What a year!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! Another year is over but 2008 was a year of good and bad memories that I will always treasure. Here are the highlights of my 2008:

Jan 1st, 2008: Ge broke his arm from arm wrestling. What a way to start the year huh Ge??
Feb 2008: Celebrated Valentines day with Ge as a "couple".
April and May 2008: Ge bought his new townhouse and I moved in with him end of May. I also run my first 5K at the Human Race.

June 2008: I went to St. Thomas and St. John, the US Virgin Islands with my sis, bro and Janice to work on my tan.
July 2008: Celebrated my 28th birthday and my 1 year anniversary at Roche. My family also welcomed Natalie (my bro's gf daughter) and celebrated her 3rd birthday. We miss her.

August 2008: My sister, Jorge and Rich run the SF half marathon.
September 2008: Went to Orlando,Florida to visit Epcot and Animal Kingdom with Ge.

October 2008: Celebrated mom's 5 years anniversary at St. Rose to a cowboy themed party..yeehaaaa!!!. I also signed up for a personal trainer and after 16 hard core sessions, I went 1 pants size down and I can wear S and XS size now.
November 2008: Hosted the annual "FAM Thanksgiving" at Ge's townhouse. I also run the 5K SV Turkey Trot. And of course, Twilight movie came out.

December 2008: MERRY XMAS!!!. Our First Christmas at Ge's house and we put up our first xmas tree. Also, my cousin Bryan finally proposed to my soon-to-be-cousin Jayne. The engagement is a big deal for us coz nobody is getting married in my family.

New Year's Resolutions

So I decided to write my New Year's Resolutions and I hope to be able to achieve some of it. Here it goes:

1. Workout consistently and push myself hard-errrr!!!
2. Continue to eat healthy.
3. Save $$$$$. No more withdrawing of money from my "real savings account".hahaha.
4. Get out of debt. Thanks to automatic payments and cutting off the cards, I think I'll be fine by the end of the year.
5. Get promoted from work. I know I deserved it....hahaha... I hope my boss is reading this.
6. Learn another language.
7. Take my Central Service Technician certificate so I can have a back up and be able to work in a hospital. I took the class 3 years ago but I just did not have the time to review and take the certification (I was taking upper division classes at Cal State, working swing shift and taking the Central Service class on Saturdays). Since I have free time to study again, I'm giving it a shot and I'm aiming to take the test by February!!!
8. Travel more.......only if I have $$$.
9. Enjoy life and avoid stress.
10. BE HAPPY!!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Xmas everyone!!!! I hope you all had a wonderful xmas. I got to spend some time with my family and my mom actually took a day off on the 25th, so that made xmas special this year. I also got to see my cousins and just hang out with them. Natalie came by and visit and collected her gifts..hahaha..we were hoping she can stay longer but 30 mins was good enough since we haven't seen her for 2 months... I got some really nice presents and want to thank my santas this year !!!.. Ge got me some cute gifts this year..THANKS alot honey!! and to everyone who gave us some gifts. Thanks for your thoughtfulness!!

Family Time

Last Friday, we all took the day off and spent some "family" time together. We went to California Academy of Science and took dad to see the Golden Gate bridge. In our good 10 years of stay here in the US, my dad has never been to the Golden Gate bridge. He was a tourist that day. It was so nice to spend some time with the family since we all work different days and hours so we rarely have time to see each other. And now that I moved out, I know they really do miss me...hehehe.. I felt like a kid again that day. My mom esp. hecka took care of us esp. food wise. She bought us whatever food we want to eat in (we ate at the cafe in Academy of Science and I highly recommend it) and she even packed mini empanadas and some drinks just in case we get hungry. I'm so glad that we got to do some family bonding last Friday and will most definitely do it again. I can't wait for our mother-daughter bonding vacation in Hawaii Feb. of next year.

Bite me!!!

Swoon.... I'm so inlove with Edward Cullen right now!!!. I have to admit that I did not find him gorgeous when I watched the movie, but after reading "Midnight Sun", I just find him so interesting and sexy.lol. I stayed up until 2 a.m. last night and Omigosh!, this is so weird but I dreamed about him and freakn Ge woke me up coz it's already 7:30 a.m and I need to get ready. Ugh!, he ruined my Edward dream. I cant' wait for the next movie, and the 3rd, and the 4th..I hope Stephenie Meyer will finish Midnight sun, I like Edward Cullen as the storyteller...

GemsTV

I'm so obsessed with GemsTV!!!. I swear, this is my fave show and I freakn know the channel on top of my head Comcast (channel 77) and DirectTV (channel 226)..lol..When I get home from work, I would watch the show and even though I'm tired and a little bit sleepy, I stay awake coz they might show my soon-to-be yellow diamond ring. GemsTV is a reverse auction meaning, the prices goes down (the start price and start quantity is the middle picture) and everybody pays the lowest price (the picture on the very top). So regardless if you call first and say the price is still $308 and if no one is confirming, the price goes down to $250, you pay that final low price. I promise myself that I will buy one jewelry one of these days or Ge, you know the channel, so watch it and bid for that yellow diamond ring!!..THANKS!!!

Happy Anniversary!!!

My lover surprised me today with roses and a cute little card for our 1st year anniversary...I felt so guilty coz I did not even get him a card (I sent him ecard which he deleted without even reading it). Happy anniversary honey!!!...I really appreciate your thoughtfulness today.. I ♥ you!!!...

We are feeling the spirit of Xmas!!!

We finally put up our first xmas tree and decorated the house. We are mos definitely feelin' the spirit of xmas now. I was surprised how helpful Ge was esp. with the decorating the tree. I wonder what Santa will get me for christmas????

ATL wives rule!!!

I'm so accicted to the Realhousewives of Atlanta!!! I love the show and how they are so flashy esp. with those bling!!!..LOVE IT!!!..I enjoy watching all the girls but of course, my fave one is Nene coz she's so real and down to earth. I can't wait for the next season.

Not again!

Hi everyone!, last Thursday, my fave sunglasses is officially BROKEN!!..why?! why?!... This is my all the time fave one because it complements my chubby face. I have other sunglasses but this is the BEST one and for $14 from Nordstrom, it's a KEEPER!!. First, it was my straightening iron dying and now this??!!!...ughhh!!!... I still wore it going to work Thursday morning..hahahaha..you can tell i like it so much!!. I goggled it today and I found some vintage oversize sunglasses and of course, I bought one. Good bye my beloved sunglasses!..like my straightening iron, you are irreplaceable.

I miss my cousins!!

I haven't seen or hung out with my cousins here in Union city for hecka days now. It's weird that we never find the time to chill, play board games and bbq like the good old days. It is also hard that most of my cousins, our age (25+) lives in Jacksonville, FL. They try to visit once every year but how I wish we are all here in CA so we can see each other a lot. But then again, I hardly see my cousins here. Dexter is in Iraq right now and I hope he is doing okay. Matt, my bros friend but he is like family to us moved to Vegas. Phen is doing his own thing and so is Kevin. Janice is also busy with her own life but we get to see her sometimes. And lastly, my bro. I don't see that punk anymore!! He used to plan most of the cousins get together and would buy all the meat for bbq and the alcohol. With the holidays coming up, I do miss them. We all went to Vegas 3 years ago for New Years but did not make last year since I had a real bad flu. I'm so jealous how Ge's cousins find time to see each other 2X a year to celebrate Thanksgiving and Xmas. We are planning a camping trip next year at Yosemite so hopefully everyone can make it.

Piggin' out!!

Last night, my sis and I went to a terrific Indian restaurant. I know it is totally cheating because we just finished working out HARD for 90 minutes but I’m famished and I’m so ready to pig out! I’ve been craving for Indian food but I can’t get Ge to eat it with me coz he is not a fan of Indian food. He particularly dislikes the pungent smell of the food. DUH! it’s from the spices they use. Anyways, there is this Indian restaurant across Kaiser Union city and just few blocks from Ge’s townhouse, so we decided to check it out. Before we left the gym, our trainer had a little chit chat with us. He particularly likes to ask us what we ate for the day and what we are planning to eat after the workout. So we told him that we are having Indian food for dinner. He said it is okay as long as low carbs and spicy. We ordered vegetable samosa (yum!), chicken tikka masala, fish curry and eggplant. Of course we wanted to eat “healthy” so we ordered wheat naan as our carbs. YAH RIGHT! we ended ordering rice. It was so much better with rice...hahaha. I know it is hard to estimate the calories but I just stop eating when I felt full. I probably ate way more than what I normally eat for dinner but it was worth it! And besides, another workout session again tonight so I’ll just workout hard-errr. Ge you are totally missing out on Indian food! Ethiopian food is next on my list.

My work pantry

Hi everyone, as you all know, my sis and I signed up with a personal trainer to lose weight (for me at least) and to learn to eat healthier. In the beginning, I found "eating healthy" a challenge but I'm getting the hang of it. It was really hard for me to eat my first oatmeal (I know it's OA, but I was gagging) for breakfast since I 'm so used to eating leftover food from dinner. But my friend Maricar told me try the "Maple brown sugar" oatmeal and I ♥ it. I add about 1 cup of light soymilk and I have my Filipino "champurado".lol. My trainer said that my Maple brown sugar is actually not good because of the sugar content (15g), but I found this Weight control oatmeal (Maple brown sugar) and the sugar content is only 2g. I also need to eat snacks, so I bought trail mix and wheat crackers. I usually snack on fresh fruits such as pineapple and apple but I run out of it. I believe that half the battle of eating healthy is being prepared. So stock up on some healthy snacks in your little work pantry! FYI, the Cup noodle is just a back up when I'm really starving.

Put a ring on it (yellow diamonds please!!)

This is one of my fave Youtube video. It's ferocious!!..I LOVE IT!!!!..

Proud to Vote!

Election Day today!!!. PLEASE PLEASE VOTE!!!!. Our country is in dire need of a better president. VOTE!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Hi Ge! You like??? you're lucky it ain't the GOOGLE picture.hahaha. Since you can't find a costume, you can be LL Cool J today. HAPPY HALLOWEEN my love!

Retiring after 4 years of service

My beloved T3 Tourmaline flat iron is sadly dying. Four years ago, I came across an article in InStyle magazine about the straightening iron that Jennifer Aniston uses and that was the T3 Tourmaline Domed Duality Flat iron. Who does not want to have that long, straight and shiny hair like Jen? She seems to always have a great hair weekly! So I went to Sephora and bought my new little best friend. T3 tourmaline is so far the best, in my opinion, straightening iron. The price is way up there but T3 is well known for quality. I bought mine 4 years ago for $180 something. I don't mind spending too much on something I’ll be using regularly and that will last for years.

Back to my iron, I noticed that it does not turn on when I plug it in. Omigosh, I’m irate this morning!!!! It’s been like this for a month now and I blamed it at first at Ge’s bathroom socket but I was in denial because I already knew that it was actually my iron (I think the wirings are bad already). This morning I tried to rescue it by putting my hair claw clips but it only helped for few seconds. I think it’s really time to buy a new one. I mean it’s not like it is defunct all the way, but still…I can’t live without it. My sis bought the newer version of T3 and I thought it was pretty good but nothing can replace my old one. Hint…hint…Ge, I want this for Christmas. Can I get it in advance???

I want but.......this screams DEBT!!!

I'm in a major state of adoration but I do not have a spare $900 to spend for a pair shoes and $2000 for a purse....so I'll just daydream for now....

I ♥ Coupons!!

I just started clipping coupons for use at grocery stores and restaurants and to tell you the truth, it does saves me some extra $$$$. My favorites are the restaurant coupons. Once or twice a week, Ge and I will dine out for our little “date night”. I think it’s more of a “pig out” day for me. I like the Black Angus four course meal because it’s just $37 + tip for all that food. I like using the Chevys coupon too, last time we went, we only spend $25 for both our meals, tip and tax included. I was enamored with the idea of saving extra $$ when you dine out in a regular basis and of course when you do groceries. I want to encourage everyone to check your junk mails for money saving coupons. ENJOY!!!