A crazy little thing called LIFE

It's been WAY TOO LONG!

2011-07-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

So much time has gone by. I told myself I would keep up this blog but it's been more difficult than I thought. Life just happens. I won't make a promise but I will say that I will try my hardest to get back into this blog and keep it updated.

I am doing well. No major changes in my life. I'm still happily married (at least on most days :) and working for the same company I've been at for the past 7 years. My husband and I celebrated 5 years of marriage in September with a little photo shoot. We were also lucky enough to go on trip to Europe which we've always wanted to do. We were gone for 2 weeks and visited Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome...it was incredible.

I got promoted back on February 28th which was so unexpected. It's been tough and it was a little overwhelming in the beginning getting acclamated to additional responsibilites and balancing work with my personal life but I've managed to keep my head above water until now.

My Dad is doing really well since his surgery....very thankful for that. In fact, my entire family is doing well...including my dear Henry. He was diagnosed with cancer in April of 2007 and I'm incredibly happy to report that he continues to stay strong and happy. We never take that for granted.

His only daughter, my beautiful niece Bianca, graduated from high school on June 15th. Oh what a happy, happy day that was for all of us....and at the same time, so emotional. Emotional because our little Bianca was all grown up and emotional because back in 2007, I don't think any of us imagined that Henry would be with us on that day. But there he was, with tears in his eyes, watching his little girl receive her high school diploma. It was a beautiful moment for all of us.

Although Henry is doing well, he wasn't worked since early last year. My sister also lost her job which made for a very stressful situation. Thankfully, she's been working a temp job for a couple months now and we are grateful for that. She also continues to smile and stay strong despite everything on her plate...she's amazing.

That is what's been going on in a nutshell. It's 4th of July weekend. I look forward to updating next week...but don't hold me to it :)

Happy 4th of July weekend!!!

Surgery = Success

2010-02-22T18:05:00.001-08:00

After a very long day at the hospital (nearly 12 hours to be exact), my Dad's surgery went well. He ended up having a quintuple bypass and the nurse told us we are just extremely lucky that my Dad did not suffer a heart attack before this was found. We only got to see him today for no more than 5 minutes in the ICU...it's SO INCREDIBLY difficult to see someone you love in this state....especially when this person is my father who is SO strong. I slammed the car door on my Dad's hand a few years ago and I don't think he ever flinched. :( So seeing him under anesthesia and with a breathing tube just consumed me and the tears took over. I can't wait to see him tomorrow. Please continue to pray for a fast and smooth recovery. I am SO proud of my Dad.

My Dad

2010-02-22T11:38:00.001-08:00

I'm not even sure how we got to this point...it's been an emotionally draining week. The first man who ever showed me love....the man who would give up his life for one of his children...the man who is so incredibly strong...the man that I love with all of my being...is having a triple bypass heart surgery as I type this. I can't believe surgeons are actually handling my dad's heart with their bare hands....his lifeline. Please pray for a surgery with no complications and that his recuperation will go smoothly too. I know technology is so advanced these days and that these heart surgeries are done every day but it's never been done on MY father...and that's the scary part. I hope that this only brings my parents closer to one another and makes my father an even stronger man. I love you daddy. :(

Back up and running!

2009-12-06T19:29:00.000-08:00

I’ve been taking a much longer blogging hiatus than I anticipated. At this point, I had the idea to simply stop blogging altogether. But then I remembered that the reason I started this blog in the first place was so that I could keep these memories for myself and so that I could look back five years from now or at any given point for that matter, and remember what it was that I did. A lot has happened in the past couple months…some great, some bad, nothing too terrible. I’ll start off with my health issues.

From my recollection, it all started back in August when I thought I had something minor and pretty routine. That something minor turned into something bigger and that something bigger turned into something serious. Needless to say, I was on antibiotics for five weeks and lost a total of ten pounds. It was a grueling time for me but I’m happy to say that I’m finally feeling better. I had my family taking care of me and if it wasn’t for them, I don’t know how I could’ve possibly gotten any better. I love them more for that. My husband was amazing the entire time. The way he cared for me was unbelievably precious…I felt SO loved and he never once complained. He was the best caregiver. I love him more for that.

Throughout the time that I wasn’t feeling well (with the exception of one week where I didn’t leave my bed because I was so incredibly weak), I still managed to get out and have some fun:

- I went to Las Vegas with some friends from high school to celebrate our friend Nicole being engaged and soon to be married.

- I celebrated my girlfriend Alyssa’s birthday with a fabulous brunch at Grub followed by a show at the Pantages: Legally Blonde. The entire day was a blast.

- My husband and I celebrated 4 years of marriage with a vacation to Turks & Caicos at the end of October That trip was when I finally started feeling like myself again…thankfully, since we had contemplated canceling the entire trip. We had a fabulous time. I didn’t want to come back! It was a trip full of great memories.

- We attended the wedding of our friends Tim & Debbie at the Cathedral in Downtown Los Angeles. That was a fun night and thanks to them, we got our Holiday card pictures courtesy of the photo booth they had that night. I’ll share our Christmas card in a future post since we have yet to mail them out. - We celebrated Thanksgiving Day having lunch with my husband’s family and dinner with my family. It was a beautiful evening and one where we had a lot to be thankful for.

- We had some of my husbands out-of-town friends come over for a visit a couple weeks ago.

- This weekend, we attended a birthday party for my friend’s daughter who turned one and last night, went to our annual Holiday party with our friends from college. The theme was “ugly sweater.” My husband Gerric won thanks to my creation. :) We also had a white elephant gift exchange. Gerric bought a zebra striped snuggie to give away...Alyssa walked away with that one. But I ended up getting one too! We had so much fun.

- Today was a day full of running errands. We almost bought our Christmas tree but decided to wait until next week to get it.

So once again, here we are. I’m all caught up. It’s hard to believe that we’re in the midst of another Holiday season and that soon, we’ll be ringing in a new year. It feels like yesterday that I told myself I would try to blog more often…so much for keeping to that resolution. All in all, things are good. My husband and I are lucky to still be employed, my family is healthy, Henry continues to look and feel good (I’m especially thankful for that) and my husband and I are talking about having a baby more often now. :) We have a lot to look forward to in the coming year…but for now, we’re enjoying the last of 2009.

4 YEARS LATER

2009-09-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

4 years ago today, I married my soul mate. The man that till this day, takes my breath away. He has been truly living through the vow "in sickness and in health." Fours years later, I still feel like I am the luckiest woman alive.

Happy Anniversary honey. I love you.

WHAT I'VE DONE AND THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO

2009-08-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

For those of you that are wondering, I'm still alive. :) I've just been really busy with work that unfortunately, I've put this blog on the back burner. Things have been hectic lately and we've also managed to keep busy on the weekends as well. Since my last post, we've gone to a Dodger Game with our friends Alyssa and Rob and went to Disneyland in the evening to celebrate my godson's birthday. It was Adam's 1st time...I think he loved it. :)

We participated in the Relay for Life event in honor of Henry. Thankfully, he continues to do well. :) Gerric and I met up with everyone in the evening, just in time to experience the "Luminaria Walk." It was beautiful. I couldn't help but cry. It was something I'll never forget.

Two weeks ago, my husband took me to the No Doubt concert. It was awesome! Gwen Stefani's abs have never looked SO good! We had a great time!

The next day, I flew out to New York for 3 days and from there, headed to Panama for 7 days for another business trip. I just got back late Friday night/Saturday morning.

I'll be heading to Las Vegas for a friend's bachelorette party in a couple weeks. I'm looking forward to a weekend away with friends to relax and have fun. Then Gerric and I are heading back to Vegas in September. He's been wanting to see the show "Love" since it first came out so we're finally going to go see it. I'm so excited! Then...and this is the trip I'm counting the days for, at the end of October, we're heading to Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean! I CANNOT WAIT!!!!! I need a vacation so bad so this couldn't come any sooner! We're going for a week and staying at Beaches Resort. According to the Travel Channel, it's the 6th best resort in the Caribbean. EEK! So excited!

In the meantime, I have some dreaded meetings at work and some long nights in the office ahead of me. Lord help me. :( But all in all, things are good. We've made some small additions to our humble abode lately. We finally bought new doorknobs! It's the little things that excite me. :) We added a small swingseat to our front porch...we sat on it for a while yesterday and enjoyed the sun. It was perfect.

Next weekend brings more time with friends and hopefully more rest and relaxation. Until the next time...

Wine Tasting & Donating Blood

2009-06-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, my husband and I had the pleasure of going wine tasting in Temecula with 11 of our close college friends. We had a fantastic time. We started off our day by meeting at our friends Gina & Robert's house in Murietta. That's about a good hour and fifteen minute drive from where we live. Once we all arrived there, we had a quick lunch in the area and then we were off to the wineries. We hit a total of four wineries - my favorite being the last one, where we all had a taste of their almond champagne in a chocolate cup. YUM! It was delicious! I also enjoyed the Muscat wines at every location since I'm a fan of the sweet dessert wines. We had a great time and I'm hoping we can make this an annual tradition. Later that night, we had dinner back at their house and watched a photo montage that Gina had put together of our time in college. Then we headed home. It was such a nice day. It's so great to have such a wonderful group of friends like them.

The next day, my husband and I did our usual routine and went to church at 10:30. I have really come to enjoy going to church every Sunday and I'm happy that it's something my husband and I can do together. I noticed the big "Blood Drive" signs as we were walking in. I just winced and kept on walking. You see, I have always wanted to donate blood but there was only one reason stopping me...I.HATE.NEEDLES. After mass, our priest spoke to us about the blood drive and the importance of donating it if we were able to. Then they had a little boy speak to us who had leukemia but thankfully, was in remission now. He said that even though he was doing much better, he knew of a lot of kids in the hospital who still needed blood. Boy did he know how to pull at my heart's strings. I couldn't help but get emotional at the thought of all these babies needing blood transfusions and just sitting there, healthy, with the only thing stopping me being my fear of a little needle. I also started thinking about the possibility of someone in my own family needing it someday, God forbid, like my dear Henry so I mustered up the energy to walk myself over to the hall where the blood drive was being held and signed up. I couldn't help but tremble the entire time I was waiting, which was for more than an hour. I think it was my fear and the fact that the room was so cold and I didn't even have a jacket with me. Before I knew it, I was having my interview. I was asked if I had been anywhere outside of the United States within the last 3 years. I told them where I had been and all was still okay. They checked my iron levels and those were very good so after that, I knew I really had no excuse.

My husband, who was also doing this with me, was called before me and had already started the process of donating his blood. When I was finally called, I layed down and was still trembling. I kept trying to tell myself to think of all the people I was doing this for, but that didn't seem to calm my nerves at all. When the needle finally went into my vein, it wasn't so bad but I was immediately told that my blood flow was slow so it would be a while before I would finish the pint they needed. The nurse tried adjusting the needle a few times to see if this would help the blood flow but it was done to no avail. I couldn't cross my legs and they wouldn't let me pump the pressure ball I was given too much since all of that movement seemed to slow down my blood even more. I was so frustrated. Finally, after about 15 minutes, I was told I had to be cut off. I had donated 400 CC's (500 is needed for a pint of blood) and I just couldn't do it anymore. Apparently, I was so dehydrated that my blood just wasn't coming out anymore. I was heartbroken. I can't even explain exactly what I was feeling but the word failure came to my mind right away. I just felt so horrible. All I kept thinking was what if Henry really did need the blood and I was the only one that could give it to him. I just couldn't do it and it would've been all my fault. I asked one of the nurses if they could still use my blood since I was nearly close to the pint and she explained in medical terms that because they did not have a full pint of my blood, they couldn't use it to save lives but would instead send it to USC and use it for research. I thought, Research?!? Are you kidding me??? I didn't do all of this for research! I did it to save a life!

I have to admit, I am very bad at drinking enough water in a day. Sometimes I will have the same water bottle sitting on my desk for more than 2 days. But never did I think that not drinking enough water would stop me from saving a life. I was so bummed the rest of the day. I went to go visit my sister Emma and Henry later that day and couldn't help but cry. My sister consoled me and told me I had done a great thing just by trying. I took a big step that day. But I decided then and there that if water was the only thing stopping me from saving a life, then I would change that right away. It's been a week and I have been drinking 40-60 ounces of water every day. That alone is a huge accomplishment for me. I'm hoping I can go back as soon as I am able to to donate blood again...and this time, to help save a life.

This weekend was a mellow one. We cleaned our house yesterday and had our first problem since we moved in last May. Turns out our bathtub was getting backed up with disgusting water since I was doing a load of laundry. Both of us tried not to freak out. We ended up going onto Yelp, found a great plumber and about an hour later, problem was fixed. Whew! Thankfully, it wasn't something that couldn't be fixed and it wasn't something that cost an arm and a leg.

This week my husband's company is expected to have some lay offs. *sigh* It's something he's known about for quite some time now. I ask that you please say a little prayer for all those who have lost their job and for all those that will. I am also praying that my husband is not one of those who is layed off. So if you can pray for that too, I would more than appreciate it. I'll let you know what happens.

Here's to a good week...

2009-05-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

I made a New Year's resolution at the beginning of this year to try and update this blog more often...I have obviously failed at that. I try my best but sometimes I fall so far behind that I think it's easier to just stop writing. But then I remind myself that I started this blog for myself - so that I could look back and remember the things that I did and the thoughts running through my head so for my own sake, I have to keep this going.

As always, I've been busy. In the last month, I have:

- walked at the March of Dimes in memory of my baby nephew Diego

- at that event, Gerric and Henry were so excited to meet Michael Cooper (they both bleed purple and gold). - Celebrated my husband's 33rd birthday with friends, food and...ROCK BAND! One of Gerric's good friends/co-workers is an apprentice at a bakery on the weekends so offered to make Gerric his birthday cake as his gift. She made one for everyone and made him a personal one. I thought it was so cute I HAD to take a picture with it!

- Celebrated his actual birthday with my family and his

- was sponsor to my nephew/godson Erik for his 1st Holy Communion

- was my niece's sponsor at her Confirmation

- Celebrated my sister Emma's birthday with a great BBQ surrounded by the people she loves

- had a great LONG Memorial Day weekend that started on Thursday with lunch at Disneyland and ended with a massage at Burke Williams (BLISS!)

- prayed that the small earthquakes we had in Southern California weren't the beginning of more to come

- bought myself an SLR camera (I actually bought it a couple months ago) and started taking some pictures around the house. I can't wait to get better at using it. I'm in love with it.

- saw From Monument to Masses, one of Gerric's best friend's bands. They were touring and they happened to be playing at a small venue close to our home. I really enjoyed the show.

- went to a Dodger game this weekend with our friends Alyssa and Rob...Dodgers won!

- decided to take on a somewhat more challenging position at work. I was made to choose between the two jobs I currently handle. I'm hoping I made the right decision. My heart tells me I did. It will require a little more travel which I don't like at all but I had to choose based on what I thought was best for my career.

- treated my parents out to lunch today. I had a really nice time with them and it made me realize that I'm so grateful to have both of them in my life. I left in such a great mood.

I think that's about it. Other than the usual day to day routine, this really sums up the past few weekends.

On another note, my brother-in-law Henry has one (ONE!) more round of chemo to go before he takes a break for a while...hopefully for good. I must admit, I am really, really scared. I keep thinking, what if the damn tumor in his brain comes back since he's not going to be on chemo anymore? What if this allows it to grow back, and this time with a vengeance? I know Henry needs a break. This stupid chemo takes a toll on his body. He gets tired. He can't wait to go off of it himself and I am incredibly grateful that we are at this point in his journey. I just pray to God that Henry is a LONG term survivor and that 20 years from now, I am smiling at the thought that I was nervous because it was all for nothing. Please pray that my fears never, ever come true. I'm so proud of Henry for getting to this point. I hope he can celebrate his new found remission for the rest of his LONG life.

Thanks for reading everyone. Thank you for being patient in between my updates. I know sometimes they're not worth the wait but I do appreciate all of my readers (all 5 of them...HA!).

Until the next time...

WALKING FOR OUR ANGEL

2009-04-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to catch up on...again. I'll do that this weekend hopefully. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we will be participating in the March of Dimes Walk in honor of my nephew Diego. It's the 3rd time we'll be doing it for him. Oh how I wish he was here with us. Please visit this page to donate to a wonderful cause. Every dollar counts...even if it's just $1. Keep us in your thoughts tomorrow as we walk to remember a precious life, never to be forgotten.

2009-04-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Where have I been you ask? I have been insanely busy at work, sometimes working 12 hour days and keeping just as busy on the weekends. Here’s the rundown in a nutshell:

WORK
The economic conditions are tough on everyone right now. That’s a given. However, I still have sales numbers to meet so I am getting A LOT of pressure from upper management to make these numbers which means there have been many long, stressful nights at work. So stressful that on one occasion I just came home and cried. It felt good to let it all out.

PLAY
We have kept very busy on the weekends. Throughout the past few:
- I went to a 1st birthday party for my high school friend’s little boy Louis. She had a circus theme and went ALL out. Tubs of animal crackers, candy apples, face painters, popcorn and games, oh my! I went solo since my poor husband wasn’t feeling well that entire weekend. I had a great time and I’m sure little Louis did too.

- Gerric and I met up with our good friends The Gardners for a picnic in the park. Kay spoiled us with fresh chicken salad sandwiches (which she made of course), Kettle potato chips and Crush orange soda. It was a perfect afternoon. We finished it off with dessert at Pinkberry. Raffaella is getting so big and too cute for words. Her little personality is definitely starting to develop. She is precious.
- I met up with my Mom, 2 sisters and my niece and nephew for breakfast at Grounds. It was something that my eldest sister thought of doing. There was no particular reason, just some time to sit, drink some coffee and catch up. It was perfect.

- My sisters and I planned a surprise birthday party for our only brother, who turned 40 on March 22nd. We really wanted him to have a memorable birthday with his closest friends and family so even though we were planning everything last minute, I think it was really a lovely evening and one that my brother will remember always. We had dinner at Pane E Vino in the city of Brea. As much as “surprise parties” are not always truly a surprise, this one was. I think my brother was genuinely surprised. It was so amazing being able to see him so happy. Happy Birthday to him. - Last weekend, I celebrated a birthday myself (March 29th). It started on Friday with a nice celebration at work and continued on Saturday with a BBQ with my close friends and family at our house. The weather was really on our side that day as the sun was shining and there was a nice breeze. Everything was perfect. I had a great time and I loved nothing more than being surrounded by those I love most….and the good food didn’t hurt either! :) Thank you to everyone that helped to bring this together. Happy birthday to me!

That's me on my 1st birthday!

Thank you to my friends Mike and Ruby for buying me these adorable cookies as my favors. They were a hit!

So here I am again…all caught up. April is going to be a busy month. I actually just got home today after working all day (it's almost 4pm). I have a one day trip to New York on the 13th. That evening, I fly from New York to Panama for a week. I’m not looking forward to that trip whatsoever but here’s hoping it’s a successful trip. Then I have my husband’s birthday at the end of the month to look forward to. That should be really fun.

So that’s it in a nutshell! Whew! It feels good to be all caught up. :)

10 YEARS

2009-02-22T21:15:00.001-08:00

It was my 3rd year in college. I was tired of going to class and driving home, without having made any real friends yet. I had to start thinking about resume builders since I knew there would be other "Business Administration" graduates competing for the same jobs I would later be applying for. I was a Marketing major. I remember walking around campus one day and seeing a flyer for the "American Marketing Association." I figured it would be a great way to meet friends, get involved and something to add to my glim resume thus far. I decided I would attend the next meeting.

It was on this day, February 22nd, 1999, that I walking into a room, sat down and wondered what this meeting would be about.

It was then that I remember him coming up to me and saying "Hi, I'm Gerric." He smiled and I reciprocated it.

It was on this day that I met my future husband. It's a special day for me - one that I wish we could have celebrated in a special way. Instead however, my poor husband was home all day, in bed with a nasty cold.

I thought that this business organization would bring me new friends and new experiences. It brought me those things - yes, but it also brought to me my best friend, my soulmate, my true love.

Today we have known each other for one decade my sweet Gerric. I look forward to spending many more decades together. I love you.

My bridal shower

When we got the keys to our 1st home together after we got married

On our honeymoon

Gerric's 30th Birthday

Ten wonderful years...

VALENTINE'S DAY WEEKEND...AND MORE UPDATES

2009-02-15T18:49:00.000-08:00

It's been a bit of a challenge staying committed to my resolution about blogging more often, but I'm still making an effort. After all, it is only February.

It's been a great weekend. But before I go into the details of my weekend, let me go back a little to catch up on the past two weeks:

- As mentioned briefly in my last post, my nephew Diego would have been celebrated his 2nd birthday on February 2nd. We honored him by releasing some balloons into the sky. I only hope they reached him and that he was able to feel our love for him that day.

- We celebrated my husband's cousin's birthday last Saturday night at Rock Bottom Brewery. We had a couple drinks and helped Kimberly ring in another year. We had a good time.

- Then last Sunday after church, we had made plans to meet up with our family friend's that had very recently lost their little boy, Preston, due to Sandhoff disease. I can't fully express into words how devastated I am for them. February 4th would have been his 3rd birthday so we wanted to visit him at his gravesite. My husband and I had sent flowers to his parents on his actual birthday, in hopes that it would bring a small smile to their faces and make the day just a little bit easier. Clare, his mother, emailed to thank us and we made plans to meet up at his gravesite so we could see each other. That morning, she invited us over to their place to have lunch. Since her husband was working that day, we didn't get to see him but we had the chance to see the rest of her immediate family, which was nice. They are such amazing people - it hurts me so much to know that they had to go through this horrible tragedy. Clare showed us around their place - including Preston's room. I was heartbroken to see his things in their house - including some of his medical equipment. Although I wish more than anything that he was still here, I have solace knowing that he is at peace now and is able to run freely in the clouds.

Friday
My weekend started a little early on Friday, when I received these at work from my lovely Valentine:

Saturday
This Valentine's weekend started early on Saturday. My husband and I woke up bright and early to meet up with some members of our church to help participate in a program called "feed the hungry." I had done it once before with my niece back in December. I was very saddened by the experience and realized it was something I had to do again. So there we were yesterday...handing out food, gloves, beanies and umbrellas to homeless people. It was yet again, a humbling experience and I hope it's something we can do on a regular basis.

After we left our church, we had breakfast at The Coffee Cup. This was my third time going there and it was even better than I remember. My girlfriend Elvia introduced me to this place a couple years ago. I had their "Juan's Favorite" omelette with veggie chorizo, bell peppers, avocado and salsa...oh.my.gawd. It was amazing. I licked my plate clean...well, not really but you get the picture. If that wasn't delicious enough, the accompanying homemade potatoes were the perfect side dish to fully satisfy my palette. It was a perfect way to continue our Valentine's Day.

One of my gifts to my husband this past Christmas, were tickets to go see Phantom of the Opera at the Pantages theater. I got us tickets for the performance on Valentine's Day since I figured it would be a great way to celebrate the occasion. We started by having dinner at a quaint little restaurant, called Pete's Cafe in Downtown Los Angeles. Dinner was delicious. I started off with a glass of Pinot Noir and chose the free-ranged chicken as my main entree. Before that, I had their delicious baby spinach and pear salad...it hit the spot perfectly!

Then we were off to the opera. What can I say? Phantom is a classic and we both enjoyed the show very much. The music and sets are stunning. The story line moves along nicely, and all around it's a great, great show.

Sunday

Today after church, we headed straight to The Grove to meet up with our good friends Jesse, Pam and their son, Cole. We had lunch at La Piazza and then walked around there and the Farmers Market. Although it was a bit chilly to be outdoors, it was a great day to spend with friends.

On a different note, my sister Emma has started her own blog. If you get a chance, go on over and show her a little comment love. :)

Here's to another great week. I am not one of those lucky ones to have the day off tomorrow so I'm trying to make the best of it. Have a great week everyone!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIEGO

2009-02-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

I have a lot to catch up on...2 weeks to be exact. My nephew Diego would have been 2 years old today. I miss him. I read my sister's update on her blog and couldn't help but get a big lump in my throat...you can read it here.

An update to come soon...

Happy Birthday baby...we miss you every day.

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' AND OTHER UPDATES

2009-01-22T16:14:00.000-08:00

I'm back! I spent 2 weeks in New York in freezing cold weather so I was SO happy to be back in California where the weather was a toasty 75 degrees this past weekend. I've been crazy busy at work but trying to make the best of it. I took advantage of the great restaurants New York has to offer this time around. I had dinner at Artisinal Bistro the night I arrived dinner and BLT Prime Steakhouse the second night. It was a nice change of pace from the usual room service I'm used to. The food was amazing at both.

The day I was coming back to LA was a crazy one. I was busy until the minute I got into the car to take me to the airport. By the time I sat in my assigned seat on my Jet Blue flight, I started flipping channels on the free Direct TV. I realized there had been a plane that left New York that made an emergency landing on the Hudson River! By the time I landed in Long Beach, I had a few text messages from friends making sure it wasn't my flight! Thankfully, it wasn't and I was fine. :)

In other news, my girlfriend who moved to Texas with her husband and daughter two years ago, welcomed a second baby girl to their family on January 19th! Ava Marie Washington was welcomed into the world at 10:53am. I can't wait to see pictures of her!

My sister Erika turned one year older yesterday on the 21st. Happy Birthday sis! Love you!

On a very sad note, Gerric and I attended a funeral on Friday. Some very close family friends of ours lost their 2-year-old baby boy Preston Chase. He had been diagnosed 13 months before with Sandhoff Disease. I prayed that little Preston would make it through, but he earned his angel wings despite all the love and prayers. Please pray for Paul and Clare, his parents, to help them get through this very difficult time without their baby. Rest in peace little Preston. Go on and play with Diego - I know you two will be good friends.

On a lighter note, since Gerric had the day off on Monday due to the holiday, he found out that Survivor was holding an open casting call at the Morongo Casino. He actually went and recorded a 1 minute video submission along with the thousands of others hoping to get chosen for Season 19. It's always been his dream to be a contestant on that show. How amazing would it be if he got called. Stay tuned...if he makes it to the next round, he'll hear back in March. Wish him luck!

That's about it for now...

Jet Setting

2009-01-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

Came home on Friday from New York. Enjoyed the weekend and the amazing WARM weather. Now I'm off to New York (again!) tomorrow. Here's to a successful week. I'll be back soon!

THE FIRST FEW DAYS OF 2009

2009-01-04T20:29:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! In trying to stay true to New Years resolution # 2, here I am! The first days of 2009 have been great. We spent New Years Eve at my sister-in-law's house with my husband's family. The best part? My family was there too! It was a first for us and I truly enjoyed it. My parents rang in the new year at home by themselves. Well actually, they didn't ring it in since they always fall asleep before midnight but my sisters and their families and my brother decided to spend it together with us. It was a mellow evening. We played Guesstures and rang in the New Year with champagne and cider. I'm excited for the New Year since I feel in my heart that it will be an amazing one for everyone.

Yesterday was the first time I took Lulu for a spin since we moved to our new house. The weather was a bit brisk but it felt great. We just rode around the neighborhood for a bit - I can't wait to do it again. Last night, we finally saw The Holiday. We had it recorded on our DVR. I've been wanted to see that movie since it came out in theaters. My husband and I enjoyed it...I even cried in a scene. But then again, I cry at everything.

Today after church, we decided to go to Disneyland for a bit since it was the last day the Christmas decorations were going to be up. BIG mistake. The park was insanely crowded. We did enjoy some ice cream and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters (that was only a 20 minute wait) before we left. In fact, I got my highest score so it was worth the wait!

Here I am with my dark hair. New year = new hair. I just got rid of my highlights until the Summer. I like it and so does my husband. :)

I'll be on a bit of a blogging hiatus this week since I leave on a business trip to New York. I am bracing myself for the cold weather. I don't do very well in cold weather so I already can't wait to be home. Until the next time...

SAYING GOODBYE TO 2008...AND WHAT A YEAR IT HAS BEEN

2008-12-31T11:44:00.000-08:00

It's the last day of the year. Although welcoming a new year is always a little solemn for me, I am embracing 2009 and saying...BRING IT ON! I think it will be an amazing year. I've never been one to make a list of resolutions but I thought that if I wrote them down, it would make me stick to them. So for your reading pleasure, my resolutions for 2009:

To get in shape (Surprise! Surprise!)
To update my blog more often (or at least try!)
To eat healthier
To spend more time with my nieces and nephews
To become a better cook (or at least try!)
To spend more time with my parents
To read more books

There you have it.

I was reminiscing about the year today and started thinking about all that has happened:

- JANUARY - We officially started house-hunting…and the hunt was on!
- FEBRUARY - One year anniversary since my nephew Diego earned his angel wings
- MARCH - I turned 30!
- APRIL - One year anniversay of Henry's diagnosis…and still kicking butt!
- MAY - Flew up to Texas with my girlfriend Kelly to visit our friend Jessica; We moved into our first house
- JUNE - Had our 1st mortgage payment - OUCH
- JULY - Went up to Reno to visit my best friend Coral and her husband Rigo
- AUGUST - Went to San Diego with my husband's family and hosted the first event at our new house ~ Kay's Baby Shower
- SEPTEMBER - We celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary
- OCTOBER - My niece Bianca turned 15 and we celebrated at her Quinceanera; I went to to Panama on a business trip
- NOVEMBER - Celebrated Kay's Birthday at Hollywood Park with Raphaella in tow; Had a lot to be thankful for on Thankgiving
- DECEMBER - My nephew Adam turned 1; first holiday season at our house

I hope 2009 only gets bigger and better with each passing month.

Happy New year everyone!

Holiday Fun

2008-12-28T20:21:00.001-08:00

I love the holidays. I've had a wonderful 5 days off of work. It's been full of fun and holiday cheer. We've been busy the past couple of weeks:

Every year since I can remember, my mom makes her delicious tamales for our Christmas Eve dinner. I've tried many a tamale in my life but none seem to compare to hers. I always tell her she should sell them since they're so amazing! This year, I tried my hand at helping her a bit. It's definitely harder than it looks...and I only made the sweet tamales, which are a lot easier to put together!

Doesn't look very appetizing but it's oh so delicious! That's raisins and pineapple in there.

Since we bought our first house this year, we decided to host a little Christmas party and kept our guest list limited to college friends since we don't have a huge house. We also invited Kay, her husband Steve and their princess since she's always invited us to her great parties and I always love seeing Raffy. We had such a great time having them over. We have a small house and sometimes it makes for tight quarters but that night, our house was simply warmer and full of love and friendship. We are so blessed to have friends like them. We had some appetizers out and baked a couple things. All of our guests came over with at least one bottle of wine so the alcohol was flowing all night. It was a great time. I stole an idea from Kay when I went to her holiday party last year. My husband borrowed a Poloroid camera and we took a picture of everyone that came over. We asked each of them to write down their wish for 2009 on the actual poloroid. We punched a hole in it, put some red ribbon around and voila!...made each one into an ornament for our tree. I thought that was such a cute idea and I love that we have a keepsake of everyone that attended our first holiday party. I plan to make this a holiday tradition...given that we host a little shindig year after year.

The raspberry shortbread bars I baked...YUM!

We recieved our one and only Tiffany's ornament from Kay, Steve and Raffy. I LOVE it so much. It was such a thoughtful gift and it is now my new favorite ornament hanging on our tree. I hung it right next to our other new ornament that I bought in honor of our new house.

My nephew Adam turned ONE! He is such a blessing to our family and puts a smile on everyone's face...he is such a joy to be around. Watching him eat his own cake was such comedy! He ended up practically sitting on top of it! Happy Birthday Adam. I love you!!!

Adam and his Uncle Art (my brother)

Christmas Eve dinner was at my parents house this year. We had a great time. Christmas Day started off at my sister's house in the morning and ended with my husband's family. Santa was very good to me this year and brought me chocolate brown Uggs (YEY!) and a Michael Kors down jacket. I love them both! Thank you to my handsome Santa! :)

My new Uggs! :)

We went bowling on Saturday night with my husband's sister and cousins since they invited us to go and we had no plans. I bowled my best game ever...103! I know that doesn't say much but I was happy since I've always wanted to break 100.

Last night we had my husband's friends over who were visiting from the Bay Area. His best friend Jason also came over. It was another night of appetizers and wine...a good time had by all. We are very blessed to have our own house and invite friends to come over. I love playing hostess.

So now we are closing in on 2008. It's been a great year and I feel that 2009 is going to be even better. My resolutions for 2009 to come soon...

Merry Christmas everyone!

HOLIDAY MADNESS...

2008-12-12T14:31:00.000-08:00

...has taken over me! I have so much to catch up on! I have been missing in action since I got back from Panama. Instead of writing a 10 page post on everything I’ve been up to, I figured I’d try to make it as short and sweet as possible.

- My mom went to Mexico in November for 2 weeks to visit her sisters and her mom. I always hate it when she leaves. I miss her too much.

- Henry went to Guatemala to visit his ailing father. He’s been in and out of the hospital for some time now. He’s still not at his best so please say a prayer that he gets well very soon.

- I had the pleasure of meeting up with two beautiful ladies and their beautiful babies for brunch at Le Pain Quotidien in Manhattan Beach. The food was delicious and the company was perfect. It was a lovely time. I love being surrounded by babies. These little girls are too precious for words. (Nanette has recently started posting pictures of her baby girl so I will hope that posting this one is okay :)

- Celebrated Kay’s birthday at Hollywood Park. It’s become a tradition for the past few years. We had a great time. I think Raffy had a great time too. :)

- Had Thanksgiving lunch at my father-in-law’s house and dinner at my brother’s house. It was a lovely day filled with lots of food, family and friends. I have so much to be thankful for and this was a day where I tried to truly take in all that I have in my life.

- Watched the Pacquiao/De La hoya fight. I am NOT a fan of De La Hoya - I think he’s arrogant and cocky but how often does a Mexican (me) fight a Filipino (my husband)?!? For this reason only, I was rooting for De la Hoya and naturally, my husband was rooting for Pacquiao. We made a friendly bet and said that whoever lost would make the other person breakfast in bed of their choice on a Saturday morning. We all know who won that bet. Ugh – details to come on that eventually.

- Attended my girlfriend Stefani’s baby shower. She and her husband are expecting their first baby….little Langston. I am so excited for them. Stefani is so tall and thin that she is literally a stick with a baby bump. She looks adorable!

- And to add to the baby list, on December 8th, my best friend Coral and her husband welcomed baby Lucas into their lives. It’s also their first baby and I couldn’t be happier for them. I only have a picture of him that she sent me in a text but already I can tell he’s going to be a heartbreaker. I wish I could meet him in person. I’m just going to have to plan a trip there so he could meet his auntie Jolene soon!

- Christmas Central has hit our home. I have had so much fun decorating for the holidays. I love it. We had a great time choosing our first Christmas tree for our house. We have a couple of get-togethers we are hosting so I’m excited to have our place ready for the Holiday season. Pictures to come soon.

- Adam’s 1st birthday is coming up on the 21st. I can’t believe he’s going to be 1. He has already taken his first steps – he’s such a blessing and so darn cute! He LOVES the camera! Is this proof enough?!? All you have to do is point the camera at him and he smiles! It's too cute!

This weekend will be yet, another busy one. Tomorrow morning I am volunteering, along with my niece, to feed the hungry. I know it will be a good experience as it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Tomorrow night my husband and I have a holiday party to attend and on Sunday, we are having my husband’s extended family come over for lunch. Most of them have never seen our house so we’re excited to finally host something for family since we moved in. Now we need to find a date for my family.

That’s about it in a nutshell. Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays! Whew! Feels good to be caught up!

PANAMA HIGHLIGHTS, BOWLING & AQUARIUM OF THE PACIFIC

2008-11-09T19:34:00.000-08:00

Today marks 2 weeks since my trip out to Panama. In two words...great experience. The flight out went okay but the first day I was there was brutal since I landed, checked into my hotel and had to go straight into my clients office. That first night I ordered room service and went straight to bed. I woke up the next morning not remembering where I was...I was tired. It was a good week overall. I was able to meet my accounts from Equador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Aruba and Curacao. I learned a lot about the business and I'm hoping it serves as a good opportunity for me to grow that business even further. The night before we left, we had a big event in order to give our company some press. It went off without a hitch. Then we had an after party and were able to go out to a couple clubs in Panama. It was a great trip but I was certaintly glad to be home. My husband tells me we didn't have a huge crowd of trick-o-treaters at our house but I was still bummed I had missed our first Halloween at our house.

The view from my hotel room

Panama Canal

The Canal was so fascinating!

The next night, we headed over to All Star Lanes to celebrate Gerric's coworkers birthday. I only played one game but had a great time.

Sunday we had free tickets to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Since it was celebrating its 10th anniversary, we figured we'd go check it out. Before we went there, we decided to try a local bakery/cafe called Grounds. My girlfriend Alyssa had mentioned it to us before but every time we tried to eat there, it was closed! We finally tried it last Sunday and let's just say we went back there today! I had the turkey and cranberries sandwich with macaroni salad on the side...oh.my.gawd. Delicious!!! After our amazing lunch, we headed over to thr Aquarium. We both decided it was just okay. I think we both expected more but it's definitely a place we'll take our kids someday :)

This weekend was pretty mellow. We had dinner at Bucca Di Peppo to celebrate my sister-in-laws birthday. I had to wake up early the next morning so we didn't make it a super late night. My mom was going to Mexico for 2 weeks to visit her sisters so I joined my sister in taking her to the airport. I had to wake up at 4:45 (yes, AM!). My dad went with us too. We all hate when my mom is gone...but we know she deserves a break. I just hope these 2 weeks fly by so we can have her back! I also feel bad knowing that my Dad is alone in the house but I know he'll be fine.

I can't believe it's November already. Before you know it, we'll be saying goodbye to the year 2008 and welcoming 2009. It flew by.

I know it's a bit early but Henry has another MRI on Wednesday...as always, please pray for good results.

Have a great week!

Panama...here I come

2008-10-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

It's 9:42pm right now. Normally, I'd be getting ready for bed. Tonight, I'm killing some time before heading to the airport. I have a 2am flight tonight to Panama. Not looking forward to it. Luckily, I;ve never had problems sleeping on a plane so I hope tonight is no exception since once I land there (10:30am Panama time), I need to check into my hotel and go straight to work. Not fun.

This weekend, however, was very fun. It started off with a rocky work week. Specifically, Wednesday was a bad day. I left for work early that morning. It was still dark out and it was even a little foggy that morning. I had just merged into the freeway and made my way to the fast lane. All of a sudden, I felt that I had hit something. I hadn't seen anything on the road so I didn't think much of it. My car started feeling weird so I turned off the radio. I heard something dragging on my tire! I looked in my rear view mirror and saw sparks! That's when I freaked out. I pulled over as fast as I could and turned on my emergency lights. As I was merging over, I almost lost control of the car. The sound I heard was so horrific. When I came to a stop, I heard and felt something break. I was so scared at that point. When I got off, the first thing I looked for was a flat tire since I thought that was what made the most sense. My tires were fine. I looked at the front of my car and saw this...

Apparently, what I had hit was a long metal rod that was laying on the freeway! When I tried to pull it out, I realized it was lodged in there tight. I went back inside my car and called my husband, who was on his way to the train station already. When I told him what had happened, he immediately turned around and came to get me. I was scared just waiting for him since it was still dark and I was nervous someone would hit me on the side of the freeway since the spot I had pulled over wasn't very wide. He got there about 15-20 minutes later and had me take his car to work that day. He decided to work from home and figure out how to get this rod out of my car. Luckily, opening the hood and some tough maneuvering, my husband was able to get the rod out. It's a miracle that it didn't puntire anything in my engine. The damage is all cosmetic which means I was just left with a hole and some pretty major scratches in my car. *sigh* Sad but I was just happy it wasn't worse.

Friday night, my mood turned around for me as Gerric and I met up with some very good friends of ours. It had been awhile since we'd hung out with Alyssa and her husband, along with our other friends Barry and Amanda. We had dinner in Belmont Shores and later grabbed some coffee at Starbucks. It was a lovely evening...one I'm hoping we can do again very soon.

Saturday was my best friend's baby shower. Coral and her husband moved to Nevada a few years ago. They were married one month before my husband and I were married and she and her husband are expecting their first bundle of joy in just 5 short weeks! It was such a beautiful shower. Coral was glowing. She looks so precious with her belly. I'm so excited to meet their little boy. I know they are both going to be wonderful parents.

Everything about the shower was amazing...from the food to the company. I'm just sad that she and I didn't get to spend more time together. It was a short trip for them...they headed back home early this morning. I can't believe that the next time I see her she's going to be a mommy!

I had offered to buy the cake for her and I was very happy with how it turned out.

Today my husband and I lounged around the house for most of the day. We finally headed out around 3pm and ran a couple errands. Since we are annual Disneyland pass holders, we decided on a whim to go to there for a couple hours today just to ride the Haunted Mansion before the Halloween theme is over. We were starving when we got there so we headed straight to Hungry Bear restaurant, a place Gerric and I always used to eat at when we were dating and had annual passes. We were only there for a couple hours but it was a perfect way to spend the afternoon before my business trip tonight. :)

So there you have it. I'm headed to the airport in about an hour and a half. Have a great week and please wish me safe travels! Thanks everyone! :)

WEEKEND REWIND: TIMES 2

2008-10-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, thank you so much for your prayers and well wishes for my dad. The surgery went very well and he’s at home recovering now. He looks good and most importantly, he feels good. Thank you for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers…

I have a lot to catch up on. I’m getting ready for a business trip to Panama next week so it’s been a bit crazy. Some highlights from the past couple weeks:

- My niece’s Quinceanera was on October 11th. It was a beautiful day filled with lots of great moments and happy memories. It’s hard to believe my niece is 15 years old now! She looked stunning that day and radiated happiness the entire day. Here she is with her grandparents also known as my parents :) My husband and I wanted to help so part of our gift to her was a candy buffet for her guests so I had been working on this project for quite some time. I think the hard work and the little details paid off as I was happy with the results. It was a hit!

Her cake was amazing...made by the wonderful Great Dane .

There were lots of tears in the room when Henry and Bianca had their dance. When Henry was in the hospital last year, we didn't think this day was going to be possible. It was such a beautiful moment.

Here are my hubby and I at the celebration. We had a great time that night.

- The next day we celebrated my mom’s birthday at my sister’s house. Happy Birthday mom!

- This past Saturday morning, we participated in the Angel Adventure Walk for the 2nd year in a row. It was a beautiful morning in Huntington Beach and there was no better way to start the day off. There were stories of loss and stories of hope and inspiration – I pray to God every day that Henry will be up there someday sharing his story of triumph and survivorship.

Here is Henry with his brother...looking great!

- That day was also Henry’s birthday so we celebrated that night with great food and great company. Happy Birthday Henry…and here’s to many, many more years.

That’s the gist of my past couple of weeks. Work has been insane, as always, but I’m looking forward to some down time during the holidays. I’ll still be working but things always seem to be quieter and more relaxing during that time.

I’m looking forward to my best friend’s baby shower this coming Saturday. I saw her last when we finally went up to visit her and her husband for the 4th of July so I can’t wait to see her growing belly and celebrate their new bundle of joy scheduled to arrive in December!

After my trip to Panama, I hope to finally sit down and choose a date for our house warming. We never did get to have one so it will be a nice way to have a little get-together at our house.

Not looking forward to the flight out to Panama…I’m taking the red-eye on Sunday/Monday at 2am…ugh. I’ll be so happy to be back home. I’ll be missing our first Halloween in our new house since I’m flying back home that day and won’t be landing at LAX until 11pm but that didn’t stop me from decorating a bit for the kids that will be trick-or-treating around the neighborhood that day.

Here is Adam at almost 10 months, having a ball at Bianca's 15th.

Until the next time...

A PRAYER REQUEST FOR MY DAD

2008-10-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

I know I have a lot to catch up on and that will come soon. For now, I ask that you please say a little prayer for my dad who's scheduled to have surgery today at 9am PST. I ask that God watch over him and protect him and that he's on his road to recovery very soon.

I love you Dad.

ANNIVERSARY UPDATE AND WEEKEND UPDATE

2008-09-30T19:23:00.001-07:00

Thank you so much for your anniversary wishes! It ended up being such a nice evening - with the exception of me being sick.

I could never complain that my husband is not a romantic. On the contrary, sometimes I feel as though I don't deserve him! When I got home from work that evening, my dear husband had gone all out. There were candles lit all throughout the house, our wedding song was playing and another beautiful bouquet of flowers were waiting for me, along with the one DVD I've been waiting to own since I first heard this was coming out. The dinner table was all set, dinner was ready to be served, champagne was being chilled in the fridge and our wedding DVD was set to be played on our TV. It was the sweetest, most romantic sight. I was truly speechless. So what do I do? I barely picked at my food and went to lay on the couch - talk about ruining a moment. I had the beginning symptoms of a cold and my body was not having it that night. I tried - I truly tried but it was calling for rest. Gerric was very understanding but I couldn't help but feel so bad for all the trouble he went through. I am truly spoiled.

This past Saturday, we had the honor of helping to celebrate our friend's twins' 1st birthday. As soon as I received the invitation, I knew this was one party I couldn't miss. And she did not disappoint. She could truly give Martha Stewart a run for her money! The painted pillows with the girls' initials were my favorite - yes, she painted them! It was a party that I will use as inspiration for my own daughter's birthday someday. All the details were so adorable!

Happy 1st Birthday Chloe and Sophia!

This week has been tough. I've been fighting this awful cold since last week. Because of that, I have yet to meet Kay's baby and I'm so anxious! I want to make sure I'm completely healthy before I meet her. Aside from this cold, I've been having some pain in my pelvic area. It's gotten worse each day! When I went to go see the GI doctor on Friday, I mentioned this to him and he ordered to have a pelvic ultrasound done so I'm hoping it's nothing - I'm having that done this Friday. Work has been crazy and I leave for a business trip to Panama at the end of the month. I'll even be missing our first Halloween here at our house. I'm really sad about that but nothing I can do.

Other than that, just trying to stay out of this heat - what's up with this weather lately?!? It feels like we're in the middle of summer! Hope to start getting some cooler weather soon!

3 YEARS AGO TODAY...

2008-09-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

**EDITED TO ADD

I married my best friend, my confidante, my soul mate. With all the ups and downs, they have truly been 3 of the best years of my life. Happy Anniversary honey...here's to growing old together.

I love you.

** I just picked up the most GORGEOUS flower arrangement from my hubby. I took these pictures but it doesn't capture how vibrant the colors are...this arrangement is definitely one of my favorites!!! I LOVE THEM!!!

WEEKEND CATCH UP

2008-09-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have flown by. I was out sick for 2 days last week...my tummy seems to be angry at me again but I have an appointment with a GI doctor on Friday to hopefully help me figure out what is wrong with me. Other than my tummy, things have been good and we've been kept very busy.

I've been very stressed and very busy at work...so busy that for a whole week, my eating habits weren't the best and I was not eating all day. Maybe that's what flared up my stomach issues again, who knows. But it was so nice coming home to these one day since my husband knew what I was going through at work:

Last Saturday, my sister had a surprise birthday party for her husband's 40th. It was a great turnout and the best part was, the birthday boy was truly surprised. We had a great time and he got to see a lot of old friends that he's known for years. If you want to read about the details, you can read all about it here. Yes, after lurking on many of my favorite blogs, my sister has started her very own blog. So if you can, please stop by and show her a little love. :)

Last Sunday, after church, we visited Gerric's grandparents. His grandfather has been living in a rehab facility ever since he had surgery on his stomach over 2 years ago. Gerric's grandmother was living in the Phillippines but as Gerric's aunt and family decided to come and live in the United States, they were able to bring Gerric's grandmother with them. So his aunt's job is to stay home and care for her. His grandparents were finally able to reunite and live together under the same roof...it's a really sweet story. So we decided to go visit them and the rest of his family last Sunday. It was nice seeing them since we don't get to see them very often.

My niece is turning 15 on October 11th. In true Hispanic tradition, she'll be having a Quinceanera on this day. There's a lot of preparation involved and I'm doing what I can to help them too. My niece really wanted to have a candy buffet as part of her day so I'm helping to take care of that. Gosh, who knew candy could be so expensive?!? I've gotten the candy in various places, doing the best that I can to conserve costs but for the candy that my niece specifically requested, I was only able to find it online. So my husband and I trekked all the way to the city of Irwindale and paid a little visit to Candy Warehouse to pick up the candy I had ordered a few weeks ago. Their "lobby" area is full of candy and they tell their customers that they're allowed to take some samples home. :) It was a lot of fun but we didn't go crazy. I'll be sure to let you know how this candy buffet turns out as October 11th is just around the corner!

This weekend we managed to keep busy again. Yesterday was my husband's company picnic. They give everyone in the company, along with each family member, a ticket to Disneyland! With the ticket, they give everyone free parking and $15 each in Disney money. It's a lot of fun so we were excited to take part in it. My niece and nephew also joined us. We had a great time! We arrived at 12:30 and didn't leave the park until close to 11pm. It was a loooong day and my feet were certainly paying for it. Luckily, my husband and I finally got our annual passes so we are looking forward to spending more time at the Happiest Place on Earth for the next year.

Today we just caught up on our sleep after yesterday's exhausting day and ran some errands.

Looking forward to a good work week (hopefully one that flies by)...Have a great week everyone!

WEEKEND RECAP: BOWLING & MUCHO

2008-09-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

For once, I'm actually posting about my weekend before the weekend is actually over!

Friday

We had plans Friday night to celebrate (let's see if you can follow this)...Gerric's cousin's boyfriend's birthday (did that even make sense?). We met up at the new Anaheim Garden Walk and went to 300 Anaheim, the new hip and trendy bowling alley. I wasn't up for bowling since I wasn't feeling so hot that night but it was still fun to watch everyone else! The place was very slow since a lot of people still don't know about it so it was nice to avoid the long waits and the long lines. It's a bit pricey compared to other bowling alleys but the DJ spinning music all night was great! We had a great time. I walked around for a bit with my sister-in-law and most places were closed already but I'd like to go back since it looks like a great place to do some shopping.

Saturday

I ran errands during the day including dropping off my nephew's birthday present. He was celebrating his 9th birthday that night but since I had already made other commitments before I knew of his party, we weren't able to go.

It had been about 6 months since I'd seen my girlfriend Gema. She and I have known each other since I was 16 (I celebrated my 30th birthday back in March, which is the last time I saw her) and she is one of my nearest and dearest friends. Since March, she got engaged, married her soulmate in an intimate ceremony in Cozumel, Mexico and had an at-home wedding reception in July. Since Gerric and I were out of town that weekend, we weren't able to celebrate with them. So when she invited us to celebrate her birthday, we knew we had to go. The plan was to meet at their house in Redondo Beach to have a drink, then head out to Mucho for our 7:30 reservations. Dinner was delicious and the service was great despite having a packed house that night. I opted for the chicken enchilada and carne asada taco plate...so yummy!

Gema & her husband Bill at dinner

After dinner, we headed back to their place to have dessert. Bill had picked up Crumbs cupcakes for all of us. I had 1/2 of the red velvet with creamcheese frosting - it was quite delicious! it was great catching up with Gema and my other girlfriend Jamie...nothing like a fun night out with some good friends.

Sunday

Got a late start and went to church at noon. We went to the cemetary after that to visit my baby nephew and Gerric's mom (it was 18 years since she passed on Friday). After that, we had lunch at one of our favorite Thai restaurants. Then we headed out to Home Depot and finally bought the patio furniture set we'd been eyeing! It was a deal we couldn't pass up. I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as we set it up.

During our lunch, I got a very exciting text. Maybe I shouldn't be the one to post the news, but I just can't help it! She'll post the details anyway. My text message read:

"Raffaella middle name, last name born on 9-6-08. 7 lbs 10oz. Mom and baby are doing fine."

I am SO excited! I hope to see them both on Wednesday and I'll be sure to post pictures. I can't wait to meet her!

So that was my weekend. Hope to have a good week ahead of me. Until the next time...

PLENTY OF GIRLFRIENDS, A BABY SHOWER, A TRIP TO NEW YORK & A LONG WEEKEND

2008-09-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

I keep trying to get into the habit of blogging more regularly...really I do. But by the time I get home from work, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer for another hour. I've still been reading my favorite blogs daily...I'm just having a hard time keeping up with my own. How in the world do bloggers like Weezermonkey and Nanette blog as often as they do? They obviously have busy lives...heck, Nanette is getting ready to have a baby!!! Anyhow, I certainly don't post as often as I'd like to but when I do, thank you for taking the time to read.

It's been a busy few weeks. I went on a trip to New York the first week in August. That went well...it was HOT and humid but the trip itself was good. Although, all I could think about was Kay's upcoming shower. There was still so much to do but luckily, my very good friend Alyssa was gracious enough to help me tremendously with the planning. THANK GOODNESS FOR HER!Honestly, if it wasn't for her, I don't know if I would've been able to pull this event off. But all in all, I think it went well. Kay was beaming with joy that day and I loved being the person to host her baby shower. Now, I can't wait to meet Baby Raphaella! And the wait continues...

The following weekend, Gerric and I had two very special friends come and visit us at our new house. I love having friends visit us at home. It feels so nice to hear them say what a beautiful home we have. Yes, it's small and humble but we are so happy here. :) Gerric's good friend Jessica moved back to L.A. from New York. He's known her for about 15 years and she credits him for having taught her how to play the guitar. They are very good friends and we had the pleasure of having her and her boyfriend Brian over for lunch. We had lunch at a quaint little restaurant by our house and then she treated us to ice cream - it was a great afternoon. Later that afternoon, my very good girlfriend Jessica (2 Jessica's in one day!) and her husband and daughter came to visit us to see the new place. They moved to Texas last year (or was it 2 years ago...gosh, time flies!) and are now expecting their 2nd baby - yey!!!! it was so great to see them - I only wish we had more time to spend with them.

I had dinner with my college girlfriends Rachel and Stefani on Wednesday, the 20th. (No point in having a house-warming now...it seems like everyone is visiting us in pairs or groups! I LOVE it!) Stefani is also expecting her first baby (have I mentioned that I have 7 (SEVEN) friends that are pregnant right now...SEVEN!).

The following weekend, Gerric went to Yosemite with a group of co-workers. Every year, about 50 associates (2 trips, 2 groups of 25) get chosen to go there to work on restoration projects for the park. From what he tells me, it's an amazing trip. The entire weekend is catered and by the time they arrive in their luxury bus, their tents are all set up. Not a very grueling experience is it?Since it was the first time he'd be gone since we moved into our house, I tried to keep myself busy so I wouldn't be scared. Yes, I'm scared to be home alone. On Saturday evening, I had dinner with my girlfriend Elvia. It was a perfect girls' night...dinner, wine, great conversation and a pirated copy of Sex & The City. What could be better than that?!?

The next day, I had the pleasure of attending Nanette's baby shower. The details were all so amazing...my favorite: the cereal bar. I am SO stealing that idea for my baby's 1st birthday someday! Nanette was beautiful and I could feel the love for their baby from everyone that was there.

That afternoon, I had dinner with my girlfriend Patricia. She and I have been friends since high school...she was a bridesmaid in our wedding. I had a great time catching up with her.

Finally, last week, Gerric's cousin from Vancouver came to visit with her 8-year old daughter Jayme. We all took a day off during the week to take them somewhere. We chose Wednesday and took them to Knott's Berry Farm. I haven't been there since last year. It was a great day to go since a lot of kids had gone back to school aready so we didn't wait in long lines. We got there at about 10:45am and we're done a little after 5pm. We had so much fun that day!

This past weekend, we took advantage of the long weekend and relaxed, went to my sister's for a BBQ, shopped for patio furniture and spent more time with his cousin. Gerric wasn't feeling well on Friday night so we just relaxed on Saturday.

On Labor Day, our good friends Mike and Ruby came over for two reasons...to celebrate Mike's belated 30th birthday and for them to see our humble abode. We ordered Thai for lunch and had dessert at Red Mango. They brought us a bottle of champagne and we all managed to finish the entire bottle in record time! We may be getting older but we can still drink! Who am I kidding...I was so sleepy after 1 glass!

So I'm caught up. Never thought I'd be able to do that! Now I leave you with a recent picture of my nephew Adam. He's crawling now!!! Here he is sucking on a piece of watermelon. (I thought the invention was weird...apparently, that blue thing he's holding is for babies to suck on so they don't actually eat the fruit...just the juice! It's like a little net...Adam loves it!)

Until the next time...

BACKING UP...AGAIN

2008-08-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

I said I would be better about blogging more often but truth is, I've been crazy busy and whenever I do have some down time, I prefer to be relaxing. I figured I better catch up now since I'm leaving on a business trip to New York in the morning and that would be another week of not blogging. Instead of making everything into one long blog entry after another, I'll try to summarize what I've been up to the past few weeks.

- A couple weekends ago, Gerric and I had the pleasure of visiting with one of his co-workers. They've been working together for a few years now and have become good friends. In turn, I also got to know her and her husband and have come to consider them two of the sweetest people in our lives. Monica even did the calligraphy for our wedding invites and places cards as a gift to us. Well, you know the saying..."first comes love, then comes marriage...then comes Monica with a baby carriage." In this case, Monica had two baby carriages. She and her husband Jay were blessed with twin girls, Chloe Rose and Sofia Marley. I had seen pictures of them but had yet to meet them in person. Monica and Jay were nice enough to invite us over for lunch so we could meet the girls. What more can I say - they are precious!

That night, we also went to a Dodger Game at the all-you-can-eat Pavilion. It was a fun day.

- The following weekend, Gerric and I joined his sister and her husband and a bunch of cousins for a weekend in San Diego. They all took the Friday off to spend the day at Sea World but since Gerric and I worked a full day, we drove down that night and had dinner on our own. The next day, we all went to the San Diego Zoo. I had a great time. It's such a big zoo and oh-so-tiring with all the hills but it was another fun-filled day and weekend.

- That same weekend, my sister Emma and the entire family, participated in Relay for Life. I was so diasppointed I wasn't going to be able to be there for this event but I was so proud of my sister for planning this day. It was such a special event - one where Henry and others were honored for continuing to battle cancer and also to remember those we have lost to this terrible disease. I hope to be there next year to Relay with them.

- I've mentioned that I have a very difficult boss that I work for. She showed very tough love in the business and often times, I would find myself in tears wanting to walk out of my job. Think: Devils Wears Prada. The woman is 51 years old and the end of June, she announced that she would be retiring at the end of July. Everyone was shocked. I for one wasn't as estastic as I pictured myself to be. Why? Well, as difficult as she was to work for, she also earned the respect of many in the industry and truth be told - she took care of me. Meaning that, I took a jump in my salary and never felt like my job was on the line even when things got bad with the economy. Because if you worked for her, you knew you were well taken care of. Her last day with us was July 24th. She's still coming in from time to time during the transition. We didn't get anyone to replace her position. Instead, I'll now be reporting to three (yes, 3!) different people. We'll see how that goes. I'm happy for her and wish her nothing but the best and hope to follow in her early retirement footsteps someday (highly unlikely!).

- I've been working on planning a baby shower for my good friend Kay for the past couple months. The big day is this next Saturday the 9th - one day before I get back from my business trip. That means I'll be running around quite a lot the day before but I'm sure it will all be worth it when I see how happy Kay is that day. I want this to turn out beautifully and that Kay feels how much love went into the planning of her shower. I'm actually a little nervous but hope that everything turns out perfectly. I wasn't sharing too many details with her because I wanted everything to be a surprise but I recently just mailed her an invite just so she could have a sneak peak. I sincerely hoped she loved it. I'll be sure to post pictures of everything.

- I've been dieting for 3 weeks now. I finally got serious about it when I realized how unhappy I was with the way I felt and looked. It's been 3 weeks and I'm down 4.5 pounds. So happy!!!

I think that pretty much catches me up to date. Wish me luck on my NY trip. Until the next time...

BACKING UP: 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND

2008-07-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

Bare with me...I'm playing catch up with my blog. I know I mentioned I would be blogging a lot more regularly now but it seems that I'm busy every night after work so I'm having a hard time finding the time to keep this little blog of mine updated.

Anyhow, Gerric and I had planned a very overdue trip to go visit my best friend and her husband in May of last year. However, God had other plans for us when my brother-in-law Henry was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was a very hard time for all of us so we decided to cancel that trip. We finally rescheduled it for 4th of July weekend way back in February so it felt like forever before the weekend would arrive.

Well, it finally did. I was SOOOOO EXCITED to go up there since Coral and Rigo had moved up to Nevada about 4 years ago and we had yet to see their house and visit them. Coral had planned a whole itinerary for us so I couldn't wait to spend some time relaxing and catching up with them. I was especially excited since they are pregnant and I was hoping I'd get to see her with a big belly! :)

We flew out to Reno on the Thursday before the 4th of July. It was a short hour and a half flight but it was a bumpy one. When we arrived, Coral was there to pick us up. I was surprised so see that she was already 4 1/2 months pregnant and hardly had a belly! What surprised me even more was that this girl had more energy that I did the entire weekend. I could barely keep up with her! She never acted like she was pregnant nor did she mention once that she was tired. Anyhow, we headed straight to her husband Rigo's work to pick him up. After that, we drove to their house and got ready for as BBQ that night. They spoiled us with tri-tip, garlic bread and salad. For dessert, we had an amazing apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream. Everything was to die for! The rest of the night we just relaxed in their back yard under the stars while their two dogs, Cleveland and Milo, ran around us and licked me to no end. It was a great first night.

The next day was 4th of July. We had planned on spending it in Lake Tahoe so we were up by 6am in order to pack up, meet up with Rigo's best friend and his mom and three daughters, and drive the 20-25 minutes it would take us to get there. When we arrived at 8:30 in the morning, we found a great spot by the lake and set our things up. I was wearing a sun dress in hope that I would finally start to work on my tan for the summer. It was a bit cloudy and the wind started to kick up pretty strong. I had brought a warm change of clothes for the evening but I was so cold that needless to say, I was wearing that outfit before 11am!

The views were so beautiful in Lake Tahoe. It was a perfect way to spend the 4th of July holiday.

The sun finally started to go down so we started getting ready for the fireworks show at 10pm. We packed up our things so that by the time the show was over, we would drive back home. The show was incredible. Coral came prepared with a radio so she had it set to a Tahoe radio station so the show was actually going with the music. It was the best fireworks show I had ever seen.

Getting out of the park was a nightmare since everyone leaves at the same time. We were parked in traffic for a good 1/2 an hour before we even started to move. By the time we got home at 12:30am (the next day!), we were so exhausted that we just showered and went to bed.

The next day Coral and Rigo took us to Virginia City. We had such a good time. It's a cute city filled with lots of history. There are a lot of shops there and we even got to shoot some rounds in an old shooting gallery. That was my favorite part. :)

We walked around for a while and had lunch there. On our way back, they took us to Nevada's own Chocolate Nugget Candy Factory. It was like a dream come true for my husband, who is the chocolate lover in the relationship.

When we finally got back into their city, we drove around and started looking at model homes in the area just for fun. It's amazing what you can get out there for such a low price. It sort of depressed me but I know I could never leave Southern California so I'll just have to keep dealing with this ridiculous housing market. That night, we had dinner at their local casino restaurant and decided to play our luck after dinner. I had never played Roulette but decided to try my luck that night. I loved it! I started with $20 and a little more than doubled my money. It was a great way to end the night.

The next day, we got ready and headed to Reno to catch our afternoon flight. We had lunch by the airport and had to say goodbye to them soon after that. It was a such a great weekend and I look forward to going back up there and experiencing a real winter filled with a blizzard and freezing cold temperatures (wait, did I just say that???).

Thank you to my best friend Coral and her husband Rigo for being such great hosts the entire weekend. We had such a great time and I can't wait to see her again for her Southern California baby shower later this year in October!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

MRI DAY - NEED YOUR PRAYERS

2008-07-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

Thank you all so very much for your sweet words on our new bathroom! Gosh, I never looked at it as "spa-like" but now I will! :) I still have a lot more to blog about and have to update on my past weekends but this always takes precedence over anything else. Today is another MRI appointment for Henry. I may not always bring it up on here but I always pray for Henry and still fear that he will get sick again someday. I know in my heart that he won't but there's always that "what if" in the back of my head. Anyhow, please pray for him - today for good MRI results and always for a long and healthy life. Thank you everyone.

More to come soon...

**EDITED TO ADD: Results are good for Henry's MRI! Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers. :) He'll be starting another round of chemo - and then, 10 more to go.

BATHROOM REMODEL: BEFORE & AFTER

2008-07-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

I have been very behind on my blogging. Gerric and I just got back from a wonderful weekend trip to Nevada visiting my best friend and her husband but before I blog about that, I have some catching up to do. I hope everyone's 4th was fun and safe!

When Gerric and I knew we were going to buy our house, we knew that we would first have to remodel the bathroom. Since it was a small house with only ONE bathroom, we knew that it had to at least be a bathroom that we loved. This gave us the opportunity to design something we would both be happy with...still however, working with the small space that we had.

The original bathroom wasn't horrible...it just wasn't my style and it was very outdated. We had met with a number of contractors to get estimates on what we wanted to do and they ranged from the mid $5,000's all the way up to over $13,000! We wanted something nice but we also wanted to save some money on this project so we went with the contractor that gave us a fair price and one that told us this project would be completed in 10 days.

It all started out okay...demolition started on the day he promised and got completed all in one day. Things continued pretty smoothly with the tile as well and I thought they were even ahead of schedule. Then all of a sudden, the work started to slow down and this guy started to make promises that he wouldn't keep! He promised he would complete something the next day and he just wouldn't even show up that day. My husband and I were both very frustrated and it got the point where we refused to give him ANY money until he completed our long to-do list 100%.

After 22 days, the job was completed and all in all, we were happy. There are certain things that we were not happy with but honestly, at that point, we just wanted him out of our house for good! Maybe it's just me being extremely meticulous about the details but he was sloppy with certain things and I even noticed that if we didn't tell him to do something specific, he probably wouldn't have done it. Would I recommend him...most likely NOT. He's a good person and he's okay at what he does, but I wouldn't want to share the frustration that we experienced with him with anyone else.

So tell me what you think. We wanted to go with something modern but remember, we only had so much space to work with! We got everything brand new. One of the things on my wish list was double sinks and luckily, we were able to have that. We also got new copper plumbing installed and a whirlpool tub.

Here are the before pictures...

This was after demo and after the new tub was installed. We moved in around day 10 so we weren't living there during demo but it was HELL when we moved in and we still didn't have a completed bathroom.

This was after the tile was completed. We went with tile inside the shower and alongside the tub. I wished the pattern we chose as the accent had come out darker so it would've stood out more than it does. This is what I originally wanted:

This is what we ended up with. I liked it...I just I wasn't satified with the coloring of the accent tile (the tile is actually the same as the above. The overall coloring just looks different because of the lighting I took the pictures in).

This the finished product after many headaches, arguments and some disappointments:

So there you have it...our finished bathroom. There are still some things I'd like to do such as add a piece of artwork in it but that will come after I find it.

Stay tuned for more blogging...it should come more frequently now since we upgraded our home computer and it's SUPER fast now, thanks to my brother-in-law! :)

Until the next time...

I'M HERE, I'M ALIVE AND STILL UNPACKING

2008-06-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

I'm so behind on my blogging. The days seem to have gone by in a whirlwind. Let me try and sum up the past few weeks as quickly as I can...

BIRTHDAYS - We celebrated my sister's 40th birthday on May 17th. It was a really hot weekend so we BBQ'd and had a great time.

BAPTISMS - My nephew Adam was baptized on May 18th. We celebrated afterwards at a restaurant with some close friends and family. Adam was a perfect little baby the entire day. He's getting chubbier and more adorable with each passing day. His eyes follow his brother Erik all the time and he loves to laugh at him. It's so cute to watch! He's such a good baby.

HOUSE - We picked up the keys to our house later that evening. We officially moved in on Saturday, May 31st. The actual move went smoothly (except for a few casualties...scratches here and there, a dent on our cherry wood headboard) but it didn't help that I had to fly out to New York THE NEXT DAY for business. It was a short trip but nonetheless, it was time lost on trying to get settled in.

REMODEL - When we hired the contractor to remodel our bathroom, he told us the job would take him 10 days. Now I know what everyone says...all contractors are the same...but I was naive and truly believed this remodel would take him 10 DAYS. It wouldn't have been such a problem had we bought a house with more than one bathroom but being that this is our only bathroom, we were miserable throughout the entire process. He was a nice guy and we saved ourselves some money but being the meticulous person that I am, we weren't exactly happy with all the work. It was sloppy and even after we would complain and he tried to fix it, we still weren't happy with the end result. Don't get me wrong, we love our bathroom (it was officially completed YESTERDAY - 21 DAYS LATER) but there are certain things that I lived with just to get this guy out of our house and done for good! I'll post pictures of the before and after as soon as I download them. Remember, it's a small house which comes with a small bathroom but we did what we could in a small space.

HOUSE - Overall, it's very expensive being a homeowner. There are so many things we want to do and buy but we have to do things one step at a time. But in the end, we love our house. I think we'll love it even more once we get back into a routine. There are still boxes left to unpack (quite a few but they are dwindling down each day) and dust left to clean but bottom line, I see many happy years together there.

FAMILY - Everyone is doing well. I meant to post a couple of weeks ago about my brother-in-law's sister. His sister lived in Mexico City where they were born and she was stricken with breast cancer recently. She was married and they had an 8-yr-old little boy. Unfortunately, the cancer spread and Laura lost her battle on June 7th. My sister Erika and her husband Hector flew out to Mexico after her surgery in hopes that she would recover soon. Hector didn't get to say goodbye to his sister. It's been very hard on all of them. Her son is now left without his mommy. It's a very heartbreaking story. She was a very brave women who battled this awful disease on her own since she didn't want her family to suffer so they knew very little of what she was going through. If you would like to donate anything to help them with funeral and medical expenses, please e-mail me at jolene_tetangco@yahoo.com and I will provide an address of where to send it to. Anything you could help with would be more than appreciated. Now I just ask that you pray for her entire family...that they are able to get through this very difficult time.

Well, that's about it. I will post pictures as soon as I can. Hope you're all well!

PRAYER REQUEST

2008-05-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

Henry has another MRI today. Please take a moment to say a prayer for good results. I will post results as soon as I know them.

Thank you so much.

***EDITED TO ADD: Just got a text from my sister...MRI looks good! Thank you so much for your continued prayers. They are appreciated more than you know. ***

OVERDUE UPDATE: THE GOOD AND THE NOT SO GOOD

2008-05-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

Once again, I've had a hard time keeping up with my little 'ol blog. Alot has gone on the past couple weeks.

The Good

- Met up with some girlfriends for dinner a couple of weeks ago. Got to see my friend's little boy Micah. He is too precious for words.

- Participated in the March of Dimes walk for the 2nd year in a row in honor of my nephew Diego. We all finished the 5+ miles and to make things even better, Henry was one of the first in our group to complete it. He's awesome. :) Adam even had his own little onesie made in memory of his brother...he looked adorable.

- Celebrated my husband's birthday with some close friends and family. We had a great time.

- Officially closed escrow on May 5th! We had the final walk-thru on May 7th and hope to be handed the keys by next Friday. Yipee! It all seems to surreal. We're actually homeowners!!!

- Went away to Texas for 4 days with my girlfriend Kelly to visit our very good friend Jessica, who moved out there with her husband and daughter last year. We had the BEST time. I've been having a really hard time at work again (surprise, surprise) so it was perfect timing to get away for a few days and have some girl time. There's nothing like spending some quality time with your girlfriends. :) One thing is for sure...Texas has some AMAZING BBQ!

The Not So Good

- I have a horrible cold right now. Might've caught a bug on the flight back from Texas. Might've been the change in weather. Whatever the case, I feel horrible and hope to get better very soon.

- I don't know if this whole house-buying thing hasn't really hit us or something but we haven't even started packing! I was home sick on Monday and thought I'd take advantage and start a little packing...um, I barely mustered up the engery to pack up ONE box. ONE. And the worst part is, it was nothing important and it made me realize that I have a lot of sh*t to pack! So I better get on the ball...and fast! Hopefully we can really make a dent into our packing this weekend.

- My dad had a minor surgery on Thursday. Thankfully, everything went well. He just has to rest up now...doctor's orders.

**update** We've managed to pack most of our kitchen stuff but we still have a long way to go.

That's about it. Until my next post...wish us luck with the move!

WEEKEND UPDATE AND GOOD NEWS!

2008-04-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

I had a great weekend. I was actually home sick today though. I had a horrible headache last night and this morning, I felt it was still lingering so I decided to take a sick day. Anyhow, it was a great weekend.

Friday

My sister had planned a church service for Henry in honor of his 1 year anniversary since his surgery. We have a lot to be thankful for so this church service served as just that...a thank you to God for all of our blessings and Henry's health. After church, we joined them for dinner at a small restaurant that served El Salvadorian food. Quite delicious!

Saturday

We started off the day by cleaning our apartment. We were long overdue. So it felt great to get this place nice and clean! After that was done, I had lunch with my girlfriend Jennifer. Her and I met a few years ago, when I was browsing through the Internet and happened to stumble upon her wedding blog. After reading it, I felt compelled to sign their guestbook and every since then, we've become friends! This was only the second time we were able to meet up but I had a great time. She drove over to our place and then I drove us over to have Thai food. After that, she hung out at our place for a little while and finally got to meet my husband. After she left, Gerric said that it seemed like we had been friends for years because I seemed very comfortable with her. That made me smile. Jenn is a very sweet friend and I'm so happy we got to have lunch and catch up. We plan to do it again very soon! Thank you again Jenn!

After lunch, we relaxed for a bit and got ready to have dinner that night with our friends Mike and Ruby. It was a belated birthday celebration that they had invited me to. I was really looking forward to it. We had dinner reservations at Beso, Eva Longoria's new restaurant in Hollywood. We had pretty early dinner reservations, so we weren't lucky enough to spot any celebrities but regardless of that, I had a wonderful time! The food was delicious and I loved the decor and ambiance of the restaurant. I had heard that it wasn't receiving the best reviews but personally, I loved it and would love to go back.

Our delicious dinner...

We decided to skip dessert at Beso and headed to Red Mango, since all of us were eager to try it. It was definitely worth the wait. It's much creamier than Pinkberry. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to have it again!

After dessert, we went back to Mike and Ruby's and had some fun playing Rockband. It was only my second time playing and once again, we had a great time. Gerric was a little frustrated with the drums. He was VERY good the very first time he played but just couldn't get it the second time around...he said he simply had "beginner's luck" the first time. I beg to differ. I'm sure we'll have another chance to play and he'll be addicted all over again.

Thank you to our dear friends Mike and Ruby for a wonderful evening. I had such a great time.

Sunday

We started off our morning early and met up with our friends Kay and Steve at Urth Caffe in Santa Monica to have their amazing bread pudding. Nanette had actually introduced us to it and I had been craving it for a while now so when Kay and Steve told us they were free on Sunday morning, I was so excited! We had so much fun with them. I LOVE how Kay is developing a little bump with their little one on the way. She looks so adorable. And Steve looks so happy to be expecting a baby. He's so affectionate with Kay and rubs her belly with such joy...I can't wait until they become parents. I'm so happy for them! After Urth Caffe, we drove over to West Elm with them. I loved the store. I'm sure we'll be making more trips there very soon for decoration ideas.

After that, we headed home and I took a long nap while Gerric watched the first Laker playoff game. After that was over, we freshened up and drove to the cemetary to visit one of Gerric's very good childhood friends. I've heard about Colleen ever since I'd met Gerric but this was the first time we'd gone to visit her together. She was 16 when she was killed in a car accident. Gerric tells me he's sure they'd still be friends today if she were here. I'm sure they would be too. I was happy to have gone to pay my respects to her. I'm sure we'll be visiting more often now. After the cemetary, we ran errands at Pier One and the grocery store. Then we finally headed back home.

Whew! It was a busy weekend. So here we are again. As for the good news, there's 2 parts:

1) My best friend Coral called me last week that her and her husband Rigo are pregnant! This will be their first baby and I couldn't be happier for them! Gerric and I are visiting them 4th of July weekend after an overdue visit and I'm hoping she has a belly by then too. I'm so excited!!!

Here we are at her Bachelorette party in 2005:

2) It's sort of like being pregnant. You don't want to tell anyone until you're sure it's safe. No, we're not pregnant but we are in escrow!!! We opened escrow on the 8th of this month and our loan was officially approved on Friday! It's a small house but we're in love with it and I'm sure we'll be very happy there in the years to come. We do have some work to do on it but nothing we can't handle. The process has been very easy for us thankfully and if all goes well, we'll be getting the keys early May! We're so excited!!! After looking at nearly 40 homes, we finally found "the one."
Have a great week everyone! I'll leave you all with this. Happy 4 month birthday Adam! I love you!!!

A YEAR AGO TODAY

2008-04-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted. It seems that I've been caught in a whirlwind...busy at work, busy with life. You all know how it goes. Nonetheless, I've neglected my blog. I can't promise I won't do it again but I do promise to catch you up on anything worth sharing. :)

It was a year ago today. My brother-in-law Henry had been experiencing headaches for a few weeks now. He had gone to the doctor and they put him on medication in hopes that it would relieve the pain throbbing in his head. It didn't...they simply made him drowsy and after waking up, he would still have the same headache he'd been feeling for days on end. After his insurance approved it, he finally went in on April 16th, 2007 to have an MRI done. After he had it done, he was told to go back home and wait for the results. When the hospital called him back, he was told to go back in. However, the doctor advised him to have someone else drive him there. Since my sister was at work, he asked a neighbor to drive him there. My sister met him there as soon as she could. It was on this day, one year ago today, that my dear brother-in-law was told they had found a large mass in his brain. I will never forget the call I received. I didn't know the extent of what they had found but after my husband and I picked up my mom, all three of us were on our way to the hospital.

He had to have surgery the next day to remove the tumor. After removing it, they would be able to tell us more about the type of tumor it was. I remember getting to the hospital, my heart pounding as we walked down the halls. I turned the corner and saw my sister. She immediately broke down into tears and I remember telling her that he was going to be okay. I truly felt that in my heart. He was getting more MRI's done so it was a while before we got to see him. When we finally did, I will never forget how he looked. You see, Henry has the type of personality that doesn't let anything get him down. I've known him since I was 13 years old....13 years old. He's seen me grow up. He's not only my sister's husband...he's my brother. When I saw him in his room, I remember telling him that he was going to be okay. His reponse..."I know" accompanied with a big grin. That's Henry.

On April 17th, 2007 Henry had surgery to remove the mass in his brain. My sister Erika and I, along with Henry's sisters, were all there to stand by my sister's side. The surgery lasted about 3-4 hours. I remember when the neurosurgeon walked out in his long white coat, my sister jumped up to go speak to him. The surgery had gone very well. They had been able to remove 95% of the tumor. On that day, the doctor told us that my dear brother-in-law Henry had glioblastoma.

It was a long road to recovery. After his time in the ICU, he was sent to a rehabilitation center. He went through 6 weeks of radiation and is still going through his rounds of chemotherapy. But I'm happy to say that he is doing so, so well. He's been through so much and never once has he let this diagnosis bring him down. That's Henry. I still know in my heart that he's going to be fine. I see Henry with us for many, many, many more years to come. I see him growing old with my sister and enjoying their grandchildren together. I never, ever thought my family would be struck with cancer...but I guess no one does. But if anyone can get through this, it's Henry. Because that's just the way he is.

I thank God every day for allowing us to get this far in Henry's journey. But on this day, I especially thank God for Henry's continued health. I pray to God every day that Henry goes into remission and that this journey of his will simply be a memory to us.

I love you my dear Henry. You're amazing and are truly my inspiration.

HONORING A BEAUTIFUL LIFE

2008-04-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

It took my sister and her husband over 3 years to conceive Diego. I can still remember the day they announced their second pregnancy. We were all so anxious to meet Diego. We had planned an intimate baby shower for my sister to be had on February 3rd, 2007. We were all getting ready for his arrival. My sister was 8 months pregnant. Then, on February 2nd, I got an early morning call my from eldest sister letting me know that Erika had gone to the hospital because she hadn't felt Diego move in a few hours. I specifically remember my heart starting to pound really fast and really loud but I felt in my heart that everything was fine so I still went to work knowing that I'd get the good news that Diego was soon on his way. Besides, my sister Emma was going to be there with her and Erika's husband, Hector.

It was about 8:30am when I got the 2nd call from my sister. I answered and I remember her getting choked up. I asked if everything was okay and she responded with the words, "there is no baby Diego." I didn't understand what she meant at first. She told me that the doctor was unable to find Diego's heartbeat. They gave her the choice of getting induced that day or carrying him until full term. She decided to get induced.

I remember crying at work and telling my co-workers that my sister had just lost her baby. I remember leaving the office and driving to my parents house in an absolute daze. When I arrived, I found my mom and my sister Emma sitting in the kitchen and we all started crying together. I drove my mom and I to the hospital right away. When we arrived to the Labor and Delivery area, I asked the nurse behind the counter where I could find Erika. She then proceeded to ask me," has she given birth yet?" I didn't know how to answer that. I started crying and answered that my sister had just lost her baby. She apologized and showed us the way. I can still clearly remember walking into the hospital room and finding my sister and brother-in-law in there. I hugged my sister tight and told her how sorry I was. The rest of the day went by in such a flash. When it was time for my sister to deliver Diego, I took my mom to another room, knowing that we wouldn't be able to stand being in that room seeing my sister in such pain. It was short delivery. When we walked back in, I remember my sister holding Diego in her arms, crying such tears of pain. We all held him and when it was my turn, I remember kissing his cheek and telling him that I loved him. He was so tiny and so perfect. When it was time for the nurse to take him away, I remember crying with so much disbelief and so much agony. That was one of the hardest days of my life...for all of us.

Diego will forever and always be a part of our lives and we will never, ever forget him. He brought us so much happiness in the short amount of time that he was with us (in my sister's belly). I truly believe that he sent us his brother Adam, hoping that he would bring joy back into our lives.

I never knew about stillbirth until Diego. Erika and Hector wanted to do something to honor him in a special way so we all participated in the March of Dimes walk last year. This year, we're doing it again for him. It falls on my husband's birthday and we can't think of a better way to start the day. This year, Erika and Hector made a smaller goal for themselves. If you'd like to help them reach that goal, you can make a tax-deductible donation on their page. Any amount of money will make a difference for this great cause. I thank you in advance for helping us honor his life.

We love you and miss you so much Diego.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND TO ME!

2008-03-31T21:13:00.000-07:00

I never did figure out my blogger problem...so I'm posting from home...where I'm supposed to be posting from anyway. This past Saturday, I left my 20's and entered my 30's. Unlike a lot of women, I actually felt pretty good about it. I wasn't depressed at all and I welcomed the new decade into my life with open arms. My 20's treated me well and so now, I'm anxious to see what my 30's will bring to my life. In my 20's, I met my soulmate, married him, moved out of my parents house for the first time in my life and graduated college to name a few of the milestones. I imagine that in my 30's, God willing, I will buy a house with my husband and have kids so I'm excited to begin this chapter in my life.

I had a fabulous birthday weekend. It began on Thursday when I received a package in the mail at work from my best friend Coral filled with birthday goodies made from heaven. They were delicious!!! It was such a nice surprise!

On Friday, I continued the celebration with my co-workers. My desk was decorated, there was a wonderful birthday breakfast feast, cake, cards and gifts. I felt loved by all. I had mentioned to Gerric that he didn't need to send me flowers since I didn't want him to go overboard since we're really watching our budget these days. He still brought home flowers for me on Thursday night and I got my own "slice of cake" bouquet arrangement delivered to work on Friday. I loved them both!

Saturday morning, I woke up in a great mood and welcomed the big 3-0! It was going to be a fun night. My husband had been helping me plan a nice dinner with some close friends and the day had finally arrived. We ran a few errands in the morning and we had bagels for breakfast. After that, we went over to my sister-in-law's house to steam my dress. I had a 3:00 appointment with my hair dresser to get my hair blow dried and curled. When that was finally done, I came home and finished getting ready for my night. The cake had been picked up and my party favors were all boxed up...we were ready to go. We arrived at Alegria a little after 7:00. The room they prepared for us looked perfect. Before I knew it, guests began to arrive and the night was under way. I had such a wonderful time. The best part of it all was being surrounded by all the people I love...friends and family. It was such a great night and as far I knew, I radiated happiness. Dinner was delicious. It was a preset menu for everyone and they had their choice of a chicken, steak or seafood entree. The cake was provided by the one and only Great Dane Baking Company, who also designed our wedding cake.

The night ended up my husband and I catching up with our close friends Mike and Ruby, who surprised me with their presence since they were unable to make it after all due to illness in the family. It was the perfect way to end the night...a glass of sangria and some great company. I wouldn't have had it any other way. Here are some pictures from the evening...

Alegria has Flamenco dancers as their entertainment. My brother asked them to get the birthday girl up on their stage. Click here for my debut as a flamenco dancer. Haha! Hey, I didn't say I was a good flamenco dancer!

The next day, we met up with my immediate family and had lunch with them. Everything was delicious and it was another perfect way to celebrate. Here is my baby nephew Adam getting his very first taste of frosting...so cute!!!

After lunch, we headed to my husband's aunt's house to help his family celebrate his grandmother's birthday.

When we left, my husband drove by our reception location and we got off the car and were able to walk around the room since the doors were open. It was wonderful being able to reminisce about that day. *sigh*

It was a perfect weekend. Now it's all over. :( Happy Birthday to me...and just like the tag on my party favors read, "Some things get better with age." I know Kay will have some more pictures up on her blog soon too...so check it out!

It really was the perfect weekend. I felt so much love the entire time. Happy Birthday to me!!! Until the next time...

WHAT'S WRONG WITH BLOGGER???

2008-03-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

I've had this problem for a few days now but have chosen to ignore it. But I was about to post some new pictures and I realized I couldn't due to the problem I've been having! So for the past week or so (maybe longer), when I'm typing up a new post, blogger does not have the toolbar where it allows me to post pictures or link to a website. All I see is "undefined" where the toolbar is supposed to be! Any ideas what it could be???

KIIS MY BABY CONTEST!!!

2008-03-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

So I entered my nephew Adam into the Kiis My Baby contest that KIIS FM is sponsoring. There are a lot of cute babies that are in there but please take the time and vote for Adam because well, I'm asking you to!!!

Go to www.kiisfm.com/pages/kiismybaby

Go to Group 13 and vote for Contestant #9!

One you enter your e-mail address and vote, you'll have to go to your e-mail and click on the link that they send you to verify it's a real e-mail address. That's the only way it will count!

Now go and tell everyone to vote for him too!!!

Thanks everyone!!!

CLEAN MRI!

2008-03-19T16:29:00.001-07:00

Results were good! My sister just called me to share the good news. Thank you for the good thoughts and prayers. God is on our side. Henry is kicking butt! :)

WEEKEND REWIND: MEETING JESUS

2008-03-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

I really did! I'm sorry for the late post on my weekend. Here's the rundown of how it went:

Friday
We spent the evening at my sister-in-law's house and watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Well, I only stayed awake for about an hour and couldn't help but fall asleep. I was tired! Mellow evening but we had a great time.

Saturday
One of my aunts on my father's side of the family sold her house recently. She lost her husband about 7 years ago. They were very happily married so it was such a tragedy when he passed on. She decided to sell the house they shared together for many years and her and her son are moving to Nevada. She officially left yesterday but we all went to say goodbye to her on Saturday morning. It was so surreal being in her house again. I remembered visiting often when I was a little girl. Nothing changed in their house...it just seemed so alone. It was very sad saying goodbye to her but I can only wish her the very best in Nevada. Once she's settled, perhaps we'll go visit her. :)

My niece Bianca is turning 15 in October. Staying true to Hispanic tradition, Henry and my sister want to have a Quinceanera for her on this day to commemorate this special age. It won't be anything too grand since they are trying to stay on a tight budget but it should be something Bianca will remember forever. After visiting my aunt, we went to go look for dresses for her in Downtown L.A. on Saturday. I only had the chance to see her try on one dress as I had a prior commitment in the afternoon. My sister told me she did end up finding her dress that day so thankfully, that part is all done. I'm excited for her big day.

After dress shopping, I met up with the hubby and our agent and went house-hunting again. Unfortunately, we didn't see anything good that day but it was still fun to get out there. That night, we went over to my sister-in-law's house again so I could finish up the rest of the movie. I liked it a lot. There are so many things I'm sure I missed and watching it again would certainly help but maybe I'll do that some other time...those movies are long!

Sunday
After church, we helped my sister-in-law and her husband (gosh, we saw my sister-in-law a lot last weekend! haha!) choose the tile for their home. They are doing some remodeling in their house and they needed to choose tile for their three bathrooms. After that, we met up with out agent again to speak about some things and then went home. That night, we had plans to see Glory of Easter, playing at the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County. Our friend's brother is playing Jesus in the Production and we got to meet him after the show. See, I really did meet Jesus! :) His performance was incredible. I was brought to tears and I was so happy we had the opportunity to see this.

Here we are again...another Wednesday. At least it's the middle of the week. It's also MRI day today for Henry. As always, please pray for good results and think good thoughts all day, but especially at 2:20 when his MRI is being done. Thanks everyone. I will post the results tomorrow.

Have a great day!

A LITTLE LATE BUT...WEEKEND REWIND

2008-03-14T07:20:00.001-07:00

It's gotten difficult to update on a regular basis since I moved offices. Anyhow, it's already Friday and here I am barely updating last weekend. It was a good one...the weather was beautiful here and my husband and I got to see a lot of good friends.

Saturday

My car had to get some work done so we ended up having a late lunch with our friends Stepheny and Leo, along with their two adorable boys, little Leo and Noah. It's always a treat to eat with them since Leo is quite the cook. We had a great lunch! Leo was able to show us all the work he's done on their beautiful house since they moved in. He's quite the handyman now! After we had dessert, we said our goodbyes. We had a great afternoon with them and I hope to do it again very soon.

On our way home, we drove to Brea and finally saw Juno in the movie theater. We both really enjoyed it and will definitely add it to our movie collection when it comes out on DVD.

Sunday

That morning, we had plans to meet up with a college friend of ours who was visiting from Texas. We met up at El Dorado Park and had a great time catching up with some old friends. We also got a chance to see some of the kids that our college friends have spawned. They are just adorable!

Charlize and Lauren

Gerric with Lauren

We were only there for a couple hours since we also had plans to visit my good friend and former co-worker who was also visiting from Texas! We had so much fun seeing everyone. It's like she never left. I miss her already!

Me, Jessica (visiting from Texas) and Kelly

Rod (Jessica's hubby), Jessica, Gerric, me, Kelly, Dave, Jennifer and Jessica's daughter Maya

Kelly & her boyfriend Dave

I always have the best time with Kelly and Jessica. Kelly and I are planning on visiting Jessica in Texas sometime this year. I hope it happens soon!

It's supposed to rain tomorrow. YUCK. We have plans in the afternoon to meet with our loan processor to talk numbers again...oh lord. It's so nervewracking but at least, it will give us a better understanding of what we're up against. Wish us luck!

Have a great weekend everyone!

CHECKING IN

2008-03-05T09:15:00.001-08:00

So much going on. I've been missing in action because 2 weeks ago, my department moved buildings. It's a newly constructed area with all new furniture, new desks, new everything. The downside: NO privacy. I lost an office which means that now, everyone can see what I'm doing! Hate that! But nothing new or exciting is going on right now. It's officially my birthday month. I will be turning the BIG 3-0 on the 29th and I'm learning to embrace it. I'm excited to what the 30's have in store for me. My husband and I have been house-hunting almost every weekend now. We've seen a lot of cute houses but there's always something that I'm unhappy with. We're not a rush but if we find a house that we fall in love with, we're ready to make an offer. Such an exciting (and nerve-wracking) time for us. Other than that, not much going on.

I had dinner with Kay and Alyssa on Thursday night. It was so nice catching up with them. Kay shared some exciting news with us but I'll wait to see if she finds time to update you all. I couldn't be happier for her! Saturday night, my husband and I had dinner with my longtime girlfriend, Gema, and her beau Bill. We had a fabulous time. A lot can change when you meet the man of your dreams. Gema has been single and fabulous but since she's been with Bill, she's turned into a domestic diva. She's ready to settle down with him and have kids! I couldn't be happier for her either. I love when my friends are happy.

Everything else is going well. Henry's next MRI is on the 19th of this month so I ask, as always, for your prayers and good thoughts. This April will be one year since he was diagnosed with glioblastoma. We thank God every day for Henry's continued health and healing.

That's about it. I will leave you with this sweet sleeping angel...

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

WEEKEND UPDATE

2008-02-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

Friday

I left work at 1:30. Normally I would be very excited about this but on this day, I was leaving early to attend a funeral service. My girlfriend from high school lost her father. I have kept in touch with most of the friends I spent my four years of high school with but mainly, I see them at special events...weddings, birthdays, baby showers, etc. I love all of them dearly and knowing that this specific friend was extremely close to her "Pops," I was heartbroken to hear the news of his passing. The service was beautiful yet sad but I was so glad I was there to support my girlfriend...and I'd like to think she was happy I was there too. After the service, the family held a reception at their house so I was there until 10pm in the evening. As sad as it was, I had a good time being with my old friends and I even had a chance to spend some short time alone with my friend who lost her father so that was really nice. Her father's passing really got me thinking about the cycle of life and how each day with the people you love should be cherished. That can be a hard thing when your own father can be a stubborn man but nonetheless, it was another bittersweet day for me. Rest in peace Mr. Alo.

Since I had some short time to spare prior to leaving for the funeral, I stopped by my parents house and was able to see Adam for a bit. He's growing so fast! But still cuter every time I see him. :)

Saturday

I picked up my mom at about noontime and we went to the mall to spend some time together. We had lunch at CPK and gabbed for a few hours. I always enjoy spending time with my mom. She's the best. :) After I dropped her off, I drove back home to get ready for dinner. My husband had made reservations at La Traviata. We had a very nice time. Although there were some minor hiccups with the staff, we enjoyed dinner and the opera show.

We both had salads to start off, him the California meadows and my the Della Casa. I wished there had been more dried cranberries in my salad but the delicious dressing made up for that.

For our entrees, I had the Farfalle Andre and he had the Frutti Di Mare with risotto, which we both enjoyed.

For dessert, I chose the Creme Brulee and he had the Tiramisu...both did not disappoint!

It was a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Sunday

After church, we went home to eat leftovers for lunch. After that, we did some walking at South Coast Plaza and then went grocery shopping. I fell asleep early seeing as I did NOT have the day off today and he did. :(

Another Monday, another week...

VALENTINE'S DAY WEEK

2008-02-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure how I felt about Valentine's Day lately. I mean, I love what the day signifies but shouldn't every day be a reason to celebrate love? Don't get me wrong, my husband and I used to go all out on this day with gifts, flowers and cards. But now, I don't need anything on this day but a simple "I love you." After all, it's the little things that truly matter. I started realizing that as I get older, I'm not as excited about certain days like I used to be when I was a little girl.

Then, I got this.....

I got home from work one day and found this waiting for me. It wasn't addressed to "Mr. & Mrs." like our cards normally are - it was addressed to me, only me. I felt like a little girl again...I got my very own Valentine's Day card! Before I opened it, I recognized the writing and immediately knew it was from my girlfriend Alyssa. I loved everything about it...the fact that she remembered me on a day surrounded with love, the fact that she took the time to make this beautiful card for me and the fact that she put a huge smile on my face with this card. I loved it. After all, it's the little things, isn't it. :) Thank you Alyssa - you're the best.

My husband and I agreed to not get each other any gifts this year for Valentine's Day, especially since we're saving every last penny towards the down payment on a house. But I wasn't surprised when I received this at work today...

My husband is so sweet. When I called to thank him for my beautiful flowers, he said that when he was shopping for the perfect flowers to send to me on this day, he came across this and what sold him was 4 little words that appeared right by this..."AS SEEN ON OPRAH." He knows I'm an Oprah fanatic and that I would love these designer flowers that Oprah herself had on her show. haha...gotta love him!

Happy Valentine's Day to all. I hope you're all surrounded by love every day, but especially today.

DINNER WITH KELLY & WEEKEND UPDATE

2008-02-11T14:13:00.001-08:00

Fell behind on my blogging again. I've been busy at work and just too tired to blog by the time I get home.

Anyhow, I did manage to have a very nice and LONG overdue dinner with one of very good girlfriends, Kelly. She and I met when we both worked in Huntington Beach together. We always tried to have monthly dinner with another one of our girlfriends, Jessica. Then, Jessica, her husband and their little girl, decided to move to Texas (we miss you Jess!) and when that happened, it became more difficult for Kelly and I see eachother. We finally made plans for Tuesday night, where we went to dinner at El Torito. It was so great catching up with her and I didn't feel so left out on her life anymore. :) I hope we do it again really soon.

After dinner, we came back to my apartment and caught up a bit more. We started reminiscing about our days at work and how silly we would act with one another. I don't know what came over us that night but we took some pictures pretending we were posing for prom pictures! Let's just say that I will do both of us a favor and NOT post any of those up. We looked ridiculous!

This past weekend went by in a whirlwind.

Saturday

My husband and I had our 6-month teeth cleaning appointment on Saturday morning. Boy did it feel good to have my pearly whites cleaned! After that, since we were near, we decided to have lunch at one of our favorite little fast-food restaurants. They have the BEST bbq there. I enjoyed every.single.bite. Later that afternoon, we had plans to go to a couples' baby shower. These are becoming more and more popular nowadays and needless to say, we both had a great time. My girlfriend from high school and her husband are expecting their very first little bundle of joy. I'm so excited for them! The food was great, the company was wonderful and Gerric and I even managed to walk away with a game prize! After we got home, we watched Good Luck Chuck on DVD. We never had any intention of watching this movie but my co-worker let us borrow her DVD and asked that I watch it. It was pretty silly...almost ridiculous but we still laughed and had a good time watching it.

Sunday

We spent most of Sunday cleaning our humble abode. It had been a while since we had given it a good clean so it felt good to give it a good scrub! Later that evening, we had dinner plans with our good friend/fabulous realtor, Elvia. She was sweet enough to invite us over for dinner, the main reason being to have me try one of delicious recipes for bread pudding. She knows I'm a lover of bread pudding and disappoint she did not! We started off with appetizers: shredded carrots in light olive oil and balsamic and a basil leaf, all wrapped in proscuitto. They were amazing!

The main course was a delicious salad she made which consisted of greens, shelled pasta, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese. This was also amazing and pleased my palate perfectly.

I needed to wait a bit before we continued on to dessert, as I wanted stomach to be able to savor this to the fullest! Elvia's bread pudding, or "berry strata" as she calls it, was absolutely delicious and I gave it two thumbs up. I was lucky enough to be sent home with leftovers so I get to experience it again tonight! I can't wait! Thank you SO much Elvia...everything was perfection.

Here we are again...another Monday. Can't wait for Friday...already! Have a great week!

WEEKEND UPDATE

2008-02-04T17:03:00.001-08:00

I had a great weekend, yet it was a bittersweet one.

Friday

My husband and I carpooled to work so after he picked me up, since I had a LONG week, we went to a Thai restaurant to have one of our favorite meals...chicken with red wine sauce. YUM! We used to have this a lot when we were dating but hadn't had it in years! It was just as delicious as I remembered it. We even had leftovers and had those for lunch the next day!

Saturday

This was a very special day. It marked one year since my nephew earned his angel wings at 36 weeks....his 1st birthday. It was a beautiful memorial and I know Diego was looking down on us smiling. It was an intimate gathering, held at his gravesite. My sister had asked my husband to play "Tears in Heaven" on his guitar. After that, my sister read a beautiful letter to her son that moved us all to tears. Then we had a balloon release for him. As we let the balloons go up into Heaven for Diego, "Someday we'll be together" was playing in the background. It was perfect. We had cupcakes in his honor and then joined my sister and her husband back at their place for an early dinner. It really was a beautiful memorial. Happy Birthday baby boy. We miss you and we love you more each day.

Sunday

This family has been close family friends with my husband's family since they were kids. They have always been a warm, loving family. The youngest of the kids, Mariclaire and her husband Paul, have a baby boy named Preston Chase. Last year, they received the devastating news that Preston has a very rare genetic disorder called Sandhoff disease. Last week, little Preston suffered his first seizure, one of the symptoms of this disorder. Luckily, he made it back home in time to celebrate his 2nd birthday surrounded by those that love him. We were honored to be invited to celebrate with Preston. I had not seen him in quite a while. When I saw Preston yesterday, he was sitting in his wheelchair, with his little eyes drooping from exhaustion and staring up into the ceiling. It broke my heart. Children with Sandhoff normally don't live past 3 years of age but I hope in my heart that Preston is the exception. His mother and father are SO strong. Please say a little prayer for Preston.

Happy Belated Birthday also to my best friend Coral! Her birthday was yesterday and we spoke but I still wanted to give her a little blog love. Love you Coral!

JUMPING BACK INTO THE BLOGOSPHERE

2008-02-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

Whew! What a week! I have been crazy busy with work lately...coming in early, leaving late. It hasn't been fun but I'm hoping and praying that it will have all been worth it in the end.

We had our "Welcome Baby Adam" celebration last Saturday and we had a great time. My dear girlfriend Kay joined us and she took some pictures herself....thank you Kay! :) I wanted to work on some projects and enlisted Kay to take one on herself. As you all know, she's a little Martha Stewart so I knew this would be so easy for her. I asked her to make me some chocolate wrappers, especially designed for Adam. They turned out amazing! I couldn't have been happier with them. Guests at the shower were telling me that Kay could start a business with the things she creates. I couldn't agree more. They were perfect...

I also ordered some adorable favors from My Baby Shower Favors and some personalized favor tags on Ebay. I was going for the "From our Shower to yours" theme and found some adorable bath confetti tins. I paid extra for "Overnight Shipping" to ensure I received them the Friday before the shower. Friday came and I received nothing. I e-mailed them and they assured me that they were sent out on time with expedited shipping. I called the Post Office on Friday night and they told me they didn't have anything. I was so diappointed thinking I wasn't going to have anything to accompany the adorable chocolates. I was relentless and called the Post Office early Saturday morning, the day of the shower. Luckily, they had arrived! So off I went to Downtown LA (30 miles one way from where I live) to pick up the package. They were so cute and well worth the drive. I also got refunded for the shipping so it all worked out!

The celebrant after his party...

He's so darn cute! Well, maybe I'm just biased. :)

On Sunday night, since we were home dreading the beginning of another work week (and what a week it was!), I decided to finally try out the Sprinkles cupcake mix that my girlfriend Ruby had given to me as a gift. She always knows what I would love. :) I baked the Dark Chocolate flavor and they came out delicious...if I do say so myself. I'm sure it's no real Sprinkles cupcake but they were yummy! Thank you Ruby! I still have two more flavors to bake...we'll see how those turn out!

I'm so happy it's Friday. Like I said, this week has been a very stressful one for me. Things haven't gotten any better but after a very good client meeting yesterday, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Tomorrow it my nephew Diego's birthday. It would have been his very 1st birthday. To celebrate this very special day, we are having a Balloon release for him at the cemetary at approximately 3:03 pm...the time he was born. I will post more about it next week.

On Sunday, we have another special birthday party to attend and I'll post the details next week too. Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for catching up!

ANOTHER FRIDAY...

2008-01-25T14:52:00.000-08:00

I've been MIA. I haven't had a week this stressful since I first started this position. I am so stressed at work right now. I think about it constantly. I had a great year last year but this year isn't starting off so good and that means, I'm under radar with my boss and that's not where I want to be. I hate it and it sucks. If you have the time, please say a little prayer that I make my sales number for the year. Thanks y'all.

Secondly, I never posted Henry's MRI results. I'm very happy to report that had another clean MRI. Thanks be to God! I was so relieved! So thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Thirdly, I never wished my beautiful nephew a Happy One Month birthday on here. He's growing like a weed and he's a little chunky monkey. I love him!

Have a great weekend everyone!

WEEKEND REVIEW

2008-01-21T13:54:00.000-08:00

Friday
My husband had plans to go see Cloverfield on opening day with a friend so I opted to sit this one out and run errands of my own. Since we never hosted a baby shower for my sister during her pregnancy, we are hosting one for her this Saturday. I had a lot of things to do to prepare so I got a lot done for this which was good. I'll be sure to post pictures of the small projects I worked on for this occasion.

** My husband enjoyed the movie, although he admits to getting a little motion sickness from all the shaking in the film....another reason I'm happy I opted to do my own thing :) **

Saturday
More running errands to prepare for the shower...but this time, I ran them with the co-hosts...my eldest sister and my mom. We got a lot done, including ordering the food, finished buying prizes and other things. That night, we had dinner plans to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday at his house. We had a great time celebrating and I especially enjoyed the food. I always love me a plateful of filipino frui salad!

Sunday
After church, we visited my nephew and my mother-in-law at the cemetary, since it had been a couple weeks since we'd been. After that, we had lunch with my sister-in-law and her husband at Souplantation. After that, we spent some time with them and then my husband and I went to the mall to do some shopping.

It was a fun and uneventful weekend. 2 things going on this week...

1) Happy Birthday to my sister Erika today! I'll be heading over to my parents house after dinner to celebrate the occasion.

2 ) Henry has another scheduled MRI on Wednesday. Please pray for good results. It's hard to believe that this coming April, it will be one year since he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. But he continues to stay strong and is doing so well! Thank you for the prayers!

CATCHING UP

2008-01-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

I realized I haven't updated my blog on the events that took place during my holiday vacation. I'll post on that in a bit.

I wanted to follow up on my last post about Boey. There hasn't been a day that's gone by that I haven't thought about Boey and her family. I still can't believe this precious little girl is gone. I first found her website a couple years ago, shortly after she was diagnosed with cancer. I followed her journey so closely and felt in my heart that she would win her battle. I was so happy for her when they appeared on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and thought it was the start of happy memories and new beginnings for them. I have to keep reminding myself that Boey is now living cancer-free and that her family will continue to fight to see Boey's dreams become a reality. I guess one of the reasons why I took this news very hard was a selfish one. From what I knew, Boey was doing so well. I knew her family hadn't updated her blog in a while but I attributed that to them living happily and enjoying Boey's remission. So I got the news that she had lost her battle, it made me realize that things can change in an instant. Although Henry continues to do well, I'm so scared that his tumor will come back and we'll be back at square one. I stay positive as often as possible but I can't help but let the fear overcome my emotions from time to time. I just pray that Henry continues on his journey to healing and that Boey's family can find the strength to move on. I never did get a chance to meet Boey, but she held a very special place in my heart. I miss you Boey...now and always.

On a brighter note, here are some of the things I did during my holiday vacation:

A holiday party hosted by the fabulous Alyssa and her hubby: here are the girls, along with a picture of Alyssa's domestic diva mishap.

The boys at the soiree:

A Laker game with my hubby:

A fun night with friends playing Rock Band:

Bowling with one of my besties Kay and my husband's friend Jason:

This past Saturday we attended a 1st birthday party for one of our friend's little boys. The food was amazing and we had a great time as always with them. Yesterday I had brunch with a couple of girlfriends and later went to visit my beautiful new nephew since I hadn't seen him since coming back from New York.

Whew! That pretty much catches me up. The hubby went snowboarding today and I have a workout after work that I'm dreading. But looking forward to sweating off some calories. :)

I'M HOME...WITH HEARTBREAKING NEWS

2008-01-10T20:12:00.001-08:00

I just landed from New York about an hour ago. It felt so good to be home. My husband told me he had some sad news to break to me but never did I think I was about to receive the news he gave me. I learned about Boey a long time ago and have been honored to follow her story for months now. I kept her in my prayers every single night. When I learned tonight that she lost her battle with cancer, I couldn't help but break down in tears. I just can't believe it. Cancer has taken another beautiful soul. I hate you cancer. I'm so upset right now. I'm at a loss for words. Please keep her family in your prayers that they have the strength to get through this very difficult time. I'll write more later. Rest in peace Boey.

OFF TO THE BIG APPLE...AGAIN

2008-01-04T12:12:00.000-08:00

I'm so behind on my blogging. I haven't even recapped my days during holiday vacation. I'll be sure to do that when I'm back. I leave to New York again on business on Sunday and I get back on Thursday night. It's COLD there right now so I'm hoping that I will survive because this Southern California gal does not do well in cold weather. Until the next time...

2008...A YEAR OF NEW BEGINNINGS

2008-01-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!!! Gerric and I had a mellow evening ringing in the new year. We spent it with my family at my sister's. Since we didn't want her to have to take Adam out, we opted to spend it at their house. We had a great dinner and were together as the clock struck midnight...just how I wanted it to be. I've mentioned in previous posts that I was anxious to kiss 2007 goodbye and I'm still not sad to see it go but one always has to wonder what the new year has in store. I only hope and pray that it's full of new beginnings and most importantly, happy endings.

I'm not the only one that had a rough year. So on behalf of everyone, I hope that 2008 brings everyone love, health and happiness.

Goodbye forever 2007. 2008...bring it on.

EVERYONE...MEET BABY ADAM ALEXANDER

2007-12-29T14:10:00.000-08:00

Baby Adam Alexander (his middle name was Diego's...he was given the same middle name in his honor)

Born on December 21st, 2007

at 7:52pm

6 lbs, 13 oz

I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update. I've been enjoying my vacation to the fullest but have also come down with a bit of a cold. Thank you all so very much for your well wishes. I'm so happy to report that my nephew is one week and one day old as of today. He's healthy, happy and just adorable. He's gotten cuter each day I've seen him. It's amazing how one can love a little person so, so much in so little time.

I ended up leaving work on Friday at 2:30 and got to the hospital at about 3pm. My mom and eldest sister were there already. When they checked my sister into the room she would stay in, they connected her so we could hear Adam's heartbeat. It was such a wonderful sound.

They finally started the Pitocin at about 5pm. The contractions were starting to come on strong but since my sister has a very strong threshold for pain, it took her a while to ask for the epidural. The nurse came in to see how far she was dialated. When she did that, the baby's heartbeat slowed down. Our hearts sank. The nurse was surprised and told us that Adam did not like her touching his head. My heart must've been racing so fast. But she assured us that it was normal. It was after 7pm when she finally asked for the epidural but the nurse told us that it would be a while since the anesthesiologist was out and they were going through a shift change at the time. I could see the pain in my sister's face and about 1/2 an hour later, she mumbled that she wanted to push. We knew it was time then. I took my mom out of the room and we went out to the waiting room with everyone. It was a short while before we got the word that Adam had arrived into the world. It all happened so quickly.

When we walked in, Adam was being weighed and was having his perfect little feet footprinted. His cry was the best noise in the world.

Love at first sight

With her doctor

...and baby makes five

Big brother Erik meeting his brother for the 1st time

Adam went home with mommy the next day at about 6pm. It was a wonderful Christmas for all of us having him home. We thank God for his health. He's just perfect.

I'll fill you all in on the rest of my vacation soon, which will include a couple holiday parties and Laker Game. I hope you had a merry Christmas!

TODAY'S THE DAY...OUR FAMILY WILL GROW

2007-12-21T10:18:00.001-08:00

Nope, no baby yet. But I just got a call from my sister that her doctor has decided to induce her at 2:00pm...TODAY!!! I'm going to try to get out of here early in order to be there to welcome my nephew into the world. Please pray for a safe delivery. I can't wait to meet him! I'll post pictures as soon as I can and introduce you all to him.

This is the best Christmas present ever! :)

WEEKEND RECAP

2007-12-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

I’m posting my weekend recap a little late since I’ve been so busy at work lately. I can’t wait for this week to be over. I have all of next week off! Two holidays and I’m taking three vacation days. I can’t wait!!!

Friday
My husband had poker night with the guys so I took advantage and did some shopping that night. I came home, wrapped some gifts and fell asleep on the couch with the heater on and a blanket over me. *sigh* My kind of night.

Saturday
Ever since I mentioned that I absolutely LOVE bread pudding, Nanette had mentioned that Urth Café in Santa Monica has a delicious version and that I had to try it. Ever since she mentioned this place, it seems that I heard about 5-7 people talking about Urth Café. People couldn’t believe I hadn’t been there yet. I wanted to ensure that we got our share of bread pudding (since I also heard it sells out fairly early). So on Saturday morning, I woke up at 6:15am, left my apartment at 7:20am and met up with my friends Nanette and Kay at 8:00am at Urth Café…all in the name of bread pudding! :) I also had a cup of Chai tea and the three of us shared their fruit plate. Nanette did not lie…the bread pudding was absolutely amazing!!! You can have it with your choice of baked bananas or baked apples. We all went with the baked apples…Y-U-M!!!!! It was SO good. If this place wasn’t so far, I’m sure I would have gone back the next morning for more! I had a great time having breakfast with them and I’m hoping we can do it again soon.

Later that evening, we had a family party to attend for my husband’s aunt. She was celebrating her birthday. We were there for a couple hours and then all the cousins decided to join us to see the Christmas lights in Naples. Gerric and I did this one year together and we had so much fun. The houses are beautiful! We had a great time doing it again this year.

Sunday
My dad’s birthday was on Sunday and we all celebrated by going to their house and having breakfast. My mom made a well-known Mexican dish called “pozole” and she also made her amazing carrot cake. I was stuffed by the time we left. Gerric and I ran errands the rest of the day and we ended the evening by finally trying out the newest frozen yogurt shop to open up near our apartment…YogurtBerry. I really enjoyed it because like Alyssa, I’m not picky when it comes to frozen yogurt since I love it in all flavors and all shapes & sizes!

Monday
I’ve been working out again with my personal trainer so other than a kick a*s workout last night, I finished up some shopping and went home.

This week cannot go by fast enough! And in case you’re all wondering, no baby nephew has arrived yet. We’re all waiting at the edge of our seats and praying for a healthy delivery. I’ll be sure to update once the little one arrives safely!

HOLIDAY SHINDIG

2007-12-14T13:18:00.000-08:00

Martha Stewart’s got nothin’ on Kay. I had the pleasure of attending Kay and her hubby, Steve’s holiday party last night. It was nothing short of fabulous. My husband had to work last night so I went solo but never fell short of great company all night. Kay always manages to have the best parties. She was born to entertain. From her festive do-it-yourself decorations (no one but her could make a wreath out of bushes and have it turn out AMAZING), to her wonderful menu…it truly was a perfect evening.

What made it even more wonderful was that I got to spend some time with Nanette and her husband. They are adorable together! Having seen and heard so much about Brent from Nanette’s blog, I felt like I had known both of them forever, yet it was only the second time I had met Nanette and the first meeting her hubby. They are a great couple.

Thank you to Kay and Steve for hosting a great party. I am honored to be friends with them. They even had Santa ride down their street!

In other exciting news, my sister called me today after her weekly doctor visit and she’s already 3 centimeters dilated!!! That means that my nephew could be here as early as this weekend! I’m so incredibly excited. Please think good thoughts that he arrives safely and soundly in their arms.

Thanks to everyone for your supportive comments on the home-buying front. I really appreciate them and it helps to know that I am not alone in this. Have a great weekend!

'TIS THE SEASON

2007-12-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

‘Tis the season for holiday surprises! I signed for a Fed Ex envelope yesterday. Since I wasn’t expecting anything from anyone, I was intrigued. I was incredibly surprised to see I had received a generous Burke Williams gift certificate from one of my accounts! I’ve been pretty stressed at work lately so it couldn’t have come at a better time. Merry Christmas to me!!!

I’ve been feeling a little down lately…about my job, about not being able to buy a house yet…about a lot of things. But I’m hoping that the New Year will bring a ray of light to my outlook.

WEEKEND REWIND

2007-12-10T09:48:00.000-08:00

Another weekend gone by. Gosh, how I hate Mondays. Especially after coming back from a great weekend. I didn’t get much Christmas shopping done but had a busy weekend nonetheless.

Friday
I had a very stressful day at work on Friday…complete with getting yelled at by the boss. She was having a bad day and needed someone to take it out on…that person was me. I couldn’t wait to get the weekend started and get out of the office. Gerric and I had carpooled that day so when he picked me up, he had flowers waiting for me in the car. He knew I was having a bad day. So sweet! We went to Downey Landing shopping center after work to get some things done. We bought new pillows for ourselves, I got some Christmas shopping started and eventually had the stressful day at work behind me. We grabbed dinner at Frisco’s, a little diner in the city of Downey. I went with a burger and fries…did I mention I had a stressful day at work? :) After dinner, we went on a Target run to get some much needed things we were out of…Kleenex, toothpaste, glass cleaner, furniture polish, among other things. We headed home after that.

Saturday
I had made plans with a friend to do some baking. You see, there are a lot of people at work that I wanted to thank for such a successful year but I didn’t want to break the bank. So I decided to bake some Christmas goodies for each of them. I’m not exactly a domestic goddess in the kitchen so I had the help of my friend, Elvia. It was an all day event but we had a great time and I actually enjoyed spending so much time slaving over an oven. We started with icebox butter cookies. Since it’s necessary to refrigerate the dough for 2 hours, it made sense to start here. Then we made her famous raspberry shortbread bars. Byt this time, it was past noon and we were ready to eat. Elvia prepared an amazing lunch. We had a fresh vegetable frittata with a side of greens drizzled in olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. It was delicious!!! After lunch, we continued with our recipes. We had time to make 3 more…chocolate chip cookies, orange-almond shortbread and orange-cranberry macaroons. Baking can be so time-consuming. We didn't know where the time had gone! I think everything turned out so good…let’s just hope my recipients think so too.

Elvia’s house is all ready for the holidays. Her tree was beautiful and I just had to snap a picture of it. The picture doesn’t do it justice but it was the best way I could capture it. I had a great time with her. We hope to make this an annual tradition….Elvia and Jolene’s Day of Baking.

Gerric and I had dinner plans that night so I left Elvia’s a little after 5pm. We decided to have Buona Gente in Belmont Shores. It was another delicious dinner. After that, we decided to snuggle together in the cold winter night and walked along 2nd street. Gerric was craving Pinkberry so we made a stop there. Even though it was one of the coldest nights of the season so far, the place was still thriving. We had a wonderful date night together.

Sunday
We went to church and came back home to eat the leftovers we had from Saturday night’s dinner. Then we headed to the cemetery to visit Gerric’s mommy and my nephew. After that, we made our way to the Christmas tree lot by our apartment and bought our Christmas tree! We actually made a fast decision this time and before we knew it, Gerric was carrying it inside our place. We spent the rest of the afternoon decorating it and putting up lights. It’s still missing something to give it that extra “umph” but we still love it. I have yet to buy a topper too so that will add to its look once we buy that.

Gerric picked up dinner for us and we ate at home. It was nice. Then I packaged all my goodies together and wrote out my cards for everyone. I loved the way they turned out. I’m so excited to hand them out. I think it’s also early enough where everyone isn’t sick of sweets.

In case anyone is wondering about the Internet thing…I’ve actually been typing my posts in Word, then I quickly post them in here. What can I say…I can’t stay away! Okay, happy Monday everyone!

GROWING UP

2007-12-05T14:29:00.000-08:00

I love all of my nieces and nephews equally. They're all apart of me and it's been amazing seeing them all grow up. My niece Bianca started high school this year. Before you know it, she'll be shopping for her prom dress. *tear* My nephew Andrew is so big now that before you know it, he'll have his first real crush on a girl. *double tear* Ashley is so girly that her daddy (my brother) is going to have a real hard time when she starts going out....with boys. *gasp!* And my little Erik lost his very first tooth today. There's something so special about watching them all as newborn babies and seeing them grow with each passing year. Erik is so big now. They all are. And it makes me feel...well, older. Diego would have been 10 months on Sunday. How time flies by. I look forward to seeing them all grow up into amazing adults. How I love them so.

Erik and his first "gap." I hope the tooth fairy pays him a visit tonight! :)

WEEKEND REWIND

2007-12-04T14:44:00.000-08:00

I was home sick yesterday. I have a sore throat and aching ears. I went to the doctor and I got tested for strep throat. I doubt it’s that severe but better to be safe than sorry. I almost didn’t come in today either but since I don’t have any more sick days left, I forced myself to get out of my warm, comfy bed this morning. Anyhow, here’s a recap of my weekend.

Friday
We were supposed to meet my sister-in-law, her husband John and his family at Downtown Disney to celebrate John’s birthday but since it was raining on Friday, we ended up having Chinese take out at their house. It was a nice evening.

Saturday

I started taking our Christmas decorations out of the garage since it’s that time of the year again. I always love decorating for the holidays. It’s so much fun! And I hope to keep up the tradition when we have children so they can be in the spirit of the holidays too as they grow older. All we have left to do is put up our Christmas tree which we hope to buy this Sunday. Then, our little humble abode will be completed and ready for the holidays.

I had a hair appointment to get my highlights retouched at 2pm. Since I had plans that night, it was the perfect excuse to have my stylist curl my hair. It didn’t exactly last the entire night but I still felt cute and sassy. That night, I had my company Christmas party. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it since we weren’t able to take anyone with us but it ended up being okay. I hadn’t planned on spending a lot of money on a holiday dress so I went to the one place that almost never fails…Forever 21. I found a simple dress for $22…can’t get any better than that! The party was held at Opera in Hollywood. We had a good time but I found that I was already bored at 9:30pm. It made for an early evening. I was home by 11pm.

The food was just okay. They had waiters passing around appetizers the whole evening. I found those to be better than the actual dinner. It was a little bland to me but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.

Dessert was much better in my opinion. Again, the waiters were passing around mini desserts at the end of the evening and I kid you not, I think I had like 8 mini desserts!

Here is my $22 dress...

On our way out the door, they were handing out a little giveaway. It ended up being Guess coasters. Uh, I don't really have a need for them, especially when the models on them are all female so my brother is going to be getting a new set of coasters for his house. :)

Sunday
I woke up on Sunday morning with a sore throat. Perhaps it was the fact that I didn’t wear a thick jacket on Saturday night when I went to the party. We had plans for the day so I just tried to ignore how I was feeling. Our friends Mike and Ruby got married in 2006 and bought a townhouse earlier this year in August. We had yet to see it so we drove down to Playa Vista and had lunch with them. Their place is beautiful. Ruby was sweet enough to make lunch for us…panini’s, a green salad and my favorite, butternut squash soup. It was delicious! After lunch, we walked down to see some model homes near their place. These places were unbelievable. I walked out with so many ideas for our future home. I don’t know when Gerric and I will finally get to say that we own our very own house but when we do, I know it will be right for us. I can’t wait.

After our little excursion, we headed back to their place and had dessert. Ruby made my favorite…bread pudding! It was amazing. In fact, I took some leftovers home. Bless her heart. After dessert, Mike was sweet enough to burn a CD for me with some of my favorite Christmas songs. I’ve been listening to it ever since and I love it. We had a wonderful time with them and I hope to see them again very soon. Thank you Mike and Ruby!

I’m meeting a girlfriend for dinner tonight so that should be fun. Now if only this darn earache would subside.

UPDATE ON HENRY

2007-11-29T11:45:00.000-08:00

Once again, God has listened to our prayers. Henry's MRI was once again CLEAN! Hooray! My sister shared that the nurse did notice a "grey" area where his tumor was originally resected but she's almost certain it's just scar tissue but she'll be keeping an eye on it. Henry is also gaining some weight back so that's terrific news. Luckily, he only lost about 10 pounds to begin with so he'll back to his normal weight in no time! He starts his new round of chemo tonight so we're all praying those pills continue to do their job.

Thank you a million times for your thoughts and prayers. They are appreciated more than you know.

SNEAKING ON FOR A QUICK PRAYER REQUEST

2007-11-28T15:19:00.000-08:00

I know, I know...I'm not supposed to be on the Internet...but this is important! Today is another MRI for Henry...please pray for good results. Your prayers have worked thus far.

Thank you so much everyone!

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND REWIND

2007-11-27T10:46:00.001-08:00

*sigh* It was so nice having 5 days off of work and only having to use one of those days a vacation day. But now I’m back and at work.

My Thanksgiving was very nice this year. We started with Gerric’s family in the afternoon. Luckily, we’ve never had to argue about whose family to spend it with year after year since his family has always celebrated it at lunchtime. So we arrived at his dad’s house at twelve o’clock and waited for the rest of the clan to arrive. Lunch was delicious this year. His family is not very “traditional” when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner so other than store bought turkey, stuffing and mashes potatoes; we also had roast beef and barbeque ribs. Everything was delicious! We also took advantage since we were all together and chose our Secret Santa names. Since my husband has such a big family and recently, he’s had a lot of cousins move here from the Philippines, we do a gift exchange so we’re not all forced to buy a million gifts. We left to our next destination a little after 3pm.

It’s become a tradition in my family to have Thanksgiving dinner at my brother’s house in Lake Forest. So this year was no different. We arrived a little after 4pm and shortly thereafter, already found myself with a glass of wine. It was a nice evening. My husband brought along an old videotape of my family and it was nice watching my nieces and nephews when they were just babies. How time flies. Dinner was amazing, as it is every single year. Mom made the turkey and stuffing, my eldest sister made the mashed potatoes, brought the bread and ham, and gave cranberry sauce a try for the first time and my sister Erika made the green salad and brought the pies. I was in charge of drinks…I got off way too easy. J We had plenty of food and we were very thankful for that. My brother toasted us and I said a few words before dinner. I wished I had prepared something nicer since I didn’t say everything I wanted to say but what I did say came from my heart and that’s what matters. The rest of the evening was great. We finally all left at about 10:30pm, each with our share of leftovers to take home.

Our centerpiece...complete with my nephew's picture on it.

Friday was very laid back. We relaxed and finished packing for our trip up North. Our flight left after 5pm. It was a short hour and twenty minute flight.

Jessica picked us up, who is the wife of Gerric’s best friend, Patrick. She arrived with their little girl, Alexya. I fell in love with her. I already kept up with Jessica’s blog every day so I knew what Lexy looked like already but she was so much prettier and adorable in person.

We had such a great time with them this weekend. We relaxed on Friday night and had pizza for dinner. The next day was Lexy’s first birthday party. We had a great time and little Lexy did too. She was so good about opening her own gifts and enjoyed the attention she got all day. She’s such a doll. She just started walking so it was SO cute seeing her waddle all day long. It made me anxious to have kids of my own. But at the same time, it reminded me what a huge responsibility it is to have kids.

That night after the birthday party, we all watched our wedding video and I had a great time reminiscing. Sunday we relaxed all day and I had a chance to see Jessica and Patrick’s wedding video. Gerric was the best man and although I had seen it once before already, it was so nice seeing it again since I really got to know Patrick and Jessica this weekend. They were wonderful hosts to us. That night, I helped Jessica make lasagna for dinner. It was delicious! Monday morning, I slept in so while I showered and got ready, the guys, Jessica and Alexya went to the park so the boys could play a little basketball like the good ‘ole days. I know Gerric had a great time hanging out with his buddy. We left yesterday at 2pm. It was a great trip and I truly hope to see them again soon. I miss Lexy already. :(

She wasn't exactly happy to take a picture with us. :)

After we arrived yesterday, we took a short time to freshen up and drove to Cal State Long Beach, our alma mater, since our friend was actually going to be speaking at a meeting for the American Marketing Association. My husband and I were members while we were in college and that’s actually how we met. It was so weird being back on campus. Everyone looked so young! It was a great night.

The rest of the evening, we had Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner and watched some TV before we finally went to bed. It was a great weekend. I hope everyone had a wonderful & restful holiday.

THANKSGIVING WISH

2007-11-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

2007 has been a year full of trials and tribulations. The most difficult months for us were February, when my sister gave birth to my angel nephew and April, when my brother-in-law was diagnosed with a brain tumor. They were both gut-wrenching moments that I think about constantly. I think about the moment when I walked into the hospital room where was sister was closely holding her lifeless baby. I think about holding him for a brief minute. I think about the last time I saw him at the mortuary. I think about seeing Henry lying in his hospital bed with bandages on his head after his brain surgery. I think about the day the doctor told us how long he possibly had. It feels like yesterday. They are moments that defined what this year has been like for us. During those months, I felt such agony and I truly felt that I was never going to feel happiness again. Yes, throughout these hardships, it has made all of us stronger and I’d like to think that it only brought all of us closer together as a family. Yes, we were always thankful that we were all together on Thanksgiving Day but at the same time, I believe we may have taken it for granted. Although it’s been a year full of trials and tribulations, we still have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful that my sister is expecting again. I’m thankful that Henry is doing so well and is back to himself again before this nightmare began. I am thankful that I have both of my parents in my life and they are both healthy. I am thankful that I am surrounded by friends that I love and have shown me how much they love me this year. I am thankful that on this Thanksgiving holiday, I will have my entire family with me around the dinner table with one special angel watching over all of us. I wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by the people you love.

WEEKEND RECAP

2007-11-18T18:38:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday night...but at least it's a short week! Yipee!!!

Friday

My husband and I carpooled to work on Friday so after he picked me up, we headed to his barber shop to have his hair cut. It was a quick trip since there was no wait. Believe it or not, it was actually my very first trip to a barber shop. It's so different from the salon I go to. This barber shop had a few chairs in it, smelled kind of funny and there's a bunch of men that are walking in and out to get their hairs cut. I'm used to very girly salons where candles are lit, there are In Style magazines to read and you're offered water or espresso while you're waiting. But nonetheless, it was quite an experience and a HUGE difference in price. While my husband took out a $10 bill to pay for his cut, I pay 20 times as much!

After his haircut, we grabbed some fast food for dinner and relaxed at home. We even started watching Borat since I had never seen it and Gerric borrwed it. There were definitely some funny scenes but I'm glad I didn't spend money to go see it in the theater.

Saturday

We laid around most of the day. I finally got ready and went to go get an overdue pedicure. During the week, I had given Gerric a mission. I suddenly had a craving for pumkin ravioli. I told him that his mission was to find a resturant that served this dish in our area and we would go have dinner there on Saturday night. Sure enough, my dear husband delivered. So on Saturday night, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Ferraro's Cucina Italiana. I didn't want to spend our evening at an expensive restaurant so this fit the bill perfectly.

My pumpkin ravioli was delicious and Gerric enjoyed his salmon spinach ravioli just as much. My craving was definitely fed....

For dessert, I wanted something light and fresh. I went with the pineapple sorbet, which amazing came served inside a real pineapple. It was delicious!!!!

After our delicious dinner, we walked around for a bit then headed home. I think it might have been the wine we had during dinner but we were both SO exhausted! As soon as we got home, we kicked off out shoes and fell asleep on the couch! I guess we're really getting old. :( Nonetheless, it was a wonderful evening.

Sunday

After going to church, we went to the mall to buy a gift. We are heading to Antioch, CA (up north) for a birthday party. One of Gerric's best friends lives up there and his little girl is turning one! So we're going there the day after Thanksgiving to share in her celebration. Gerric is not one to ever spend money on himself so it was a surprise to see him buy himself not one, but two pairs of shoes! He was a happy camper. Then we headed over to Pier One since I have the decorating bug and I wanted to buy some holiday things for our apartment. I didn't end up buying a whole lot but we'll see how it all turns out once I put up the decorations for the holidays. I wondered if I would even decorate this year being that it's been so rough but I told myself that in order to truly show that I'm thankful for all that we've been given, I need to keep up with the holiday traditions and putting up decorations is one of them.

After we came home, I was relaxing on our couch and reading a magazine when the doorbell rang. It was my sister Emma, Henry, and their kids Bianca and Andrew. They came bearing gifts! Andrew was carrying a most beautiful centerpiece. It was gift from all of them. Along with it, my sister handed me a card. In it, she wrote how thankful she was for all that that we had done for them this year. They were beautiful words and they made me cry. It was beautiful. They stayed for a little while and were on their way. I put my centerpiece up already and even with just that and the other little pieces I have up, our apartment is starting to look like Holiday Central. I love it!

Now it's Sunday night and we're just relazing, getting ready to watch the American Music Awards. It's weird blogging on a Sunday night but no more blogging from work for me...at least until this "no Internet rule" dies down. :)

DINNER WITH KAY AND INTERNET WITHDRAWALS

2007-11-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

Since Kay's birthday is coming up at the end of the month, I wanted to take her out to dinner to celebrate the occasion. Luckily, Miss Social Butterfly was free last night so we met up and had dinner in Belmont Shores. Her choice of the evening: Le Creperie.

We had a great time catching up on life and work. Although we had just seen eachother less than a week ago, we had a lot to talk about. I always love hanging out with Kay. Although I love her, I always seem to throw out all diet restrictions out the door when I'm with her. It's like I don't care what I eat since I'm having such a good time with her. We started with the garlic french fries. We licked them clean!

Kay decided to go with pasta and I went with the French Riviera crepe. It was amazing! So, so good. Then we indulged and shared the Martinique crepe for dessert: bananas flambe in rum with butter and brown sugar, topped with vanilla ice cream. YUM!

After dinner, we strolled down 2nd Street for a while before we said our goodbyes for the night. I had a great time. Thank you Kay! :)

In case you're wondering what the 2nd part of my title means, I'm getting to it now. We got a not-so-friendly company-wide voicemail from the owner of our company (who is known to be a tough cookie and honestly, rather crazy) about Internet usage during company hours. The bottom line: we're not allowed to use it at all while at work. He said he's going to be cracking down on whoever is on doing non work-related surfing. Um yeah, that would be ME! You see, I have a daily ritual I go through every.single.day. Let's see...there's checking my personal e-mail first, then there's reading every blog I keep up on (that would be about THIRTY or so) and then I update my own if need be. Then there's just the shopping on-line, the reading up on current events and celebrity gossip. Yes folks, if the CEO of my company truly has a "list" of employees who are on the Internet an excessive amount of time...trust me, I'm on it. But I say, as long as the work gets done, what's the big deal, right? Well, I decided it's not even worth playing with fire so that means no more Internet for me...at all. Zip. Zilch. Nada. That's why it's almost 8pm and I'm just now doing what used to be my morning ritual. So if you notice I'm not updating my blog as often or I'm commenting a lot later than I normally do, now you know why. I have to admit though, I did get a lot of work done today! So there you have it.

Thanks to all of you for sharing in my excitement and gratitude for Henry's driving freedom again. It means a lot.

Okay, I'm off to spend some time with my husband. But before I end this, check out this article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071115/ap_on_fe_st/odd_serendipity_rodents

Um yeah, remember I was just there less than two weeks ago! I swear I wanted to gag when I read this. Unbelievable.

A BIG MILESTONE TODAY!

2007-11-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

My sister just called me and shared the news that Henry passed his driving test today and is officially licensed again! I spoke to him briefly and he sounded so happy. I am so, so grateful for how far Henry has come. He went back to work last week after 7 months and is already back into his normal routine. This year has certainly been the toughest for us yet with us hopefully receiving a new addition to our family at the end of the year and with Henry doing as well as he's doing, I have this feeling that the year is going to end on a high note. I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

NOW I KNOW MY ABC'S

2007-11-13T15:40:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by my wonderful girlfriend, Kay. I thought this was a fun meme so I'm playing along...

Rules: List a word or words that describes you for every letter of the alphabet. Offer as much or as little explanation as you wish. Please keep the words positive and feel free to get creative. Tag as many or as few people as you wish.

A: Ambitious
B: Blessed
C: Cuddly
D: Dedicated...maybe not to my diet but to everything else in my life
E: Email - what did we do without it before!
F: Future mommy...not yet but someday
G: Girlfriends
H: Hispanic
I: Innocent
J: Joyous
K: Kids...I love them
L: Loving
M: Martini
N:Nephews and Nieces
O: Old-fashioned
P:Passionate
Q: Quizno's Turkey Lite
R: Romantic
S: Stuffed Animals
T: Talkative
U: Unique
V: Vivacious
W: Witty
X: sorry, I got nothin'
Y: Young at heart
Z: Zombie...what I am every morning when I have to get up at 5:30am

I have to admit, this was a lot harder than I thought. I started this about an hour ago!

For this, I will tag:
Alyssa
Keely
Janice

2 WEEKS IN REVIEW!

2007-11-12T11:37:00.000-08:00

I'm back!!! I didn't have a chance to update on Friday since I was so busy at work.

Let me start with Friday night, November 2nd. That was my sister-in-law's birthday so after work, we headed to her house for Game Nite! She had a scavenger hunt planned and other games, along with prizes for the winners. We had a great time.

(L to R: Cousin Kimberly, Raquel, me, sister-in-law Sheila and Lhee)

Saturday afternoon I joined my sister Erika and her hubby, along with my other sister and my mom and the kids, to have her 3D ultrasound done. It was the most amazing experience ever! I hadn't done any packing for my trip to New York yet but I was so glad I didn't miss this. The baby was a little lazy that day and didn't move a whole lot for us but we were all able to see his chubby cheeks! Everything continues to go well with her pregnancy and we are all anxiously awaiting for his arrival in December. Check out the little booger for yourself. Love him to pieces already!

I got home later that day to pack for my upcoming New York trip. I left the next morning at 10:30 and arrived in New York at 5:30. I was able to meet Alyssa and her hubby Rob for a quick bite and dessert at Serendipity . It was so great seeing them both in New York. I had a great time with them.

Alyssa and I in New York!

The rest of my week in New York was pretty uneventful. I was so tired at the end of every day that I would go home and change into my jammies and order room service, with the exception of Wednesday when I took one of accounts out to dinner. I was SO happy to be done and going home on Thursday. The next trip will be in January so I have some time. :)

Friday was my first day back in the office. After work, Gerric and I drove out to Hollywood Park to partake in some dollar hot dogs and dollar beers in honor of my girlfriend Kay's birthday. She celebrated a little early but we had a great time with everyone. The hubs and I were the only couple that didn't win in the horse races but we had a great time nonetheless. I'd have to say that my favorite part of the evening was taking my pick in my very first Sprinkles cupcake. I went with the Cinnamon Sugar and it did NOT disappoint. It was perfect in every way. Gerric went with his weakness, Chocolate on chocolate frosting and he seemed to enjoy his to the fullest as well.

Seriously, can she be ANY cuter?!?

Saturday was "Cleaning Day" in our household so I unpacked, did laundry and we cleaned our apartment. I got a little too crazy when I was cleaning our bathtub since I pretty much flooded our bathroom but all was okay after we cleaned up. Oops! That night we went grocery shopping and came home to watch taped shows on our DVR. After all, I was behind more than a week on my Oprah shows!

Sunday we went to church and did something we were NOT proud of. We were both hungry after church and wanted to grab something to eat before heading out to the cemetary. My husband put the thought in my head once and from there, there was no going back. We had Shakey's Pizza "Bunch a Lunch." It was SO good. We endulged in pizza, mojo's, fried chicken, macaroni salad and more pizza. Did we regret it afterwards? Yes! Will we do it again? Of course! You gotta live once in a while right?

When we got home, we were parking our car and three little boys approached us and asked if we wanted to buy some of their crafts. I asked what the money was going towards and they said "charity, other stuff and allowance." They were so sweet that I couldn't resist! What they were selling was uh, junk but I thought it was great that they were working for their money. Their crafts went for 25 cents to 75 cents a piece. At the end of our conversation, they were willing to give me some more things for free but I convinced them that their merchandise was too precious to simply give away! I gave them each $1 and they were on their way. I think I made their day. Here you'll find the "gems" I scored from them...

2 paper airplanes, a "frog" and I have no idea what the others were

In the evening, we celebrated a birthday for one of my husband's aunts. We ate, laughed, talked and had a grand old time! We were home by 9pm, just in time to catch Desperate Housewives! And now, here we are...another Monday. But at least we have a short week next week, due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Can't wait! Okay, I'm off to work and catch up on my blog reading...

ANOTHER FRIDAY...AND ANOTHER NY TRIP

2007-11-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

*sigh* You'd think I would love my trips to New York but really, I work longer hours and it's absolutely all work and no play. I'm dreading this trip but I know I will get through it.

On a much better note, I'm so happy to report that my dear brother-in-law Henry is going back to work on Monday! He's been so incredibly anxious to return since he stopped working 7 months ago. I'm so happy for him! I know it will bring some normalcy back into their lives as a family. So that's great news part 1.

Part 2 is that everything continues to go well with my sister's pregnancy. After her 3 hour glucose exam, they determined that she did not have gestational diabetes. She is also being monitored by her doctor very closely which I am very happy about. Before you know it, the newest addition to our family will be here. I can't wait!

These two things are the reasons I will be extremely grateful this coming Thanksgiving. It's been a very tough year but I do see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Back to blogging when I'm back from New York in one week! Have a great weekend!

IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN

2007-11-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great Halloween night! Gerric and I had a great time at my sister's. I went trick-or-treating with my nephews and saw a lot of cute kiddies in their costumes. They had a lot of kids in their neighborhood so they went through loads of candy. It was all quite fun! We ended the night with some pies from Polly's and then we each went our own way. When we got home, we stayed up to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown . That Charlie Brown theme song always puts a smile on my face. Overall, we had a nice Halloween.

I can't believe we're in November now. Where did the year go by? I haven't hidden the fact that I'm actually anxious for this year to be over so to the year 2008, I say...BRING IT ON!

Henry started a new round of chemo last night so I'm praying that everything goes well. I really hate cancer. With all the medical breakthroughs we've made in the recent years and all the technology we have these days, why oh why haven't they found a cure for cancer yet? I don't get it. It's taken way too many lives and it's not fair.

Anyhow, better get back to work now.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND NEW LAYOUT UNVEILED!

2007-10-31T14:17:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone!

Thank you all for your comments on our trip. Yes, we had a wonderful time and I can't wait to be on vacation again...it won't be anytime soon though. :( So yesterday, my sister-in-law e-mailed me asking for help on a few Halloween-related projects she needed to work on. Her work has an all-out Halloween extravanganza planned for today which included a pumpkin carving contest, a baking contest and a contume contest. The winner would receive a brand new plasma TV! So she was in it to win this thing! The competition was going to be tough and from what I hear after I spoke to her today, she doubts she'll end up the grand prize winner but I had fun last night helping her crave her pumpkin! They call themselves pirates since their motto is "full steam ahead" so she wanted to carve a pirate. I certainly don't call myself Martha Stewart but I think I did a pretty decent job! It's no Britney Spears (KAY!!! :) but I was happy with it!

I'll be celebrating Halloween tonight with my husband, my sisters, their hubby's and my niece and nephews. Should be fun!

Thank you also to my girlfriend Kay for creating this awesome new layout for me. I love it! Hope you all do too!

Have a safe and spooky night!

ALOHA EVERYONE! I'M BACK!!!

2007-10-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

My first day back at work was yesterday but other than catching up on some work, it took me nearly all day to catch up on my favorite blogs so I didn't have the time to update my own! Anyway, I can't tell you how depressing it is to return to work after a vacation. I'm still dragging today and we were back late on Saturday night (close to midnight actually). Well, what can I possibly say about Maui that everyone doesn't already know? It's beautiful and peaceful. I loved it all. But what I loved most was just being away from work, away from traffic, away from everything.

Saturday -

I'll start my day-to-day recap with Saturday when we did the Brain Tumor walk in honor of my brother-in-law Henry. It was a great experience, one that I will never forget. It was very bittersweet being there...I felt honored to be a part of such a great cause but I hated that this terrible disease has invaded our family and specifically someone I love very much. At the end of the 5k walk, they had some speakers...some were family members who had lost loved ones due to a brain tumor and others who were survivors. I felt inspired by them and prayed to God that one day, Henry would be up there telling everyone his survival story.

Our crazy team...we all wore t-shirts with a picture of Henry and our team name, "Fishing 4 a Cure" since Henry loves fishing.

My sister's sign worn on her back

A dedication my sister made for her husband

One of the speakers said something very meaningful that stuck with me. She thanked everyone for being there and said she hoped we wouldn't need to be back next year because we will have found a cure. How I hope that's true.

Later that afternoon, we had a birthday party for Henry. My sister surprised him with some of his co-workers and he was so happy to see them. We all had a great time and this was a very special birthday for us since he has been through so much this year.

Henry with a few of his co-workers

With his 2 kids

Here's so many, many more birthdays for Henry. His next MRI is fast approaching on November 14th so please continue to pray for nothing but the best results. :)

Sunday -

We had a 10:35am flight out to Maui so we woke up, went to the airport and flew 5 hours to get to our destination. I was starving when we arrived so I bought the first thing I saw...

...a hot dog! It was SO good.

Once we got our luggage (which by the way, I totally overpacked!), we proceeded to get our rental car. Our ride was a little black Mazda. Nope, no convertible for us. :(

We then followed the map to our hotel/condo. It was a beautiful drive along the coast. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. When we arrived, I was happy with what I saw since I wasn't sure what to expect. We opted out of staying at a lavish resort, since we are trying to save for a house but we were happy with our decision.

Our view from the balcony...

After settling in, we grabbed dinner at the restaurant located in our resort, the "Beach Club." I told myself I would try to be good since I had lost a total of 5 pounds in two weeks but it was SO hard to resist good food...so let's just say I haven't weighed myself since we've been back. I'm in denial! Our dinner was okay...the food was pretty good at the restaurant, nothing spectacular. After dinner, we walked around our resort and ended the night by watching the sun set. It was perfect. I tried to take it all in.

Monday -

We woke up to some very loud birds outside on the resort grounds...sweet, peaceful, yet annoying all at the same time!

We laid out at the beach for a while and then moved over to the pool to take in the sun's rays. The water was cold but beautifully blue in color.

After we were all sunned out, we showered up and drove out the little city of Lahaina and had dinner at a restaurant called "Cheeseburger in Paradise." And YES IT WAS!

I had the "Cheeseburger Island Style"...it was delish!

After a delicious dinner, Gerric fed his sweet tooth with a scoop of ice cream (He's such a sucker for ice cream). I just watched him eat it. I was so full!

Tuesday -

It became our morning routine to go out and soak up the sun. The weather was perfect. We'd catch some tropical rain once ina while but they lasted a short time and the sun was still out so it was fine. After our morning ritual, we showered up and this time, headed out to "Whalers Village" where we had lunch at Leilani's.

That evening, we had dinner reservations at David Paul's. That was one of our most expensive meals but everything was delicious! They even gave us a complimentary dessert to share in honor of our two year wedding anniversary!

We spent the rest of the evening strolling the streets of Lahaina and called it a night since we had an early morning ahead of us.

Wednesday -

Let me preface this by saying that I don't know how to swim so I am pretty much deathly afraid of the ocean. I imagine myself either drowning or getting eaten by a shark (yet I love vacationing in tropical places!). Well, my dear husband wanted to experience snorkeling in the ocean waters of Maui so I agreed, as long as I could stay in the boat. We woke up super early to get our adventure started. It was a pretty large group and thankfully, I wasn't the only one that stayed in the boat! The tour took us to two different locations...Molokini Crater and to an area off the shores of Wailea to snorkel with green sea turtles. The entire trip was about 5 hours long. I usually don't tend to get seasick but the waters going to Molokini were very choppy which made for a rocky trip. My husband didn't do so well either. We were so miserable at one point that we couldn't wait to get on dry land. In fact, he promised me that he would never make me go out on a boat again! Yes, we both got really seasick (poor fishies in the ocean don't know what hit them!) but at least we can say we went snorkeling in Maui...okay, okay, my husband went snorkeling.

This is Molokini Crater...

This was our 2nd destination of the day...

I guess sea turtles do live here!

My own little sea turtle...heehee, I was cracking up at how he looked!

After our trip was over and we kissed the ground we were walking on (well, not literally but we wanted to!), we had lunch at Maui Tacos. It was really good. Nothing like mom's cooking but it did the job. :) Later that night, we headed back to Whaler's Village and had dinner at Hula Grill. Since my tummy was still very unsettled from the seasickness, all I had a frui plate but it was delicious! The fruit there was unbelievable...sweet and perfect!

We strolled Whalers Village some more and then headed back to call it a night.

Thursday -

Thursday morning we woke up to a beautiful sight...a rainbow!

We got ready to hit the beach again. It was extremely windy that day at the beach so we were being pelted with sand grains and a sunny tropical rain! We decided to let the winds and rain subside and grabbed some breakfast. After that, we hit the beach again and the weather was much better.

After a few hours in the sun, we grabbed some ice cream at the nearby shop and got ready for our evening. That night, we had dinner at Kimo's. Everything was delicious! I had the ribs and chicken, accompanied with a Blue Hawaii drink...YUM!

I was a "little" sunburned" that night. :)

Our nights always ended pretty early - we definitely did a lot of relaxing. :)

Friday -

Friday was our last full day in Maui. It was so sad that the week was over. We started with breakfast at Compadres restaurant and strolled around the island of Maui for one last time. We got home early enough to take a nap since we had tickets for a Luau that evening. We had originally planned on going to the Old Lahaina Luau which had come highly recommended to us. However, when we arrived on Sunday and wanted to buy our tickets, we were told it was sold a month out. Wow! So another Luau was recommended to us which was smaller in that instead of about 600 people, there was only 150 and at this one, we would have our own table and our own waiter. We were sold! So that night, we experienced a Luau at the "Feast at Lele."

The show was awesome. I enjoyed every minute of it. We were so happy yet so sad to be leaving the next day.

We had a 5-course dinner, which consisted of food from different islands: Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti and Samoa. I even had some of the Mahi Mahi with mango salsa! It was a perfect way to end our Hawaii vacation.

Saturday -

The next morning, we got ready, checked out and left for the airport. We got one last bite at the airport and we were on our way. So depressing. Jolene was very sad...

Overall, we had a wonderful time and would definitely go back. When there's so many other beautiful places to visit in this world, I don't think we'll return anytime soon but I'm so happy to be able to say we've actually been to Maui. We loved it.

We landed in Los Angeles close to midnight and since I was wide awake, I unpacked that night and went to bed at 2am. On Sunday we just did laundry all day long and grabbed some dinner. It was SO hard coming back to work yesterday. Now I'm getting ready for another trip to New York for work this coming Sunday. Lord help me. It's going to be a LONG week next week.

I better get some work done today. I didn't realize how long it took me to do this update. Thanks for reading everyone!

AND I'M OFF!!!

2007-10-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

It's FINALLY Friday!!!!! Thank the Lord!!! Granted I still have another 3 1/2 hours to get through but that's much better than 3 1/2 days! I cannot wait. Maui, here we come! I hate to admit it but it will be hard (well, maybe not that hard) trying not to think about all the e-mails accumulating in my inbox at work while I'm gone for a whole week but I have to keep telling myself that the work will still be there when I'm back. I tried not to leave anything BIG pending but of course there are things I was waiting on that I never got in time...especially from my East Coast buyers. So work will be on my mind...but only for a short time I'm sure. :) I plan to thoroughly enjoy this vacation.

I'm also looking forward to tomorrow. We'll be waking up bright and early to participate in the Angel Adventure Walk. My sister got tee-shirts made and it should be an inspiring event I hope. We did the same thing earlier this year in honor of my nephew and it was a wonderful experience. Then later in the afternoon, we're celebrating Henry's birthday with friends and family. Should make for a great weekend.

I will post once I'm back. I won't lie...I won't exactly be rushing to blog while I'm in Hawaii so let it be said that I will update everyone on my trip once I'm back...and not on "vacation mode" anymore. Have a great weekend and week everyone and ALOHA!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENRY!

2007-10-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to my dear brother-in-law Henry. He has had a very tough year but is coming out of it our hero. Throughout everything he's been through, he never lost his smile or his sense of humor. He has been married to my eldest sister for 15 years and has been in my life since I was 13 years old. He has seen me grow up. He is a wonderful husband, a loving father, a great brother-in-law but most of all, he's a fighter. He is proving to the world that he is and WILL continue to beat this. Happy Birthday to him...and many, many, many, many more years to come. I love him dearly.

I have had such a stressful week at work. I've literally been in tears. This vacation couldn't possibly come at a better time.

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON MY MIND

2007-10-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

I HATE WORK. This week is draaaaaging. Is it time to go home yet? Dieting sucks! I'm hungry right now. My skin is breaking out like there's no tomorrow and it's making me very sad. This time next week, I will be poolside in Maui with a cocktail in hand. Can't wait!!! I'm long overdue for a tan. Didn't make it to the beach once this summer. This year has been very tough for my family and I. I'm looking forward to being all together during the Holidays. I can't believe the year is almost over. I hope my husband and I buy our first house in 2008. Have I mentioned how much I hate to work? I fell asleep last night at 7:30pm! Iwas still tired this morning. I need to get my hair done but I can't afford it right now. I think I'm going to go get a mani/pedi after work today. One more hour to go before I can leave this place!

Happy Hump Day everyone!

GAL-TO-GAL

2007-10-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

Alyssa gave me a great idea on how to help support a great cause. She explains the cause very well herself...so well in fact, that she got me to create my own walker!

Everyone, meet Jolene...she is walking in honor of all women who have battled breast cancer.

Go on...make your own walker to walk alongside mine!

5 more days until our Maui vacation!!!

WEEKEND RECAP

2007-10-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

Yes friends, I survived on Friday. I think I was all worked up over nothing. Don't get me wrong...I had this nervous laugh the entire time and still NEEDED one person on each side every time we went through a maze but I was a little braver than I thought. I think it helped that the monsters don't have those creepy tin cans with the coins in there that make that horrific noise in your ear. All in all, I had a good time and I don't think I was the laughing stock of the group. That was actually cousin Jerome, who fell down not once, but twice in the mazes out of sheer fear. Haha! Thank you for the well wishes everyone. The group is already talking about going back next year or possibly trying the Queen Mary. Will I go...I think NOT!

When I got home on Friday, I was dreading the evening the entire day, more so on the drive home. But I got home to these:

Along with these notes:

I love that man. :) So sweet!

Saturday morning, I weighed in and kept telling myself not to be disappointed should I not see any results considering my WW journey had not been a full week yet. I was more than pleasantly surprised when I discovered I had lost 2 1/2 pounds!!! Motivation! Only 5 more to go..

I had an appointment to have a blood test done that morning (Ouch!). After that was said and done, the hubby and I made a trip to Downtown L.A to get my anniversary ring resized. While we waited for it, he took me to Clifton's Cafeteria. Everything looked delicious but since I wasn't about to gain the 2.5 pounds I had just lost, I was good and only had a fruit plate.

That night, we had dinner for my mom's birthday at Koki's Restaurant. We've been a number of times and the atmosphere is always so pleasant and the food delicious so we decided to celebrate there again. I had the steak and chicken and it didn't disappoint this time around. It was a great evening.

Mom was a good sport with the silly birthday hat the restaurant provided. :)

Sunday morning, I was lazy and slept in. We finally made it to church at noon. After that, we ran errands and relaxed at home. We stopped by my sister's house in the evening to re-decorate her bathroom. Since she's having guests over this Saturday for Henry's birthday, she wanted me to help her redo her bathroom. She liked it so I think I did well. :)

Here's to yet, another Monday. It's my last week of work before the hubby and I go to Hawaii! Can't wait to be on vacation!

BIRTHDAYS GALORE AND RANDOM THOUGHTS

2007-10-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

Dearest Blog Readers,

Sorry I've been MIA. I was stuck in sales meetings ALL day yesterday and I barely had a chance to take a deep breath. Whew! But it's over for now and not only that...it's Friday! Although I'm relieved that it's Friday, it's probably the only Friday I've been dreading for a while now. You see, in the 8 years that I've known my husband, he has been trying to get me to go to Knott's Halloween Haunt. I can't say I've never given it a chance though. I actually went a couple times when I was in high school but I made a personal vow to myself that I just WOULD NOT go back. Yes, I'm a chicken. I'm a 29-year old chicken who gets genuinely frightened at these things. I've tried telling myself that it's a person in there just dressed up in a silly costume and that it's all makeup...but I just can't help it! I HATE the feeling of being scared! So why did I agree to go? Because a pretty large group of us is going and they all promised to let little 'ole me be in between 2 people AT. ALL. TIMES. So fellow bloggers, I ask that you please think good thoughts for me tonight. Wish me luck in surviving this stupid thing. Oh lord help me.

On a happier note, Happy 14th Birthday to my niece Bianca! It was actually yesterday but since I didn't get a chance to post, I'm giving her a shout out now. Tomorrow night is my mom's birthday and we'll be celebrating it with our family at a restaurant. Should be fun. Then on the 18th is Henry's birthday which we're all looking forward to. We'll be celebrating his on the 20th, the day before we leave for Hawaii.

I started Weight Watchers on Monday. No, I didn't actually sign up for it since I'm trying to save myself the money but I have been following the program since I have everything I need. It's only been 4 days and I swear I feel as though my clothes are fitting slighly better...but it might just be in my head. :) I'll take whatever I can get!

On another note, we all went through a horrible tradegy earlier this year when my sister and her husband lost my nephew. We got a ray of light after that occurred when my sister announced they were pregnant again! We're all so happy and excited for them. A little bit of bad news is that they think my sister has gestational diabetes...which she had when she was pregnant with Diego. I know this is common in a lot of pregnancies but you can't help but wonder if this is what caused Diego to go up to Heaven. Today my sister is taking the 3 hour glucose exam and whether she has GD or not, we're all praying for a happy ending. Please, please pray that my sister, her husband and my nephew welcome a healthy baby this December. I had a dream last night that my sister came home with a baby boy in her arms. I'd like to think that it's God's way of letting me know that everything is going to be okay.

Have a great weekend everyone!

MINI VACATION AND BLOG PARTY

2007-10-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

I'm back! Morongo was a nice 2-day getaway.

Thursday

We (well, more like I) slept until our hearts content this morning. Since we had no flight to catch or no appointments to be at, we took our time and started the day off at our own pace. That was a great way to start off. So instead of leaving at 10 or 11am at the latest like we had planned, we were finally on the road at 12:30. The drive was short...an hour and a half to be exact. The next thing we knew, we had arrived to our first destination...the Desert Hills outlets. Crate & Barrel, Gucci, Juicy Couture, True Religion...oh my! A true abundance of premium labels. And we walked out with...nothing. That's right...only spent less than $5 on the smoothie I was craving while we were there. I don't know if I have house-buying on my mind or I knew we'd need money on our Maui trip coming up in a couple of weeks but I didn't buy a single thing. I was definitely tempted when I laid my eyes upon some boots at Aldo, but alas, I refrained.

Once we left the outlets, we drove to our hotel and checked into our room. I opted for the standard room and was pleasantly surprised at how contemporary the decor was and how spacious the room was.

Our view:

That night, we dined at Desert Orchid. I didn't have much of an appetite since we had each had a slice of pizza earlier in the day so I barely touched my dinner but it was good nonetheless. He had sushi for dinner. Despite how slow it was that night, we had a bit of a wait for our edamame appetizer but the service was good so it made up for the wait.

After dinner, we had a drink at the Pit Bar (yep, that's right, the Pit Bar) and called it a night.

Friday

We woke up fairly early to get ready for our massages at the Sage Spa. Definitely one of the best parts of the trip. I always enjoy a massage and this one was no exception.

After our massages, we ate lunch at the buffet. In order to get $5 off each (did I mention we are on a budget?!?), we joined the Winners Club. It was free and it took less than 2 minutes to sign us up. I got a big no-no when someone saw the flash from this shot I took...I played dumb and pretended I didn't know I wasn't supposed to take pictures inside the casino).

The buffet turned out to be okay...but the best part was the bread pudding and apple crisp I had for dessert...two of my favorite things! :) After lunch, we played a little air hockey in the arcade and kicked some butt together at Pac-Man! Good times...

Our plans were changed when we found out that the pool was closed for the day since the weather wasn't cooperating (it was a bit cloudy and windy) so since we had planned on spending the day at the pool, we went back to our room and took a nap...which made Jolene very happy! :)

After our nap, we got ready for dinner. We were going to go to Cielo but once we saw the menu prices, we decided to go to Serrano . I had the pasta and it was delish!

After dinner, we went to 360 Lounge. It was a very cool little bar with great decor but after realizing that it was close to 11pm and the crowd just hadn't picked up (we were literally the 2nd couple to arrive and the crowd didn't get much bigger after that), we left. We did manage to take a few pictures though:

After 360, we headed to Vibe. The crowd was definitely a little bigger there and we even managed to dance a few songs but mainly, we had a great time people watching. There were definitely some dancers there to put on a show...we were laughing it up! After a couple hours there, we called it a night.

Saturday

The next morning we woke up, got ready and checked out. We ate lunch at the buffet one last time. I decided to indulge once again in the bread pudding and the apple crisp, although there were plenty of other desserts to choose from.

After lunch, we gassed up and we were on our way back home. We had a great time.

After we got home, we left our luggage and headed to the cemetary. I had been working on a very special Halloween project for my nephew's little gravesite. I was happy with the results since I don't exactly call myself the "craft queen." I'm hoping it's the first of many special signs I make for him. :)

Sunday

Sunday morning, I met up with some fabulous ladies at 26 Beach in Venice. I have gotten addicted to reading blogs and had the opportunity to meet some fellow bloggers! We all had a great time and I hope to do it again soon. I had the "Go Bananas" french toast and it was to die for. I ate every bite. Well, maybe not every bite since I didn't want to look like the slob :).

*You can look at Weezermonkey's blog for a great recap*

Here we are again...another Monday. Counting the days until our Maui vacation...