plant stand with wheels

Alex bought me this platform with wheels for me to move the laundry without having to strain my back. Previously I've been dragging the baskets from the room to the garage and I know it's not good for the bottom of the basket but it would hurt my back if I tried to carry/lift it even with handles. Today I did all the laundry, folded it and even brought it back to the room and put it all away bc I had this thing! It was so easy to move everything and I felt so productive!

paper charts

Electronic charting is wonderful.  It makes SOAP notes easy to read, accessible by everyone, usually faster when documenting and portable.  But when the system is down everything stops...re-enter paper charts!  Bringing it back old school and back to the basics but they kept things going in the clinic today.

Very giving friends & family

THANK YOU to everyone who has sent us/Chloe a gift in the past few weeks!  We're so grateful and humbled by how much love people are showing us.

2nd dinner

Yesterday Alex & I were excited to try a restaurant called Hinoki & the Bird.  The executive chef was on Top Chef last year (Kuniko) and we heard good things about this place.  We battled traffic and opted to sit at the bar instead of outside where it was cold.  We ended up ordering the most common and recommended items but were very underwhelmed by them.  It was pretty disappointing and unfortunately for Alex, not enough food!  After paying the $9.50 for valet we headed back home but stopped in Little Tokyo for a 2nd dinner so Alex wasn't starving.  Thankfully there was easy parking, no wait and the food came out relatively quickly.

backseat naps

I don't know why but today I was super tired in the morning.  Luckily I had an extra long lunch break so I went to my car to take a nap.  Sometimes I try to sleep in the driver/passenger seat but what I realized is that my backseat is actually more comfortable now that I'm pregnant and should be sleeping on my side.  The grooves of the seats allow space for my shoulders & hips and my belly rests on the middle seat and is slightly supported.  It's so perfect!

large restaurants

Yesterday I had dim sum with my old co-residents and thankfully it wasn't super busy at the restaurant.  We ended up sitting and chatting for ~2hrs after we finished eating but there was always space in the restaurant so no one was making a fuss that we were just sitting there! PHEW!  That would have sucked.

dineLA and good friends

Sometimes the dineLA places can be a surprise in terms of service and food. Luckily last night the place we went to had good food but HORRIBLE service. I'm thankful that I was in good company and that we were having dinner with a good friend so it made the time lag between meals enjoyable and almost non-existent.

the pending weekend

I'm so excited it's Friday!!  I'm very thankful for this upcoming weekend since I don't have anything planned and nothing super pertinent to do!  Can't wait to relax!!

Free shipping

MANNNN I underestimated how much I rely on free shipping!  Good thing most places offer it and I reluctantly applied for the Target RED debit card so that I can get free shipping on target.com.  They got me!  I always thought about applying for it bc it's 5% off PLUS free shipping and it's a debit card so it doesn't affect my credit and it's better than the 2 or 3% back from my credit card.  At least that's my rationale and how I'm going to explain it to Alex!

Sewing machine

I'm starting to 'nest' which includes getting the nursery ready and washing all her clothes etc. In addition my mom and I bought super cute fabric for her future crib so I can make mattress covers! Today I busted out my sewing machine and made one mattress cover (for now), hemmed my lounge pants and fixed the hole in my shirt! I love having a sewing machine!! Hopefully I can sew the other 2 mattress covers and the nursing cover by this weekend.

Australian Open

When college football is over or if there aren't any exciting basketball games on it's nice to watch some tennis. I usually forget to watch the Australian Open bc it's so early in the year and I'm usually watching basketball during these months but since the Lakers are sucking it up I've turned to the Aussies.

MLK Jr.

Thank you Sir for your work against discrimination and equality for all. Also, thanks for the day off.

heating pad

My electric heating pad totally helped my back pain today! It's so awesome. I'm so glad we bought one at Target.

Cerritos

Today I had A LOT of errands to run and thankfully most of them could be completed in Cerritos!  I picked up my mom and we headed out.  We ended up going to Kohls, Trader Joe's, Nordstroms, Macy's, Express, Michael Kors, Forever 21 and lastly Target!  I returned some stuff and bought a few things but overall I only spent $8!  Good thing I was getting tired or else I could have done more damage.

Friday traffic

I spend a lot of time in the car so traffic is a large part of my life.  Today's traffic was pretty light and I'm thankful that I didn't have to use my Fastrak the whole way to get to work.

Happy Friday everyone!!!

Celebrations!

Celebrations give us time to get together, really appreciate each other and the things we've been blessed with.  Tonight we're celebrating Julie's acceptance to Western School of Pharmacy!!  While she may or may not go there, the acceptance signifies that her hard work thus far really did pay off!  I'm super excited and super proud of her.  We'll see where she ends up!

Quick recipes

While I was waiting for the chicken to cook I whipped up some lemon ricotta cookie dough! It worked out wonderfully in terms of time management bc the cookies are such a simple & straightforward recipe. It's so great when I can multitask and get dinner & dessert ready!

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- Cher

1 hr lunches

It was suggested that I walk more but it's been difficult bc it's always dark when I get home and the lack of street lights makes walking around the neighborhood alone pretty sketch.  So today, I wore my tennis shoes to work (ugly I know) but walked for the first 30 mins of my lunch then came back and ate my baon for the remaining 30 minutes.  It worked out and I feel good and I'm glad I went walking today.  The idea is to keep this up at least every Tu & Th when I'm at the Hollywood clinic.

supportive husbands

Breastfeeding is obviously a womens-only thing but supposedly it can be super frustrating and very draining (haha).  Today Alex came with me to the breastfeeding class at Kaiser and there were a lot of other husbands/guys there as well.  I'm thankful for all the husbands in the world who support their wives and their decision to breastfeed.

$5 movies

The Calexico movie theatre offers $5 movies all day everyday!! The movies are regular, new releases too! Today we watched Frozen with Mom, Liri & Julie all for only $25!!!



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- Cher

Chicken soup

When I was in pharmacy school I had a very severe case of TMJ. I ended up on a liquid diet for multiple months and drank A LOT of chicken soup. It sucked but I still like and appreciate chicken soup esp ones that are cooked with care and consideration. My MIL always cooks me soup when we come visit. Today's chicken soup reminded me of pharmacy school :)

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- Cher

hot pan de sal

Especially the yummy middle/inside part of the pan de sal.  MMMM reminds me of rainy days in Long Beach growing up.

Engaged students

Not students who are engaged (to other people), I mean students who are engaged in what we're doing at the clinic.  It's great bc they ask new questions and look at things in a new light.  They always bring a fresh energy and are excited to work and see patients.  It can be refreshing and also gives me more energy to continue the work that I do.

California cold weather

Negative degree weather scares me...even < 30 degree weather scares me!  I'm definitely thankful that California rarely gets colder than 30 degrees and almost never gets into the negatives!  I hope everyone in the country who's experiencing colder weather finds a way to stay warm & stay healthy!  Good luck!

Update: I just found out that parts of Minnesota are colder than Mars!!!  WHAAAAAT?!? I'm never travelling to Mars (if our technology gets us there).

pomegranate seeds

One of my coworkers shared her pomegranate with me today and I have to say that I'm having a great time chewing the seeds one by one (or two by two) and spitting out the middle part.  It keeps me occupied while I'm doing random desk work and is a great way to make them last longer!  It's wonderful!  Thanks Natalya!

Free day

Sometimes weekends are so busy I can't get much done and I put it off til the next weekend. But today I had nothing planned and Alex had work so I got to finish all the chores I had been putting off! It feels good to check off so many things on my 'to do' list.

Surrey pedalers

Today I went surrey-ing in Huntington Beach with my college roommates!! Well, they biked and Alex & I rented a surrey bc biking is not preggo friendly. What I learned is surreying is not very easy esp when you're short and that my friends/husband are awesome. They let me ride in the surrey without having to pedal so I wouldn't get too tired. I am super grateful bc I thought helping pedal was hard, I can only imagine how hard it is pedaling for the whole surrey!! Gee thanks guys!!!

getting home early

Today I got home in time to go running/walking around the neighborhood! Then I started the laundry and sadly took down our Christmas tree ornaments :( I even got to vacuum before Alex came home! It was a productive 2.5 hours.

weight-less exercises

Since it's been slow at work and I got tired of reading my book I decided to work out a little at work (maximize my time).  I'm glad I learned some pregnancy-friendly exercises that I can do while at work especially since none of them require weights!

YouTube, Netflix, Hulu & my kindle

Today I'm dispensing and with the start of Obamacare on 1/1/14, there are at least 50% less patients that I'll be dispensing to today.  Thankfully I have other things to distract me and mind my time until 6pm tonight.  Let's hope I don't go crazy!

calming hands

Alex usually has this calming effect on our baby, when he puts his hands on my belly she usually calms down and kicks less/softer.  Yesterday however, she was doing somersaults in there and was moving and kicking pretty hard even when Alex put his hands on my stomach.  He was so surprised when he felt how hard she was kicking!  After a while she did calm down a little but it was pretty intense for a while.  I'm thankful that overall Alex has a calming effect on the baby =)