bedrooms. In 6-8 weeks they should be in and installed.
And this is where the work pays off with before and afters
BEFORE: This is what you call running out of paint and never caring. Can you believe this was a little girl's room?
AFTER: This is now our guest bedroom. New baseboards, painting and carpet. We used Behr paint in all the rooms and this one is Peanut Butter color. We ordered shutters so have temporary shades up.
BEFORE: This is the master bedroom's closets, tile and door that we closed off to the garage.
AFTER: We need to add closet doors and rods, but it looks SO much better already. The paint is Quiet Veranda. Jay was too cute and said I could pick out the color to our room. Thanks LOVE!!
BEFORE: This is still the master. I can't even begin to explain how much dirt was in this house. i kept saying over and over again "how do people live like this???"
AFTER: But now it's in good hands that are giving it much TLC! I love our room!!!
BEFORE: This was another little girls room. There was a huge Rot and Mastiff outdoors that left dirt and paw prints on the outside window.
AFTER: But now it's out office to be. Once we get furniture in here. This room is Peanut Butter too. The painter's tape was just touch up spots for the painter, but now all fixed.
BEFORE: This room house a older son that was the last one to move out. He didn't have a job, smoked pot back here and waited until the eleventh hour to remove the dogs from the property. Arrggg! Seriously, we closed Escrow late because he couldn't find a place to live.
AFTER: This is Jayla's room now and we still need to put a closet rod up and closet doors in each room. Her room is a little darker because she is young and will touch the walls, so we didn't want to have marks all over, so thought it would be safer to have a darker color. It's called Burnt Almond. What a difference from the top, huh?
BEFORE: Living room before, was this dark Tera cotta with yellow mustard ceiling with dirt EVERYWHERE!!! Even gum on the floor and dead flies...GROSS!!!
AFTER (in progress): We removed the greasy and filthy ceiling fan and painted. Excuse the mess.. we still haven't unpacked. Next weekend we are replacing the sliding door.
That's all for now. The neighborhood seems nice and we have friendly neighbors which is always a plus!
We have some upcoming projects:
- Add A/C (yes, we living in the desert of CA with no AC...YIKES!)
- Add ceiling fans in each room (being done next weekend)
- Add recessed lighting in the living room and kitchen
- Replace the back sliding door (next weekend)
- Remove the big ass tree in the front whose roots are breaking through out PLUMBING PIPES!!!
- Replace the front plumbing pipes (being done this week)
- Remodel the kitchen (maybe in the next two months)
- Remodel the bathrooms.
- Landscaping
- Re-stucco the outside and paint
- New front door
Oh the joys of being a homeowner. I hear the projects never end LOL...
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Some sushi, Dodo and a key
Since the last time I posted, I experience some VERY exciting stuff.
I was adventurous and tried the lobster head on the left.
This is the quail egg on top of Salmon and crab.
1. I had some damn good sushi! I think the place Cindy, Mr. W and I went to Yama Sushi (if not there, then somewhere close to it). I tried quail egg for the first time and LOVED it!!! Of course these pictures are taken from my camera phone and suck.
I was adventurous and tried the lobster head on the left.This is the quail egg on top of Salmon and crab.2. While Cindy and Mr. W were traveling in FL and the Dominican Republic, I was watching Dodo. :)
3. And last but no least... See this key... 
Well, it opens the door to our new home. We got it at a steal and are new home owners. It's so surreal. Tomorrow I am heading to the property and will take some more pics for you to see.
Well, it opens the door to our new home. We got it at a steal and are new home owners. It's so surreal. Tomorrow I am heading to the property and will take some more pics for you to see.Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Keep 'em coming!
I have been logging on to CSU Pomona's website daily and more then once. It;s driving me CRAZY! This waiting game is killing me. I received an email last week saying Freshman applicants had acceptance emails sent out already and if they didn't get one, they should be looking at other schools. Luckily, I am not a Freshman... so I still had a shot!
So keep the blessing coming... I hand open arms for them! :)
The email said that transfers students should hear back by the end of the week. Friday came and went and still NO email! Arrggg!
I must have checked every 30 minutes on my personal email account and CSU Pomona website and still no updates. Then today my application status change to ACCEPTED!
*jaw dropping*
I was preparing myself for a decline letter since my major is impacted, so I didn't know how to react.
*pinching myself*
Nope, this isn't a dream... I have been accepted to my dream school.
It finally hit me... *eyes watering*... *sniff*... GO BRONCOS!!!
So keep the blessing coming... I hand open arms for them! :)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Flowtriss on Blogger
We have a new family memeber on bloggger, the one, then only... FLOWTRISS! AKA "Messy Jessy," AKA My lil sister AKA Jessica :)
Welcome! Now I have even more reason to come on here.
Welcome! Now I have even more reason to come on here.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Prince & Spring Break '09
The last 2-3 weeks have been amazing, to see the least! Where should I start???
Saturday, April 18th Jay and I had a busy day ahead of us. We were driving to San Diego for his Marine Corp buddy’s wedding in the afternoon. The drive took us about 2 hours and we had only anticipated an hour and half max. However, we got there right as the bride was walking down the aisle. Talk about good timing. The wedding ceremony was at tops 20 minutes! It seems wedding nowadays are getting shorter and shorter. I had a beautiful new wine colored dress and Jay was wearing a suit with a matching tie. We looked too cute BUT my camera’s memory card had an error and the pictures are lost. We had to skip on the receptions because we had to drive north (about 200 miles) to Los Angeles to see Prince in concert! Yup, Prince in the flesh... woohoo! On the way there we stopped by this cute store and picked up a $900 Pottery Barn table for $250. SCORE! The proceeds go to charity and that’s how we got a great price. The store owner thought we were a couple couple because Jay went out of his way to match his outfit with mind, so she sold took an additional $25 off the table.
Let me say that the concert was AWESOME!!! Jay is the big Prince fan and I’ve always wanted to surprise him with Prince Tickets. It ended up not being a surprise, but still a special evening! Prince was doing three concerts in one night and we were part of it. He was so good and his energy rocked! Funny thing is this guy next to me seems pissed from the beginning and had his arms crossed the whole time. Towards the end I looked over at him because he was the only person sitting down and notice it was because he was sleeping! Who go to a concert to go to sleep? Talk about an expensive nap. Nonetheless, we had a great time.
So… fast forward a week and I was off on my vacay! I was going to my sister’s place in CO first, then to my youngest sister’s place in NC.
CO is beautiful! It was snowing and the air was crisp. I was greeted by my sister and brother-in-law at the airport and we made a bee line to dinner. Both of them are vegan, so we had a bunch of stuff of the vegetarian menu at PF Changs. It was so tasty and I was glad that I was open minded about different food otherwise I would have missed out on some fantastic stuff. Her house is up a mountain out of reach of cell phone reception. I was surprised at how easy it was to live without by cell phone. It’s weird to think that we used to call people’s homes and if they weren’t home we would just leave a message and wait until they called back. Nowadays, we can hit up someone with so many methods of communication that you are almost guaranteed to reach them. Maybe it was because my trip was only 4 days, but I didn’t mind it not having my phone.
I was spoiled by home cooked meals! My sister and her hubby make a mean pizza from scratch… yup, the dough, too! The few days I had with them (and their dog Fang) were filled with exploring their small hippie town and neighboring ones, eating at local restaurants, visiting shops, hiking, getting a massage, watching movies, visiting the Denver Art Museum and taking a yoga class.
But soon it was time to be dropped off at the airport and off to my next destination… NC. I left CO in such a Zen mood. OM!
On a side note (and not so Zen like), never make connections through Dallas Fort Worth. Man oh man, do they suck! My first flight had 5 gate changes and was delayed. They have a train that you have to take to get to gates, so it’s not like I need to pick up my stuff and just walk a little ways. On the way back, same story more gate changes!
Here's some photos from my CO trip:
Awww... Fang looks so darn cute!!! His daddy tucked him in for the night.
At the Denver Art Museum. We also went to the Psychedelic Experience. That was SO much fun!!!
North Carolina was beautiful with tons of tall trees. There we visited Duke (where my bro-in-law goes), visited their gardens, ate some delicious food and took a trip to DC. There was a tornado watch because of the tornadoes that hit TN and SC, so I was a little nervous, but everything was OK.
One of the days we were shopping for mud mask stuff we passed a Petco and walked out with a hamster for my sister. Meet Dahlila…
DC was awesome! The drive was more then we had anticipated, but it didn’t ruin the trip. The first thing we wanted to see was the White House. We parked and made a bee line to it, only to see an illegal protest going on regarding Gautama Bay. One of the protesters actually chains his dumb ass to the White House’s front gate. After seeing that, we were off touring our Nation’s capital for 7 hours on foot. Take about a work out! We took a break to quiz each other on the citizenship test book we bought near the Potomac River under the Cherry Blossom trees. It’s was such a good time and funny on the way we tried to stump the other on questions. You had to be there. Because of the weather warning we spend the night in VA in some dumpy Inn because it was the ONLY Inn/Motel/Hotel in town. We woke up the next morning to see tress, grass and three abandon houses in front of Inn and that was it. It looked like a scene straight out of a scary movie.
The funniest moment of the whole trip was asking for egg whites at the Waffle House in NC. Our poor waiter was throw a curve ball when I asked him if I could have egg whites to the point that he left and forgot to take the rest of the orders. He literally came back 4 other times to specifically ask about my egg whites. “Do you want to hold the white part or the yellow?” “Ummm… let me ask the chef if he can do that.” “Ummm… it’s going to be an additional 70 cents, do you still just want the egg whites?” It was too funny!!!
Meet on a hike in NC
We are heading off to the base in NC to meet my cousin's GF
Duke in the background. In building like that there are study hall and random things like a Chick-fil-a
From our visit to DC... Andrew Jackson's monument. My favorite out of all of them.
Washington Monutment
WW II Monument
I think this is PF Changs
White House in the background. It looks SO small.
Saturday, April 18th Jay and I had a busy day ahead of us. We were driving to San Diego for his Marine Corp buddy’s wedding in the afternoon. The drive took us about 2 hours and we had only anticipated an hour and half max. However, we got there right as the bride was walking down the aisle. Talk about good timing. The wedding ceremony was at tops 20 minutes! It seems wedding nowadays are getting shorter and shorter. I had a beautiful new wine colored dress and Jay was wearing a suit with a matching tie. We looked too cute BUT my camera’s memory card had an error and the pictures are lost. We had to skip on the receptions because we had to drive north (about 200 miles) to Los Angeles to see Prince in concert! Yup, Prince in the flesh... woohoo! On the way there we stopped by this cute store and picked up a $900 Pottery Barn table for $250. SCORE! The proceeds go to charity and that’s how we got a great price. The store owner thought we were a couple couple because Jay went out of his way to match his outfit with mind, so she sold took an additional $25 off the table.
Let me say that the concert was AWESOME!!! Jay is the big Prince fan and I’ve always wanted to surprise him with Prince Tickets. It ended up not being a surprise, but still a special evening! Prince was doing three concerts in one night and we were part of it. He was so good and his energy rocked! Funny thing is this guy next to me seems pissed from the beginning and had his arms crossed the whole time. Towards the end I looked over at him because he was the only person sitting down and notice it was because he was sleeping! Who go to a concert to go to sleep? Talk about an expensive nap. Nonetheless, we had a great time.
So… fast forward a week and I was off on my vacay! I was going to my sister’s place in CO first, then to my youngest sister’s place in NC.
CO is beautiful! It was snowing and the air was crisp. I was greeted by my sister and brother-in-law at the airport and we made a bee line to dinner. Both of them are vegan, so we had a bunch of stuff of the vegetarian menu at PF Changs. It was so tasty and I was glad that I was open minded about different food otherwise I would have missed out on some fantastic stuff. Her house is up a mountain out of reach of cell phone reception. I was surprised at how easy it was to live without by cell phone. It’s weird to think that we used to call people’s homes and if they weren’t home we would just leave a message and wait until they called back. Nowadays, we can hit up someone with so many methods of communication that you are almost guaranteed to reach them. Maybe it was because my trip was only 4 days, but I didn’t mind it not having my phone.
I was spoiled by home cooked meals! My sister and her hubby make a mean pizza from scratch… yup, the dough, too! The few days I had with them (and their dog Fang) were filled with exploring their small hippie town and neighboring ones, eating at local restaurants, visiting shops, hiking, getting a massage, watching movies, visiting the Denver Art Museum and taking a yoga class.
But soon it was time to be dropped off at the airport and off to my next destination… NC. I left CO in such a Zen mood. OM!
On a side note (and not so Zen like), never make connections through Dallas Fort Worth. Man oh man, do they suck! My first flight had 5 gate changes and was delayed. They have a train that you have to take to get to gates, so it’s not like I need to pick up my stuff and just walk a little ways. On the way back, same story more gate changes!
Here's some photos from my CO trip:
Awww... Fang looks so darn cute!!! His daddy tucked him in for the night.At the Denver Art Museum. We also went to the Psychedelic Experience. That was SO much fun!!!
North Carolina was beautiful with tons of tall trees. There we visited Duke (where my bro-in-law goes), visited their gardens, ate some delicious food and took a trip to DC. There was a tornado watch because of the tornadoes that hit TN and SC, so I was a little nervous, but everything was OK.
One of the days we were shopping for mud mask stuff we passed a Petco and walked out with a hamster for my sister. Meet Dahlila…
DC was awesome! The drive was more then we had anticipated, but it didn’t ruin the trip. The first thing we wanted to see was the White House. We parked and made a bee line to it, only to see an illegal protest going on regarding Gautama Bay. One of the protesters actually chains his dumb ass to the White House’s front gate. After seeing that, we were off touring our Nation’s capital for 7 hours on foot. Take about a work out! We took a break to quiz each other on the citizenship test book we bought near the Potomac River under the Cherry Blossom trees. It’s was such a good time and funny on the way we tried to stump the other on questions. You had to be there. Because of the weather warning we spend the night in VA in some dumpy Inn because it was the ONLY Inn/Motel/Hotel in town. We woke up the next morning to see tress, grass and three abandon houses in front of Inn and that was it. It looked like a scene straight out of a scary movie.
The funniest moment of the whole trip was asking for egg whites at the Waffle House in NC. Our poor waiter was throw a curve ball when I asked him if I could have egg whites to the point that he left and forgot to take the rest of the orders. He literally came back 4 other times to specifically ask about my egg whites. “Do you want to hold the white part or the yellow?” “Ummm… let me ask the chef if he can do that.” “Ummm… it’s going to be an additional 70 cents, do you still just want the egg whites?” It was too funny!!!
Meet on a hike in NC
We are heading off to the base in NC to meet my cousin's GF
Duke in the background. In building like that there are study hall and random things like a Chick-fil-a
From our visit to DC... Andrew Jackson's monument. My favorite out of all of them.
Washington Monutment
WW II Monument
I think this is PF Changs
White House in the background. It looks SO small.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)