Rewarding myself

I got my Christmas shopping done early this year and when I think I'm done, someone gets me a gift and I have to go get them one! But I think I'm totally done now...I THINK! So to reward myself, I used the Birthday gift card to Victoria Secret and bought some dresses on their website for my cruise next month. Hubby had a say on the color and design so I guess it's rewarding him too! I also got some bathing suits for the cruise. I also bought a shampoo that I used at my friend's place in Japan and fell in love with it. I found it on amazon for a lot more but it's really worth it! Also, I even bought a new face product by Shiseido for myself. Been wanting to use it for awhile now and I finally purchased it! Pat on the back!

Now off to Colorado I go! I will leave you with something funny...

Top 10 politically correct Christmas Carols

(10) O holiday tree

(9) have yourself a Merry little day of winter

(8) Frosty the Snow person

(7) Chestnuts Roasting on a safely contained continuously monitored eco friendly non toxic outdoor fire pit for which I do have a permit

(6)Higher power Rest ye Merry Gentleperson

(5) Grandma Allegedly got run over By an Unidentified Non-Human Perpetrator

(4) Deck the halls with Boughs of Unendangered Foliage (if office policy)permits

(3) Hark the herald Mystical winged creature sings

(2) I saw Mommy Greeting Santa with a purely platonic Expression of Inoffensive Mutual Affection

(1) I'll be home for a short period of time in December

Just a bottle of thoughts....

I used to believe in people and believe that there's good in everyone, EVERYONE and now, I'm not sure if I feel that way anymore. After you've been harmed, someone's stepped over your boundaries, and have thrown you under the bus to save themselves...it's really difficult to think that there's good in everyone. I live in a state where fake people with fake smiles, personalities, and even fake body parts are the norm and I have to get used to it because I'm planning to stay here for my husband's amazing career. In the meantime, I'm trying to keep my head above water because people are constantly throwing me in and for no apparent reason. There seems to be fake people everywhere, especially a couple in Massachusetts who claim to be nice to me but I can read right through them. I guess I'm not safe wherever I go...I'll have to deal with fakeness at all times. It makes me very sad...and homesick.

Lately, nothing seems to be feeling like it's going all that well. Job, family, relationships with people, etc. I'm trying to stay positive because that's how I survive, I make the most out of everything but I think in this case, I can't. When you depend on someone else to do the job for you, be prepared to be let down.

Anyway, on the brighter side, I'm done Christmas shopping, rather early on actually. Hubby and I have Amazon wishlists so it makes it easier to shop for one another. I was feeling down last week and did some Christmas shopping for the family and I felt a lot better. I really like shopping for others but not so much for me.

I haven't been in the mood to cook much either, my tiny kitchen discourages me I guess. I have to get used to it or wait until we move into the new house because I can barely move. Not to mention, the stove is terrible, it's electric and the oven takes forever! I have, however, been making a lot of dinners using the crock pot lately. It's great to come home and your dinner is ready. What's scary is that I have to be home AT 8 hours or else, my dinner is ruined.

I've been having a slight baby fever and I'm not sure where it came from but I'm trying to avoid it as long as I can so I can finish my Master's and such first. I even have baby names picked out (well, I've had that picked out for awhile now) and I'm not sure what to make of it. I love kids and I think it all sums down to me wanting more than one and wanting to be at a good age for each of them. Some day...some day...

I'm looking forward to Christmas this year, we'll be with family in Colorado this year and having a white Christmas, which is something I've been wanting a few years now ever since we moved to California. It doesn't even feel like the holidays are right around the corner now. I think it has a lot to do with the weather. Should be a great time, I can't wait!

Travel updates

I've been back for about a week and haven't updated, so I figured I'd do that now. I've been having a rough week, so I guess writing about my travel experiences might cheer me up. I'm writing from home right now because I was asked not to work for the rest of the week, for my well-being. I'm not sick, I'm not getting laid off, but...I had a really bad incident happen to me.

Anyway, on the brighter side, I went to Japan and I have to admit, the city of Tokyo can be its own country. Tokyo is huge and it reminds me of New York and Las Vegas, on crack. The public transportation is very convenient but the amount of people who live there is overwhelming. Avoid going anywhere during rush hour, because you will be shoved into the subway like a sardine. The women here love their boots and I tried wearing a pair of my heeled boots that I packed, but started crying from pain after three hours. I don't know how they do it. The portions of food are much much smaller but they're delicious. I love trying new dishes, especially if they're from another country! We hopped around different parts of Japan all thanks to the Japan Rail pass that we bought before our trip. It saved us a lot of money because I overheard what it costs to leave Tokyo if you don't have the rail passes.

Here is the albums of Japan, if you want to check them out. Japan - different cities

Travels

When my husband met me in college, I was modeling and traveling every weekend. I was practically living out of my suitcase. So when my agent asked me to choose between my $20k modeling contract or my then-boyfriend (now my husband), I obviously chose my husband and bye-bye went my contract. I was tired of it anyway, two years of modeling, not being able to have relationships, always on the go, diets and weight gains....it wasn't as glamorous as it seemed.

When hubby and I got really serious, I asked him to promise me that we'd travel a lot to make up for all those travels I could be doing if I chose my modeling contract. Hubby kept his word...

We joked that we won't have kids until we've visited 15 countries, well, this January, we'll be at 16, so I have to change it to 20 now lol. This year alone, we've went to:

-Tijuana, Rosarito,  Ensenada, Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico
-Big Bear, CA
-Las Vegas, NV
-Long Beach, Venice Beach, LA, Beverly Hills, Calabasas, CA
-Dallas, TX
-various parts of Costa Rica
-Nicaragua
-back home to Boston
-San Francisco, Sausalito, Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, Catalina Island, Rancho Cucamonga, Temecula, Julian, Anaheim, Valley Center, Palm Springs, CA

We are leaving for JAPAN in 5 days! My childhood girlfriend is teaching english out there in Tokyo so we'll be staying with her when we're in Tokyo, but we're taking the Japan Rails to visit other parts of Japan and wander off on our own. Then we're taking off to Ireland for a friend's wedding. I'm rather excited.

Hubby and I joked that we have to get lost in another country at least once a year and boy, do I love doing that!

Then for his birthday in January, we're going on the Western Caribbean cruise. Should be a great way to start the New Year.

Hakuna Matata

The title of this post is what it is because the song is stuck in my head. Hubby and I went to see the Lion King play last month with my friend Melina, her husband and one of her daughters and I have to say, it's worth it to go! It was so majestic! Anyway, that's the reason behind the title.

I've been taking photos more than ever now that I have a new SLR camera. Hubby bought me a new, upgraded one to replace my Digital rebel. I sold my digital rebel and I still think it was a great camera no matter what, even if I DO have a better one now. Here are my three cameras taken with my camera phone, go figure. They're all Canons but it's because it's a brand I trust and has never let me down. The top picture below is my new camera with the UV filter, the flash, and battery grip on the 50mm lens. The middle photo below is of the SLR camera with the 75-300mm lens with the wide angle lens attached to it. The SLR is on the left and the water proof one is the one in the middle and the pocket one is on the right.

Yes, I love my photos. lol.

Anyway, so hubby and I went to our school's alumni, San Diego chapter wine tasting get-together. We got to meet so many new people who graduated from the same college and even met a few people who were interested in hanging out with us in the future. It was great to see a few familiar faces as well. :)

Here we are, on Friday. I am in the front and hubby's in the back by the sign, since he was so tall lol. This was taken with my SLR camera and the lady who took this picture made me so nervous as to how she was holding my camera.

My Birthday weekend

I was getting a little depressed knowing I was getting another year older and this time, there aren't any perks to turning this age, so hubby really went out of his way to make my birthday the best one yet. We celebrated for a week and a half, but for 4 days nonstop. I had a great time, needless to say. My birthday wasn't until Monday, November 9th, but we started celebrating a lot earlier. I celebrated in San Diego, Pacific Beach, Carlsbad, Palm Springs, Desert Springs and Anaheim (Disneyland).

Here's what we did....

-Birthday lunch with my department
-Birthday linner at a beautiful restaurant right on the beach.
-Snuggie bar crawl with some of my friends
-Birthday breakfast made by my hubby
-Birthday lunch made by my hubby
-Early birthday dinner at Benihana with my friends and cousins (who drove down from Orange County)
-Shopping
-Birthday lunch
-Palm Springs Rotating Aerial Tramway up Mt. Jacinto
-Quadding in the desert
-dinner
-Joshua Tree National Park
-Disneyland
-Romantic OFFICIAL Birthday dinner with hubby on the harbor

Here are photo excerps from the 4 day weekend I had.
My Birthday weekend

Updating

Sorry, I haven't been updating, I don't even know who reads this anyway. I'm currently taking some classes to fulfill a few preqres before I can start the Master's program. I'm pretty excited about it.

Things that has happened since I last wrote:

♥ Went to the ALDS game, Red Sox (my team) vs the Angels, we lost.
♥ Clippers game in LA, vs. the Jazz
♥ cooking and baking a lot. Things like:
-Apple Charlotte with cinnamon sabayon
-Gourmet Beef Stroganoff
-Beef burgers with sauteed onions and goat cheese
- Toffee Taffy caramel apples
-Chicken cacciatore in the crock pot
-Spiced hot apple cider
- upside down apple cinnamon french toast with cranberries
- monte cristos
- mini fruit tarts
-chicken curry with french bread
-fruit salad w/limoncello & home-made lemon yogurt

♥ and of course, date night. :)


We met a really nice couple at the wine bar that night and chatted it up with them for a good two hours. Turns out the guy knows some of hubby's coworkers and we exchanged numbers. They invited us to their place for football with a few other friends last night and it was a great time. We were the last ones to leave and they invited us to catch a movie with them this Sunday. The couple is in a different age range but I think hubby and I seem to click with couples who are mature and older anyway. They're very pleasant and aren't catty or ridiculous like people in our age group out here. CA people tend to be more.....immature and they have a harder time growing up. But these people aren't originally from CA, so that's ok. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

Date Nights are important

A few people ask why we hang out with each other so much or why we're so religious about our date nights. The thing is, I work a lot! I am balancing two jobs and most weeknights, I come home and all I want to do is go to bed. Hubby does most of the cooking on weekdays, there are days when I come home around 6 or so and I can do the cooking, but those nights are rare. So date nights aka the weekend, is when we get to catch up with each other, I get to sleep in, lounge around and do nothing...it's the best. Hubby is great with doing laundry and cleaning the place up and he can follow recipes pretty well, I just need to give it to him. However, he is busy too and there are days when I come home and he's serving me breakfast for dinner, which is completely fine. Hubby just doesn't enjoy cooking as much as I do. I think he enjoys it more when we're cooking together. Go figure.

Last week, I woke up one Saturday morning with back pains all over and hubby was sweet enough to book me a full body massage. Then took me out for sushi afterwards. It was the best! He then ordered me a tea infuser with his company's logo on it for me since I drink so much tea, especially at work. He even got me a black polo with his company's logo on it as well as the fleece jacket. Very sweet of him. The fleece jacket matches the one he has and will be put to good use in Japan and Colorado.

This past Friday, hubby came home from work at 10:30pm, exhausted and all but since he kept his word about date night, he took me out anyway and we ended up enjoying ourselves even though we were both exhausted. That's dedication!

Saturday, he took me to a winery for dinner, they have a restaurant there and while it wasn't great service or that great of food, I loved how hubby put in so much time and effort into it. Then he drove an hour and a half away to take me to have dessert at a completely different place. I'm very lucky!



Sunday, we went to the last Padres game for the season since they're a terrible team and wouldn't make it to the playoffs. We went with Dave and of course, my old boss sits down right behind me, her screeching voice was haunting me. If I can only tell you how cruel she was to me when I worked for her.....man.



P.S. our snorkel gear came in the mail, I can't wait for our cruise!

Rather eventful

This past Friday, hubby and I went to the Sugar Ray concert. We usually don't do concerts, in fact, hubby and I have never been to a concert together before this. But since this is Sugar Ray's last concert, we decided to go. We were right up front, I was able to see Mark McGrath sweat. The cool thing is, I got to see a blue rose on his left arm, which happens to be my favorite flower. Very cool. I even got a guitar pick that says "Sugar Ray" on it from Murphy. Hubby had such a great time, he suggested we go to more concerts together. The opening bands were rather good and I even started downloading some of their songs. Aimee Allen is a band from San Diego as well as the Dirty Heads.

Saturday, I woke up in a lot of pain and so hubby decided to make an appointment for me to get a massage. A full body massage, which is something I haven't had since my wedding last year. My sister-in-law, who is a massage therapist, bought us a couple's massage for our wedding gift the day before our wedding. She's given us one as well in the past and it's so great. I was so relaxed afterwards. Hubby then took me out to my favorite sushi place. I love baked sushi rolls, melts in your mouth. Our typical date night, going out to eat. :)


Sunday, we decided to go apple picking up in Julian, CA. The apple orchards aren't doing so great this year, so we didn't get many big apples. But then, hubby found a bunch of apple trees with huge red delicious, so we decided to pick a few as well. Candy apples, apple pie and apple steusel, here we come.

Creepiness...

I took a "friend" off of my blog because she likes to go on and on about how others are doing and gossipping. Personally, I don't think that's what a blog is for. You want to gossip about others and talk shit, please do that somewhere else. I also never liked her creepiness, she does the most creepy and sketchy things. Like subscribing to every website me and my other friend are on and following us. Then stealing my photos on my online album and calling it hers. She even opted to get the same wedding band as me. She asked how many carats my ring was and wanted the same. Then claims that she'll marry at the same venue as me around the same time and she's not even engaged yet. Then proceeded to ask me how I manage to own a house in California. I'm flattered that my life is so appealing to you, but please, stop stalking me online, you're creeping me out and we're not even friends.