Shared excitement!

Today we found out the gender of our little baby growing inside of me!  My mom & Alex went to the ultrasound with me and we were all very excited to find out it's a baby girl!  As I walked into work some of my coworkers were already asking me if I knew what 'it' was, I was so surprised that people were waiting and eager to hear about the appointment.

I am so thankful that Alex, baby & I have so many people to share our excitement with.  It makes the excitement & happiness that much better.

GhostMouse

At work there are some repetitive tasks that I do which require a lot of mouse movement & clicking.  While it's not difficult it does get annoying since I can't multitask when I do it.  I started using the program 'GhostMouse' and it's solved all my problems!  Now I can file/do other stuff while the mouse is moving and it definitely saves my wrist from carpal tunnel.

non-automated phone numbers

It's SO nice calling a place and getting a live person right away.  It's such an understated and rare thing nowadays.  SO SAD!

Crock Pot dinners!

When I got home this was waiting for me in the kitchen! Since he has work until 9pm tonight, Alex setup the crockpot to make dinner for me before he left! Hooray! Crock pot dinners are not only yummy but a wonderful surprise when you get home from work! Thanks Alex!!

non-halloween people

I'm not a big Halloween fan, I'm not into dressing up and I'm VERY not into scary movies.  I'm all for the cute kids and costumes and things like that but the scary costumes and zomies, NO THANK YOU.  So I'm happy for everyone who enjoys this time of year but I'm SOOO thankful that Alex isn't into Halloween either.

Backup

Today I was failing at making dinner, ok semi-failing, but I was getting super frustrated and hungry and it just didn't seem to be going right. So I called Alex to come have dinner and he sensed my frustration and came to save the day! He saved our dinner and let me eat so I wouldn't have a breakdown. I'm so thankful he's always here to back me up and help me when I need it.

Flannel sheets

It's been so cold in the morning & at night when we go to bed that we decided it was time to change to our flannel bed sheets! Now were nice and warm and the only problem is not wanting to get up!

Good restaurants close to work

Today I tried a new place close to the Echo Park clinic called The Hungry Pig.  It was BBQ with an asian flare and was surprisingly good.  They don't try to 'be asian' with all their dishes, just some things have an asian twist like their curried potatoes.  Some of their dishes were spicy for me but otherwise there was a decent amount of food with different side options.  Traditionally there haven't been too many good restaurants close to Echo Park so I was very pleased to find out this place is legit.

parents

There was an 'ah-ha' moment described on another blog I read in regards to parenting.  The morale of the story is kids don't understand nor appreciate what their parents go through until they themselves become parents.  But once they're on the other side it makes more sense and you find this sense on appreciation for YOUR parents and what YOU put them through.

Thinking back on the stories about me when I was a child and remembering how I behaved as a child/teenager/semi-adult, I'm SOOOO grateful for my parents.  I'm thankful that they put up with me and taught me all those valuable life lessons and how to appreciate when I have in my life.

Going forward, I have to admit that I'm NERVOUS to become a parent and to see 'the other side' of things.  But I can only hope that I will be as great of a mom as my mother was/is and pray that when they get older they'll appreciate me (and Alex) also.

recipe ideas

I don't particularly like pumpkin but tis the season and many people I know enjoy the pumpkin flavor of baked goods.  My first pumpkin-flavored item are pumpkin muffins w/ eggnog cream cheese swirl which were a big hit!  As a result I started thinking about other pumpkin flavored items which led to more and more recipe ideas.  Thankfully the people at Alex's work & my work enjoy my baked items so if I have a large quantity then we have somewhere to bring them.  It's nice having new ideas and trying out new recipes.  I like learning from each one and applying those things to the next recipe!

When someone else cooks dinner

I don't mind cooking but I don't find it as enjoyable as baking. But when Alex works late i'll cook dinner so no one starves. But tonight Yao cooked chicken quesadillas with guac & mango salsa! It was awesome to relax but still be fed when I got home. Thanks for cooking Yao!!

random open appointments

I don't know why exactly but today I only have 1 patient in the afternoon!  He's scheduled at 1:30pm, showed up on time and so hopefully that means I'll get to leave SUPER early today!  YAY!

church mass options

One of the favorite things about the Catholic Church is that you can go to mass at almost any church and there are always a variety of times available!  Today I went to church w/ my mom in Cerritos at 9:45am, next week I'll probably go to the church by my house at 11am.  If I wanted to I could go at 5pm!  It's so flexible, I love it!

chill friends

It's nice when you're with your friends and it's ok to take a nap or just hang out with out talking.

good friends

This weekend is a big birthday weekend for some of my good friends.  A few of them are flying in to LA and we're going out to dinner this weekend!  I'm fortunate enough to have good friends from HS, undergrad & pharmacy school.  I'm so thankful that I still keep in touch with them and that we're still close! 

Happy Birthday to Grace, Bryant and in 2 days Jennifer!!  

Walking tour of LA

For my birthday a few years ago, some of my friends came with me and we did a walking tour of downtown LA. It was cool to see the historic areas of the city and really enjoy the culture and see what LA is made of.

other options

Many ppl know that I'm on gchat most of the day during work (as I'm working) but today they disabled the chat function in gmail!  Thankfully Brandon told me about google plus hangouts which work the same as the gchat function.  So yippee!  At least I'm still connected somehow.

understanding patients

Today, I was a bad provider.  I had a meeting run super late and my patient ended up waiting almost 45 minutes for me!  She was on her way out as I was walking in and so she agreed to stay and let me see her.  I FELT SO BAD!!  But she was super understanding and all day all I could think was, "Thank God some of my patients are so understanding."

'parking on' feature

Alex has this knack for getting really good parking spots which he 'activates' when we're in the parking lot and he'll say 'parking ON'.  He's usually pretty good with it and we end up parking fairly close to our destination.  Today, as we drove towards the LB Marathon finish line to cheer on Yao, Alex turned left onto a street that didn't look like it would have ANY parking but lo and behold...PARKING ON.  Someone left their spot right as we drove down the street.  Plus meters are free on Sunday, so FREE, close parking!  It was wonderful.

nice handwriting

Ever since I was little I've had fairly poor handwriting.  As I got older I realized it's bc I'm 'lazy' when I write and I don't fully pick up the pen between letters.  All the strokes get blurred together and the word looks messy.  Posters were never my thing since my handwriting sucked so thank goodness for Julie's nice handwriting!  We wanted to make a poster for Yao's marathon but of course I wasn't confident in my artistic abilities so Julie stepped in and outlined the poster for us!  I colored in some of the block-letter portions of the sign and Julie markered-in the rest.  Hooray for teamwork!

non-work related Spanish conversations

I just had a little chat with my patient about the World Cup and Mexico's need to win their game tonight.  It was a refreshing break from the medical-related Spanish that I'm always speaking and it was a good way to brush up on my non-work related Spanish.  It helps me remember and think of other words that I haven't used in a long time.  Good brain exercise!

scarfs & long sleeved sweaters

IT'S SO COLD!!! I'm so thankful for long-sleeved sweaters and scarfs to keep my neck & arms warm.  Let's throw in socks too since they're keeping my toes warm today.

new babies!

In the past 2 weeks there have been 2 wonderful new additions to this world!  My good friend Jen gave birth to her 2nd baby boy, Landon Jacob and my cousin Zusy gave birth to her 2nd baby girl, Zea Rose!  I'm thankful they both had a simple and safe delivery and all 4 of them are alright.  I can't wait to meet them!

Support

It's nice to know how much support you have at work, at home, in your friends and others especially when you didn't expect it.  I'm thankful to have such a supporting network of people in my life.

Noise cancelling headphones

Not that I have any, but with all the construction going on at the clinic it would seem very wonderful to have noise cancelling headphones.  Especially with the drilling going on behind the wall behind my computer, so literally 2 feet away from me.  I'm thankful for noise cancelling headphones for the people who have them.

Tamale guy

Even outside of my church in Cerritos/Artesia there was a family selling tamales on our way out of church.  Now, there's a different family/guy that sells tamales outside of the church I go to in Rowland Heights but it reminds me of going to church with my family when I was younger.  We never bought tamales from the people in Artesia but the ones from Rowland Heights are pretty good!

Safe flights

My mom came home from the Philippines today! I'm so thankful she had a simple safe flight and is back in CA with us. Thank you God!

New white coat(s)!

QueensCare recently changed their official name & logo. They asked the
providers to fill out a form for new white coats and they gave one to
me so I filled it out. Usually since I'm not technically a QC
employee they don't give me perks such as white coats but lo and
behold, the white coats came and I have some too! It was very
exciting until I realized 5 mins after I put it on that I got it dirty
already! Oh well, still exciting!

midweek catch-ups

One of my BFFs moved up to NorCal last year and we were super SUPER sad that she moved.  Whenever she comes down we try to hang out but it's difficult esp since we all live in different corners of LA county.  But yesterday she came down for work and we were able to meet up and have dinner and hang out for 4 hours.  It was SUPER fun and relaxing to laugh and reminisce about all the good times we've had.

my cousins

Being Filipino means I have a lot of family and a lot of cousins.  The best part of being Filipino is being close to my family and my many cousins.  This morning my cousins had a group text message going on regarding my nephew's birthday.  Unfortunately I can't go to celebrate my nephew's birthday but it was fun reading, texting and conversing with my cousins that early in the morning.  I'm so thankful that I'm blessed with such a great family.

My cassette player in my car

My car is not THAT old but I still have a cassette player in it and I still have a few cassettes that I listen to with it.  The other day I found my NSYNC Celebrity cassette in my car and so I popped it into the cassette player and was transported back to high school.  It was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad I was able to listen and relive my 'youth'.

Vons deli

My coworker went to the Vons deli today for lunch and brought me back soup!  It was pretty delicious and I have to give it up to Vons.  Their soups, sandwiches and other items from the deli counter are usually very yummy.  It was a nice quick lunch today.  Thanks Vons!