the GIRL and BOY

Crazy Woman On The Floor

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up with this crazy intense back pain. I've suffered with a nagging sciatica for nearly my entire teen and twenty-something life. But this pain is a little different. Its on the left side of my back, right under my rib cage..near my hip. I've asked the boy numerous times to just punch me right where it hurts. But he refuses. I swear it sounds like it'll feel so good! I've also asked the pup to step on me. But she refuses too as well. This morning I was so uncomfortable that the drive to work was painful. I got to my office and started lying on the floor with my legs all flung around and butt high in the air. I swear I looked like a crazy person. I've also been doing this ridiculous hip moving action to try and isolate the sharp pain. People must think I'm Shakira or something.

Oy. Hopefully I just slept wrong. Or bent over wrong. Or it just goes away. That would be nice.
But I have a feeling its going to be a few more weeks. Next week starts the 3rd trimester! How crazy is that? The bambino will be here soon and I'm nervous and excited all at the same time. EEEK!

Other than this nagging back pain, the boy and I have been sooooo busy getting our new house ready for the baby. And by ready, I mean we bought black and white polka dot fabric to cover our hallways shelves. Because you know, the baby needs to have totally fashionable hallways closets to store her towels in. At least that's what I keep telling myself. The boy painted the walls a sea green/teal color and cut the wood down to building the shelving while I used our handy dandy staple gun to cover them. It turned out so pretty. I'll have to take pictures of them.

Along with tons of house projects, we've been feeding this baby like no tomorrow. Okay, not really. I've been watching what I eat for the most part. But last night the boy planned, shopped and cooked dinner for us. I got all excited because let's face it, this little momma does most of the cooking in the house, so a day off was nice. He was so excited to cook and hid the menu from me and everything. I thought it was adorable. He grilled some potatoes and chicken breast and made an amazing chimichurri sauce to go with it. This is huge people!!! HUGE!

I remember once while we were dating, he tried to surprise me by making dinner. The man baked shrimp. Like, put them on a skewer and baked them. It was so gross. I think I got food poisoning as well [I didn't want to hurt his feelings, so I still ate it]. So this is HUGE that he made something and it was soooo good! I was so proud of him. And I could totally see him patting himself on the back for it too. :)

I made some chocolate chip cookies to help celebrate the occasion. I just couldn't help myself. I'm so used to being in the kitchen that I felt like I had to make something! And by something, I made a batch of 50. HAHA.

Hope you all have a great week!

The Best Cookies In the World

2012-01-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

It seems like only yesterday when I was a wee little college kid working at the cash registers at IKEA. I wore that hideous yellow & blue sweater and even had IKEA embroidered jeans. They were so ugly. They were unisex jeans so they fit more like men's carpenter pants. Talk about fashion faux paux. And I had a supervisor who made us wear them no matter what. I hated those damn things.

Anyway, there are a few things that I still love about IKEA.
These cookies are one of them.
I have no idea how to say their name. But they are delicious. And I probably would have never discovered them if they didn't force us to try them during the new employee orientation. They're a nutty/oatmeal flavor and sooooo good. I pick up a box every time we go to Ikea. They sell them in the little marketplace section when you check out. You should try them out.

And they're highly addicting.
So don't feel bad if you finish half a box in a sitting.

On Lemons & Oranges.

2012-01-09T09:14:00.000-08:00

Check out this fruit that we picked off our tree this weekend. Isn't it scary looking? At first I thought some bugs ate it. So I picked it off the tree to throw out (I mean throw into our compost bin. I'm still getting used to that). But after looking at it, it really grew that way. It looks like it has little fingers (or as we say, "filanges" -- thank you Friends). How freaky! But that my friend, is a lemon. A lemon with filanges.

Have I told you that we have a lemon AND an orange tree in the backyard at our new house? As dumb as it sounds, it was kind of a selling point. When we first went house hunting, I told the boy that I'd love to have tree where we could just pick and eat something. I was thinking that we could just plant one. I didn't expect for our house to come with one already! DEAL! When we bought the house, I swore we had two orange or maybe grapefruit trees. But after we mustered up the courage to try the fruit (my husband is so brave), we found out the trees were actually an orange and lemon tree on steroids. I mean, these bad boys are ginormous. Grapefruit size. Sometimes watermelon size. I took it too far there, didn't I? Seriously though. Lemons the size of grapefruits.

I'm looking forward to getting a juicer so we can utilize them more. You can only eat so many oranges before it starts to get lame. So I'm thinking smoothies and juice on the regular. Any suggestions on a good juicer would be greatly appreciated. I've never juiced before and have no idea what to look for. I don't even know how to juice! I am 100% absolutely against the hand juicers. We live in the 21st century, people. I am not trying to get carpal tunnel. Electric all the way. So if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Thinking about it.. I have so much to learn.
Being a homeowner is tough. And then throwing first time mommy into the mix is even more complicated. But I'm sure the knowledge comes with time. Or at least that's what I'm hoping for, or else I'm screwed. Joking. But it's been an exciting/scary experience. We've already had more than our fair share of hiccups with the new homeowner process, so I'm thinking parenthood will be a piece of cake. Haha. Who am I trying to kid? I can't even pick up dog poop without throwing up in my mouth. Parenthood is going to be crazy! But I'm up for it and ready for the challenge. And trust me, there will be lots of blog posting to document it so I can tell it all to my kids one day. Blackmail!

Happy Monday!

17 Weeks & Counting

2012-01-05T13:28:00.000-08:00

Holy crapballs. The bambino will be here in 17 weeks (or less).
And I say "less" for good reason.
Wanna hear a funny story? Or a couple?

Last night we were relaxing and watching some not-so-good-for-you/trashy reality TV show and the hospital calls me saying "Mrs. Cortez, your room in the emergency room is ready for you. Please start to head down here."

I kind of looked at the boy like "What the..."
So I asked what this was for. And the nurse told me that the doctor had called in to prep a room since I was going into preterm labor.
UMMM...WHAT?
I told her that I hadn't even been to the doctor that day, but then she verified my name, address, date of birth, social and said everything matched the request.

I had a mini panic attack right about now. Or maybe I stained my pants. One of those two.
She asked if I was in any pain or if I thought I was going into labor and I said negative.
She started quizzing me about stuff I can't even remember now.
Eventually she said she'd cancel the request but to head to the ER if I started to have complications.
Ummm...okay!

How bananas is that?!
They sure know how to scare the crap outta me.
Literally. Okay, not literally.
But good golly!

Wanna hear another funny story?
This morning, I woke up an hour late for work because I was dreaming about a sandwich.
True stuff right there.
Pregnant woman have crazy dreams. Or it could just be me.

Sometimes I just have to sit back and laugh at my life.
Cheers to Thursday!

Hello 2012!

2012-01-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

Check out this photo I found from 5 years ago!
When we lived in LA, we LOVED Disneyland. We used to go alllll the time. We haven't been back there since we moved to San Francisco. But in my head, I know the next time we go will be with our little bambino! How crazy is that?! AND I cannot believe it's 2012 already! In a few month we'll be a proud mama & papa. I can't even begin to wrap my head around that. This baby bump makes it hard to forget. But at times I still can't believe there's a little bambino brewing in there. OUR bambino! I can't wait to kiss her little cheeks.

So as 2012 begins, I have no idea what goals I want to accomplish or what tasks I want to complete. I just know that our whole world is going to change this year and I can't wait! There will be lots of picture taking, lots more blogging and lots more giggles in our house soon. EEEK!

Hope you all have a fantastic start to your 2012 and thanks for following our blog for all these years. I'm so excited to get to share the next adventures in our lives with you all.

Updates on the Homefront

2011-12-12T13:50:00.000-08:00

Well hello there! I lied when I said I'd be blogging more often.

Who knew being pregnant, moving into a new house and the holidays would take up all my time! HA! All joking aside, this little lady has been extremely busy. So busy that I took a 12 hour nap yesterday. True stuff right there.

But we've been working our behinds off. If you came to our house right now, I'm sure you'd call me a liar (this is not looking good for me). There are boxes everywhere! We've even carved out little pathways in each room. But what they don't tell you when you buy a house is that you have so many little things to do, that unpacking is the last thing on your mind. So far we've had visits from yardmen, blinds installers, movers, fence repairmen, alarm installers, air duct cleaners, satellite dish putter uppers, internet setter uppers and OY it goes on and on. And then you have issues like your patio roof blowing off when we had the crazy wind storms or your kitchen sink leaking so you have dishes piled up the size of Mt. Vesuvius. All of this, true stuff.

I've done all of my Christmas shopping online for 2 reasons:
1. Imagine this pregnant lady in a mall with crowds. I would so cut to the front of the lines and fight off anyone that said anything to me. I'd probably just walk around with a baseball bat just to ward off comments. (seriously joking. but i like to dream)
2. When you order online, you can ship directly to the recipient. That totally eliminates a trip for me to the post office. Again, I'd probably pull a #1 there as well. Those lines are bananas.

Wanna hear a funny story? This just adds to the insanity that is my life.
So I am an avid Amazon.com fan. So much so that we even order our Spam from there.
Anyway, the week that we moved into the new house, I ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon to be delivered. We were going out of town that weekend, so I expected to have piles of boxes at our doorstep when we got home.

Well, we got home and saw nothing. I checked online and it said that all our packages were delivered. I checked again. The boy checked again. Nothing. So I wrote a harsh/stern email to amazon describing how I was such a loyal Amazon user for years and have never had an issue with receiving packages. So they gladly shipped replacements for everything with overnight shipping. I was satisfied.

We came home from work the next day expecting packages on our doorstep.
Nothing.

What the BALLS. Remember crazy lady status #1 up there, yeah, I was about to pull that again. Picture me pacing back and forth in our house screaming "OH HELL NO!" I checked online again and Amazon had said that the new shipment was delivered. I immediately thought OUR NEIGHBORS! We just moved into this neighborhood and our neighbors are stealing our crap. GET ME THE BASEBALL BAT!

The boy for some reason went outside and noticed that our delivery man had nicely hid our boxes in a nook in our stairwell that is covered by a bush. There sat all 6 boxes, 2 of everything, that we ordered from Amazon. I could not stop laughing. I'm sure he placed them there because its out of plain sight from the street (so crooks don't steal them). He is so clever, that guy.

Talk about stress over nothing.
It's funny to laugh about it now.
Not so funny then.

Anyway, I promise more updates.
I promise more blogs.
I promise more pictures.
I promise to be a better blogger.
&& if not, there's always 2012 resolutions :)

Happy Holidays!

Home Sweet Home

2011-11-29T15:08:00.000-08:00

photo source

The boy and I have been shopping for home for almost 6 months now. And let me tell you, it's no easy task. Blog post coming later perhaps.

Adventure #1 involved a home we put an offer on and then had the inspector tell us we were better off living in a cardboard box. Adventure #2 involved some not so friendly people that we had to fire on the day of closing. Adventure #3 lead us to a bank that thought it was appropriate to take their sweet time. And by sweet time, I mean months to fund our loan.

Long story short, we finally got our keys and are moving in!
(insert happy dance here. my happy dance is the cabbage patch.)

Since before we got engaged, the boy and I made a list of goals that we wanted to accomplish. One of our goals was to purchase a house before we turned 30 years old. The reasoning behind that was because a usual home loan has a 30 year life span and it would be nice to not have a mortgage to worry about by the time you retire at 60ish years of age.

It's crazy to think that we were able to accomplish this. And years earlier than we expected.
And we have a bambino on the way!
As the boy says, I'm seriously on cloud 10 right now.

I'm so excited to be moving into our new house. But a little sad to be leaving behind our condo that we've loved for the past 3 years. It's bittersweet. We'll be spending the next few days moving and settling in, and then off on a little vacation. And boy do I need it!

We have some crazy adventures coming up, like living without a fridge, washer and dryer for the next 2 weeks since they can't deliver our new ones until then. And then the frightening thought of this pregnant lady unpacking boxes and dealing with hormones.

Future blog posts? I think so!
Cheers to a smooth moving in process.

It's A Girl!

2011-11-15T13:43:00.000-08:00

photo source

It's a GIRL!
That's right! We'll be adding a baby girl to our little family!

This weekend we went to do a 4d ultrasound. I just couldn't wait any longer to find out the gender of our baby. I wasn't scheduled to find out with my doctor until December 20th. That's over a month away! Are you kidding me?! So we opted to go to an outside ultrasound place to find out.

We were so excited when we found out. The doctor said she was 99% sure that the bambino was a girl and there were no if's, and's or buts about it. Once we found out, we could not stop smiling and hugging. We've been so excited ever since!

Now that we know it's a girl, I can't stop thinking up color schemes and how I picture the nursery. I haven't bought tooooo much (yeah, right) yet. I did check out Target and they still had some Missoni items online. Who knew?! I bought this cute crib blanket today. Isn't it cute!

Sigh..I can't stop thinking about this little girl...

xoxo, proud momma

Can't Wait.

2011-11-09T09:02:00.000-08:00

via: a few of my favorite things

♥♥♥

I cannot wait until the bambino gets here.

This picture is so adorable.

#babyfever is in full effect

On Feeling Gracious.

2011-11-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

These past few days have been very trying..to say the least..

I try not to get tooooo personal on the blog. So without saying too much, the boy and I encountered a problem, where for the first time in our lives, we needed some help. It wasn't financial help, or to be bailed out of trouble or anything like that. Just some guidance. You know the type where someone listens. Like actually listens.

We both live far away from our families. Actually we have no family near us at all. So sometimes getting the advice you need or the shoulder you need to cry on isn't always readily available. But this week, we got all of that from the person we least expected.

Last week we met with a woman. This woman has been in our lives for about 6 months now. She's never been nice to us. In fact, I hated her so much that I took her off of our Christmas gift basket list (& yes, I really do have one). I've said more bad things about her than good. In fact, I've probably only said one nice thing about her the entire six months that we've known her. Dead serious. I've always assumed that she was against us or that she had a personal vendetta for us. I never gave her the time of day. I simply called her a bitch because she always seemed so cold and bitter to us. Little did I know...

But this wretched lady has suddenly become someone who we confided in and has helped us in ways that I cannot even begin to thank her for. How? I have no idea. One day, she was just there. She offered her ear, gave us advice and helped us the best she could. She's gone out of her way to be there for us and to fill that void of reason when I seriously thought I was going to lose my marbles. I feel bad. No, wait. I feel horrible that I judged her and said all those nasty things about her. She was the one person who was willing to stick her neck out for us and help. And I seriously cannot thank her enough.

As simple as her act of kindness was to us, it just taught me a lesson.
We are so quick to judge someone. And I am the most guilty of that.
I'll be the first to admit that I judge people by their looks, their background, pretty much everything and anything. It's horrible. But I do it. I've never stopped to peel someone's layers back (think Shrek) and see them for who they really are. Maybe they need help, just like we needed. Maybe they need some advice like we did. Or maybe they just needed a good old venting session because they had a bad day.

At 26 years old, and a soon to be mother, I thought I knew everything there is to know about life. Seriously. Well, nothing that google can't teach me, right? I've traveled the world, been living on my own since I was17... but there are always lessons to be learned. This past week has been humbling to say the least. And it took a nice shake up to bring me back to reality.

&&& fret not.
There is no trouble here in the household.
All is well with the girl, boy and bambino.
Just a crazy week that got even crazier.
But we're better now.
& a lot more humbler. (& yes, that's a word)

So cheers to new life lessons and peeling back layers.
xoxo, lehua

13 weeks

2011-11-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hello 13 Weeks!
I woke up this morning, got dressed for work and had to do a double take in the mirror. Look at that bump!
I usually wear looser/flowy type of shirts, and this morning I threw this top on and said WHOA! It's the first time I could actually see a bump. Granted, it looks more like the bloating you get after an all you can eat sushi buffet. But still, there's a little bambino in there. And it's starting to show.

Hopefully I remember to do these weekly. I'm actually 14 weeks tomorrow, so the photo is a little bit of a stretch for 13 weeks. But who cares. I'm pretty sure the bambino won't judge me. :)

Some Things I've Learned During The 1st Trimester

2011-10-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

my fortune from a few weeks ago.

So now that the cat is out of the bag, I can go back to my blog and gripe about pregnancy.
Hahaha. I joke. A little bit.

Being pregnant is hard.
Having to keep it a secret is harder.
I felt like I couldn't blog because I was keeping a secret.
And our lives for the past few months pretty much revolved around that secret.

So here's a recap of what my 1st trimester looked like.

I think I can survive the wilderness & not eat for days. I've always heard stories of morning sickness and having to deal with new eating habits. But boy did they leave out the details of not being able to stomach anything or eat anything with a smell. I found out that I can go days without a meal and survive on saltines & ginger ale. But I never want to do that again.
Prenatal vitamins are disgusting. I'm not sure if they all look like hockey pucks, but the ones that I have are ginormous. And I struggle with taking them. I gag, I choke, and sometimes they come back up. Right now I am taking these and am open to ANY type of vitamin that is "normal size".
It is possible. I can lose 10 pounds. Want to lose some weight? Get knocked up. Hahaha. Joking. But I did lose 10 pounds during the process. The doctor said if I drop 5 more pounds its emergency room service for me. So I've been trying to eat more and find little tricks. I have a better appetite now and can finally go into a restaurant without having to take the order to go. Baby steps, right? Now when does the "I want to eat everything in sight" phase begin???
It is possible to sleep for 16 hours straight. I am a habitual waker-upper at 6am, even on the weekends. Since I got pregnant, I can sleep all day if you'd let me. I wake up for the occasional pee and maybe a snack. But that's it. It's lights out city for me. And I've also been getting crazy dreams!!
It's possible to love someone you've never met before. I don't believe in love at first sight, or anything like that. Hell, I don't even believe in ghosts. BUT I did find out that I love this baby more than I've loved anything else. Its such a special bond to have a child growing in you. And I cannot wait to have this bambino. I can't wait for all the 1st giggles, 1st steps, 1st day home... this has been a long time coming and I am so excited to start this new chapter in our lives.

We Have An Announcement

2011-10-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

So it's been a little quiet around here on the blog. Okay..it's been quiet A LOT!
I don't think I've ever gone a month(s) without blogging. YIKES!
We've been so busy with the new house and our new BABY!

We'll be adding a new bambino to the Cortez family.
I'm due the 1st week of May, which is pretty exciting.
The boy's birthday is May 2nd, so he's a little jealous that he may have to share his day. But I reassured him that that just means double the cake and double the yummy treats. I think that won him over.

I'm currently starting my 2nd trimester, which means hopefully the morning sickness will stop. Because let me tell you..it has been brutal on this little mama. I've been having the hardest time with food. I've already made a list for this baby. It owes me about 1000 backrubs and 500 breakfasts in bed.

We still aren't sure on the gender and honestly, I'm fine whether its a boy or girl. The boy is hoping that its a girl. It's so cute to see him so excited. We've also discovered that he's a big fan of sympathy pains. More on that later.

But we just wanted to share the big news with you!

xoxo, the girl & boy & the bambino

Busy Bees!

2011-09-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

We have been so busy lately. We've had visitors staying with us for the past two weeks. I've developed carpal tunnel syndrome (joking) from signing all the bank and mortgage paperwork for our new house. I've also probably got some new grey hairs popping in. It's been a very very busy past few weeks.

Now all we have to look forward to is packing, getting rid of crap, and making sure everything is set and ready to go for our big move into our new house. I've also contemplated having an estate sale just so I wouldn't have to sort through stuff. Haha. Seriously. I need to get over it and just get my act together.

Luckily, we don't have to move out of our condo until the end of November, so I can take my sweet time packing stuff up. Which probably explains why I've only packed about 4 boxes so far. We also have so much furniture that we had to hire the Hulk (professional movers) to help us. But that's okay because I hate moving. I mean..the loading and unloading of the truck part.

Anyway, I apologize for the absence away from the blog.
But in the mean time, here are some recaps from my life.

Pizza Hut puts cocaine in their sauce. Joking. But I'm almost sure of it. Last week, I had pizza hut 3 out of the 5 week days. And not because we had left overs. I'm talking 3 separate orders on 3 separate days. I love pizza, but even I'm amazed that I wanted it so much.

I learned what "swaking" means from Jersey Shore. Swagger Jacking. Nice.

Yelling at your DVR box will not make it work. Trust me, I've tried. We came home last night only to find that our dumb ass DVR box (I officially hate AT&T now) didn't record any of our shows. No sunday night football, no real housewives of new jersey. What's a girl to do? I cursed and smacked and possibly drop kicked it. Only to realize that I was yelling at a box. Lovely.

It is possible to get a farmer's tan only on one arm. We came home from the 49er's game yesterday only to find that one arm looks like it was set on fire (it's pretty red) and one arm is as crisp and golden as a thanksgiving turkey. Is this what happens to people who are mixed races? Oy.

Dr's don't like perfume. Or at least my doctor doesn't. I got an email reminding me of my Dr's appointment tomorrow. It says to be on time, do not eat 3 hours prior to arriving and to not wear perfume. Haha. A little random, but okay...

My body runs off of caffeine. Goodness, I've had to reduce the amount of coffee and soda that I drink daily and I swear I want to run through a wall by the end of the day. I'm so tired that I can barely function. I need a coffee IV or something. HELP!

We have the best couch on earth. No lie. It's actually a custom made couch. The boy wanted a couch that he could lie on without having is feet hang off. Two people can also lie down on it at the same time.It's pretty ginormous. I haven't been able to sleep lately, so I get up, move to the couch and BAM! Instantly in LaLa Land.

The Time Our Offer Was Accepted.

2011-08-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a little quiet around the blog lately.
Why?
Because house hunting has consumed all our energy.
And I'm not just talking about sacrificing weekends and weeknights to look at places. Though that does take a toll on you after a while.

But no one tells you about the sleepless nights you spend in bed, tossing and turning because you're imagining what you can do with the place. Thinking about if your offer was good enough. Where we can hang that damn mirror we currently have over our fireplace since this new home doesn't have a fireplace.

Yeah..you think of crap like that.
I've seriously lost years off my life.

But the boy and I finally have picked a home we both liked.
We put in an offer on Monday. Got a counteroffer on Tuesday, then Wednesday, again on Thursday, and again on Saturday.

After such a crazy week, we've finally come to an agreed price and after lots of signing and lots of paperwork, our realtor told us CONGRATULATIONS, the house is 99.9% yours!

Now that doesn't mean that the house is necessarily ours....yet. We still have to go through the inspection process and all that good stuff. For all we know, we could have a house that has not pipes. Haha. Let's hope not.

So here's to get through step one of the housing process.
Let's hope everything else runs smoothly.

P.S. Isn't our soon to be kitchen gorgeous? It's my favorite part of the whole house. So excited!!

This Post Is Not Worthy Of A Nifty Title.

2011-08-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken in January of this year after I fell/rolled/ate it/tumbled down one of the black diamond ski hills in Tahoe. I thought I was going to die that day.

My life lately in bullet points.

In the past 2 days, we have seen 20 houses to buy.
Out of the 20 we saw, we couldn't find 1 that we both liked. #fail
Yesterday I started my diet. For lunch I had soup.
For dinner I had a McDonalds cheeseburger combo. #fail
The boy washed my car in the morning this past weekend.
By noon 2 birds pooped all over it. It also grew a spider web. #fail
We cleaned the house last week & washed every piece of dirty laundry we had.
We have not washed laundry or any dishes since. #fail
The boy & I are in the middle of our Gilmore Girls DVD marathon.
We fell asleep and the DVD player broke during our nap & ate our DVD. It's still stuck in there. #fail
I have been in San Francisco with the boy for 5 years now.
Why did I get mail with my name & an ex-boyfriends name on it yesterday? #fail

I swear..I need a reality show.
My life is all kinds of random.

Here's to nothing but #winning soon.

It's Been One Year.

2011-08-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Dad,
It's been one year. 365 days and nights.

I miss you so damn much that it's hard to even figure out what to say. But I know you're looking down on us. And wherever you are, I know you're reading my blog. Because let's face it, it's the world wide web. You used to tell me you checked it everyday and it was even saved in your favorites on your computer. I always thought that was so sweet.

You're always in my heart and I think of you everyday. I wish we could share our house hunting adventures with you and get your advice. Or stop and have pancakes for dinner. I miss you and hope you know that you're very much loved and very much missed.

I love you, Dad.

<3 the girl, boy & the pup

Happy 26th Birthday To Me.

2011-08-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

As vain as it sounds, I'd like to wish myself a

HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY

For the past 5 years, I've had very rough birthdays.

4 out of the 5 years were spent in the hospital (crazy, right?).

My 25th year of life was the hardest year ever.

I lost my dad the day after my birthday & a few months later I lost both of my grandpas.

So let's hope that year 26 will be a much better one.

I have big plans in mind.

So CHEERS to a better year of life and one that brings new beginnings.

♥ ♥ ♥

Instagram Prints

2011-08-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who don't have iPhones, you're totally missing out. Kidding.
But in case you haven't noticed, instagrams are all the rage.
I love the look of them and even the size.

I've seen a few blog posts that show how to print them on your computer.
But who are we kidding? I'm so ~~lazy~~ busy that I won't get around to doing it.
So instead, I downloaded the Postal Pix app.

This app let's you select what photos you want to print all through the convenience of your phone.
It takes about a week for them to ship them to you and BAM!
All your instagrams in print.
They print a 4"x4" size and are fabulous!!
They also have normal size prints for the non instagram photos and even poster prints.

Aren't they cute?!

Instagram Scrapbooking

2011-08-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

Hahaha. The boy cracks me up.

He hates taking pictures.

But he does it for me.

What a trooper.

The Pressure Is On.

2011-08-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

photo location: our current condo

So the boy and I have been looking for a house.

Well, not seriously. But we peruse the listings weekly.

Taken a look at a few. But nothing toooo serious.

We gave ourselves until the end of this year/early next year.

This weekend we got a letter in the mail that went something like this...

"Dear Tenants,

We will be renovating your condo soon. So you need to get the $%#@^ out."

Okay..so it didn't go exactly like that.

But that's how I remember it in my head.

They have offered to move us after our lease is up, to one of the other condos.

But of course at a higher rent and having to sign another year lease.

Did I fail to mention that our rent is bananas?

Well it is. Big. Fat. Bananas.
Think 5 pairs of $500 Jimmy Choos every month.

Yeah. BANANAS, right?

But that's San Francisco for you.

If you can make it here, you can make it any where.

Screw New York. (joking, I'd totally move to NYC in a heartbeat)

My biggest fear is packing up to live in a new condo for a few months and then having to pack up again to our new house once we find it.

Have I told you how much I hate packing?

Well I do.

If I could kick it in the balls, I would.

And probably with spiked golf shoes.

So the pressure is on.

We must find a house.

Or else we will live in a box. With rocks. That wear socks. And eat lox.

Cross your house hunting fingers for us!

The Boy & Photobooths.

2011-07-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

Photo taken at the Alameda County Fair.

July 3, 2011

I love photobooths.

Especially when they're the old kinds.

The "chemical inducing, wet paper, smells like feet" type of booths.

I also love that the boy makes the same face in sign of protest.

He hates taking pictures. But he sucks it up.

Why?

Because he knew what he was getting into before me married me.
Ladies & Gentlemen..that's love. <3

Alameda County Fair

2011-07-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago the Alameda County Fair was in town.
Well, not our town. But about 30 minutes from our little town.

So we went. And it was 99 degrees out when we stepped out of the car. That's really hot for the Bay Area. I know it's summer time and all, but MAN that is wicked hot. We even waited to go in the late afternoon, around 4ish so we wouldn't get the worst of the heat. I wonder how hot it was at noon?!

We ate. We saw funny people. We touched dirty animals (well, the boy touched. i'm afraid of big animals. you don't know what they're thinking!). And we almost bought a baby chick because it was so cute. But then the boy reminded me that it grows, and it will turn into a vicious duck that bites. So we quickly dropped that idea. They also had a sign that says you must be 21 years of age to purchase a chick. You can go to war for your country at 18, but you can't buy a baby chick. HAHA. Too funny.

We didn't try any of the whacky foods. It was too damn hot to be feeling adventurous. So we stuck with the basics -- cotton candy, hot dogs, a burrito and a giant square of fries. Yes. A giant square of fries (see photo below). But they did have alligator tails, fried crickets, deep fried butter (yeah..i said it..) and a whole mess of other things. Maybe we'll try it on another day.

The Time The 60 Year Old Woman Almost Made Me Cry.

2011-07-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

So I went to Macy's yesterday after work. And by after work, I mean after a long, stressful, never ending list of things to do, day at work. I went with the intention to buy a cutting board that I had my eye on for a while. Actually a few months. I checked online before I went and saw that it was finally on sale for 40% off. It's this really cute Martha Stewart Apple Shaped Board. So cute, right?!

Here's how my visit went and the dealings with a 60-something year old woman.

Me: Excuse me, do you have the Martha Stewart apple cutting board?

Lady: Have you checked over there?

Me: Yes, but the only one I see is the one on display.

Lady: Well, then no. Plus those cutting boards are at least 5 years old. We haven't carried them for years.

Me: Really? Because on the sign right there, it says it's on sale. It's also on sale on the website.

Lady: That sign is wrong and obviously old. And they never update the website.

Me: Well, I don't mind taking the display model. I will pay the full price as well.

Lady: I don't have time to find a stool to get it down.

Me: Can I come back for it then? Or do you have more in the stock room?

Lady: We are not allowed to touch the displays. And I know for a fact that we don't have any in the back.

Me: Do you know if the neighboring city Macy's has it in stock. If not, I may just get a different one here.

Lady: There is no way for me to know.

At this point, I am so irritated. She was being so rude and so condescending to me. I really just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Not because the board wasn't in stock, but after my long day, I really didn't need a complete stranger talking to me like that.

Me: Can we call them to find out before I drive all the way over there?

Lady: Sure, you can call them.

Me: Do you the phone number?

Lady: Just google it. I don't have time to find it.

Then after I gave her a disgusted look, I turn away, and she sits on her stool and starts reading her magazine. REALLY?!

I know this is not the rudest story ever. And I've had my fair share of much ruder encounters, but seriously lady? All I wanted was to buy a cutting board. It shouldn't be that hard. I went home, hugged the boy and just ordered the damn thing online AND paid more than what it was on sale for in the store. The boy offered to go back to the store and kick her ass, but I politely declined.

Here's to hoping the rest of the week is not so bad.

Our Friday Fail.

2011-07-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

This is the only picture I managed to take on date night.

It's right as we were leaving to head out for dinner.

So Friday nights are date nights. Nothing comes in the way of date night. Well, maybe the flu. That happened to us a few weeks ago. But usually, fridays are our unwinding days.

If we have an event to go to, we cancel it. We don't make plans with friends. We don't clean. We don't cook. We go out, have a fabulous dinner, and some times catch a movie or do something else fun.

Lately we've been all over groupon and living social catching their deals. We look for restaurants we haven't tried yet and buy the super discounted certificates and indulge. We've been on a pretty good streak. But this past friday we got a bad, horrible, yucky restaurant.

I'm not even going to put the name or website up because I don't want to cause a ruckus (plus i'm wondering if they actually think their food is good?). We ate at an "italian place" in Menlo Park. I ordered the risotto (even though I am lactose intolerant, risotto is my guilt pleasure) and the boy ordered ravioli. My risotto was soup with giant hunks of unmelted cheese and the boy had sheets of uncooked pasta in cheesey soup. We kind of looked at each other with the "what the hell?" face.

Plus when we got there, the waiter stood up the wine menu on our table and it tipped over and knocked the glass of water all over the boy. Then we waited for what felt like an eternity to get our food.

Bad service = yucky food = this blogger not even taking pictures

That's right. I didn't take one picture of our food.
How sad is that. Oh well. Maybe it was for the best.

Anyone else end up at a bad restaurant?
They're always such a bummer, and I hate walking out of there knowing that I paid for horrible food.