holiday traffic

It's been SO nice the past few days driving to work.  I guess people took these days off and/or aren't driving in the morning bc it only took me ~30 minutes to get to work!  Thanks everyone!

Have a fun and SAFE New Year's Eve!

defrosted meats

Usually once a month I'll go to Costco to stock up on meat/protein for us to eat, portion it out and then freeze them so we can cook it later.  It SUCKS when you come home from work and have to wait for the meat to defrost (and don't want to use the microwave to defrost it).  Last night I pulled the chicken out to defrost/put it in the fridge and when I came home today it was ready to cook!  PHEW!  So wonderful just cooking and not having to worry about frozen meat.

relaxing at home

This weekend was a super bachelorette success!  Jeanne had a GREAT time and thankfully everything went off without a hitch!  But coming home, relaxing and just hanging out with Alex is what I'm extra thankful for today.  It's nice to go out and party it up sometimes but it's always great to just chill at home too.

Compromise

Today I'm thankful for a husband who compromises with me and takes care of the stuff I don't want to take care of.

Girls weekend

One of my BFFs is getting married in a few weeks so we're having her bachelorette this weekend! Nothing too crazy, just a staycation in LA. We're gonna eat, drink, Spa and go dancing. It'll be a great weekend with my girls :)

unexpected memories

Dinner tonight was full of unexpected memories. It was BYOB at the restaurant but we forgot to bring something! So Alex looked up the closest liquor store, 0.2 miles away! Score! He went, came back, they drank and after 20 min were already done with half the bottle! Bryant made an executive decision to go to the liquor store again! Seven minutes later he was back with another bottle of wine to enjoy. And that's how you make memories.

Christmas spirit

It's Christmas!!! It's a day for family, love, Christ and presents! Church today reminded us that Jesus is the reason for the season so we shouldn't ever forget that. I'm so thankful that I get to spend time with both my families today and that we've had overall a great year. Thank you Jesus for all that you've given us.

half days at work

Today the clinic closes at 3! That's reason enough to be thankful!

Christmas homecomings

MY DAD'S BACK FROM THE PHILIPPINES!!! He left Aug 25 and just came back an hour ago!  I'm so happy he's home since I've been missing him and haven't been able to talk to him too much while he was away.  ALSO, my brother came down from San Jose for the Christmas break!  He's been here since Dec 19th and it's been so nice hanging out with him the past few days.  Alex's family is driving in tomorrow night and will stay for Christmas day too!  I'm so thankful that my family arrived safe & sound and that they'll be here to celebrate the holidays with us.

assembly lines & help

I decided to make homemade peppermint marshmallows & peppermint hot chocolate mix for my coworkers and package them into mason jars.  There were 27 total that I needed to make and this morning I had ZERO done.  After the church & a christmas party, I came home, started cranking out the mix and enlisted my wonderful husband to help with the packaging.  He helped put the marshmallows in bags, filled the mason jars w/ mix, cut the wrapping paper and covered the jars and put them in a bag for me to bring to work!  It was super helpful having an assembly line going on and that there was someone to help me finish the project.

Family christmas parties

Today is my big family Purificacion christmas party!  I love this time of year since I get to see all my cousins and my nieces & nephews!  We had LOTS of food, played games, had our annual adult white elephant gift exchange and ate and drank into the night.  It's tiring but totally worth it.  I love my family and our traditions.  I'm so glad we keep them going strong.

Smart & Final

Sometimes you need A LOT of one ingredient but don't have the time or want to go to Costco and deal with the lines & the people.  Enter the smaller bulk store, Smart & Final.  There's one near my work which makes it even more convenient to stop by and pick up the items I need for baking or whatnot.  While they're prices are a little more than Costco per ounce it's worth it since I don't even want to imagine what Costco is going to be like these next few days.

classical music

I forgot about the classical music station 91.5 until my friends reminded me of it this past Saturday!  I've been listening to it during my commute since it's supposed to 'make my baby smarter.'  I don't know if it'll work or not but it does make her excited and I can feel her kicking a lot more than when I listen to Power106 or AMP radio!  It also has helped to calm me down and relax me on my way home from work.  This past week has been super busy at work so it's nice to let me mind unwind and enjoy the classical harmonies.

My lopsided belly

When the baby & belly were a little smaller it was very symmetrical and I grew evenly. Now that she's a little bigger sometimes I'll look down and one half of my belly will protrude out more than the other! I find it so funny and amusing. I'm so thankful that she's moving around and having a good time in there. And that I find my pregnancy funny.

my medication cart

The tablet I use to dispense at work is pretty heavy, coupled with baskets of meds and bags of syringes, it's started to get difficult to move everything from the office to the hallway where I dispense meds.  But today they found a cart for me to use!  It's metal so it's kind of loud but it can hold everything and I just have to push it into the hallway.  YAY!  My back hurts way less today despite how busy it's been.  Thank you cart!

Talking to my dad

It's already Dec 17 in the Philippines and so I called my dad to wish him a Happy 70th Birthday!!! He's been there since the beginning of September and sometimes I don't get to talk to him so it was extra nice being able to say Happy Birthday! and I love you!

Two-person decorating

Today I helped my mom decorate her Christmas tree! It went by pretty fast bc I would get the ornaments ready with the hangers and everything and she just kept hanging them on the tree one after the other. Since there were 2 of us stringing the lights and beads around the tree was pretty easy too! My mom still has the Christmas lights from my childhood that plays music & has the lights that blink to the music. We plugged them in and it made the Christmas season so real!! I'm so glad I helped decorate the tree with my Mom today :)

bar seating

6:30pm, Saturday night, CPK, Brea Mall.  Christmas season.  It's VERY crowded but thankfully there's seats at the bar for all 4 of us!  YAY!  Time to chow down on some salad & pizza!

Easy returns

I'm one of those people with buyers remorse so I frequently return things and its such a relief when the stores make it easy to return the items! Target, Nordstroms & Macy's are the prime examples.

a roof over my head and food in my stomach

I just finished reading this NY Times article about homeless children in NYC specifically following 1 girl and her family.  It's so heartbreaking the things that others have to go through and thankfully there was a happier ending to that little girl's story.  All in all, I can only be thankful each and every day that I get to go home to a roof over my head and that I can put food in my stomach.  I have been blessed with so many other things but I can't forget to be thankful for the small necessities of life.

Supplies at home

I wrapped Christmas gifts tonight!! I was worried I wouldn't have enough boxes or tissue paper or something but it all worked out (for now). I'm very thankful that I had all the gift wrapping supplies at home already and I could just focus and wrap each gift one after the other. Makes things so much easier! Yay for Christmas and gifts!!

other pregnant people

At one of the clinics there are 4 other pregnant people, 3 due within 2 weeks of me and 1 due in July later.  It's nice being able to talk to them about the random pains, symptoms and to see how everyone else is feeling and how they're doing.

space heaters

IT'S SO COLDDDDDDDD.  I guess they turned the heater off in the clinic over the weekend since it's super freezing in here today!  Thankfully we have a space heater for the office that's warming me up but when I walk around the clinic it's so cold!  I need socks!!

Amazon Prime

I've gotten so used to 2 day shipping with Amazon Prime that I'm forgetting what I've ordered on other websites bc they're taking more than 5 days to ship. Man! I've been spoiled! Thanks Yao for sharing your Prime account and thanks Amazon for the free 2 day shipping.

Shopping buddy

During Christmas there are so many options for gifts and so many people to buy gifts for that it can get overwhelming. That's why I like bringing a shopping buddy with me so she can help me make decisions, avoid over-spending and makes sure I buy all the gifts I need. Today my shopping buddy was my mom and I was super thankful since I finished all my Christmas shopping! Thanks Mom!!

Fridays

It's finally FRIDAY!  I don't know why this week I've felt more drained than usual but I'm super thankful that it's Friday and that I don't have work this weekend!

double gifts!

One of the patients gave me this tin of cookies today for Christmas (I
think). When I opened it I thought, "Awesome! I can hold my sewing
supplies in here when the cookies are gone!" SCORE!

I wonder if the patient knew she was giving me a double gift, she was
Filipina afterall...

salvageable dinners

I had such a fail tonight with dinner.  I was bringing dinner to my sister & Johnny's house in Fullerton and I was going to get super-yummy fish tacos from a place between our houses.  It's ~10 min from my house and ~20 min from their house.  I didn't want the tacos to get soggy so I asked for 'everything on the side' so we could build the tacos as we ate them BUT when I got to her house they had only given us fish+tortilla and the sauces!  We were missing the cabbage, tomatoes & onions!  SO SAD!  Thankfully we were able to run to Ralphs and buy the extra veggies.  While it wasn't exactly the same it was good enough and still yummy.  PHEW!  Good thing dinner wasn't a disaster!

unblocked sites at work

i don't want to jinx it but recently there have been a lot of unblocked sites at work!  I was able to browse target.com, amazon.com and some of my baking sites too!  It's weird but for now it's nice!

cyber Monday

Thanks to Cyber Monday and online shopping I did almost ALL of my Christmas shopping from the comfort of my couch!  And in less than 2 hours! GL shopping everyone!!

dinner with family

=( Yao officially moved out of the house.  It's sad yet understandable and he's not super far away so it's not the end of the world but it was still nice to have dinner all together last night.  Who knows when the next non-holiday family dinner will be!