I turned 30 yesterday and I thought that it would be good for me to get back to livejournal-ing. It really does give me time to wind down if I do it in the evening and it gives my brain a good exercise when I do it in the morning. In addition, I wanted to embark on my on Project 365 where I take a picture of something everyday and post it. At the end of the year, I can look back at all 365 pictures and see, basically, a year in pictures.

I don't imagine that I will be able to stick with this everyday, but you know. It is always worth a shot.

I'll try to make my first real post today. I have a birthday party today. I should be able to get ONE good picture from that right!

Ciao!

april 2009 started off pretty crazy portion of my life. so much so, that i felt i was neglecting my home life a lot in the sense that i was always thinking about work. i worked on the hardest most emotionally, physically and mentally challenging event to date. in doing so though, i have become a little stronger. as they say, "problems are opportunities in disguise". and this event was definitely an opportunity to grow and learn things that i hadn't yet learned.

the day after the event, jay and i hosted an easter party at our house. thank heavens for jay as he took total charge of the food, while i dealt with the eggs and the dye and the candy and the dessert. jay also organized a short but fun and easy easter egg hunt for the kids who cam to the house in the park nearby. some old friend and some new friend participated and i think the kids had a lot of fun.

jay and i had a date night the second week of april. rupert was visiting from hawaii and we met up with my brother, julie and all of their friend at cleo's in san bruno. after, we went home and watched a movie from netflix. my kind of date night!

marissa was in town last week and last week proved to be the most busy of all. on monday i took the day off to hang out with marissa. in the day time, her mom, marissa and i went to visit a hotel so she could get an idea of what the cost of having a hotel wedding are. man i have so many ideas for her wedding, but that is so besides the point, cause its not my wedding LOL. in the evening, dez marissa and i had dinner at nama sushi in daly city. so yummy.

on tuesday we had dinner at the in-laws since mitz was also visiting. we also had dinner there the friday before and on that saturday, LOL. wednesday i had en event and that went like gravy

thursday night was THE night of awesomeness. awesomeness = the taste of a kamikaze according to andy. anyway, jay and i met up with andy, nique, mitz and the bongster at double dutch to kick of bong's 21 bday celebration with happy hour. it was all hella fun and i was all hella faded by 6:30 PM in the evening. by dinner at we be sushi i was okay, but bong wasn't. it was really fun though. i haven't really had that much fun or that TYPE of fun on a thursday night since i was in college! obviously, i slept really well. oh yeah joanna joined us midway.

friday we had dinner one last time at the in-law's house since mitz was leaving.

on saturday we went with the sotto's to the bay area discovery museum. it was a really cute place with a lot of attention grabbing things for nathan and sophia to do. and really, anything that grabs the attention of a toddler is okay by me. the ba discovery museum is also totally beautiful scenery wise and there is a lot of play area. we ended the date with the sotto's with lunch at brother's. it was so good.

we had lunch with my parents on sunday and spend the rest of the gorgeous day running errands around town.

i am fully enjoying this gorgeous california weather. nathan helped us wash the cars yesterday and he got a little carried away with the hose.

this post is a little scattered, but that is how i feel right now. everything is organized chaos right now. i just am trying to feel centered. may check out a dance class or two soon.

ciao.

a quick post: june offered so many things for my little family and my lovely friends. so much work and outside of work fun! i wish i had time to recount and i will! . . . eventually. the biggest news of july is that jay and i purchased our home (we closed in june) and we are now living in our new nest and we are in love with our home. our baby. our zeus. one another. and life.

challenges will always come. but we will always overcome them. as jdb says, you have to turn within.

happy birthday dez! dirty 30 . . flirty 30.

ciao.

last thursday, the lights in my neighborhood went out and it was still wonderfully warm at 8:00 PM at night. nathan was asleep and the air was still. jay and i opened all the windows and doors and sat on our "stoop" and listened to our neighbors in their homes. the windows were open, what can i say. the power didn't go on until we went to sleep. looking back on thursday makes me miss my neighborhood already.

most people in my live know already, but jay and i are going to be moving within the next two months. and my brain is unconciously trying to lock in all the memories that we have made in this house we live in now. every night when i come home and we go through our evening routine, i try and remember what i will miss most about this house and think how we would do the same routine in a different home.

it is gonna be strange, but its gonna be great.

ciao.

i just finished cutting chayote in an effort to get ahead of the game for tomorrow's dinner. as a result, my fingers on my left hand feel very . . . uhh! so grody.

today is my final day of my maternity leave and though i am not feeling much of anything (sad, happy, anxious, nervous) i do feel that in the past four months i have been able to do so much with nathan, witness so many of his firsts and allow him to get to know me better. i hope these past four month have impacted him so, so that when i pick him up every day from him PoPo house, he will smile his silly smirk and kick his legs in recognition of me.

these are the things i will always remember.

places that nathan and i have traveled to:
- target
- serramonte
- stonestown
- hillsdale
- burlingame avenue
- stanford
- downtown SF
- valleyfair and santana row
- trader joes
- lucky's
- starbucks
- westlake village
- lunch with my friends and jake

things nathan has learned to do:
- smile
- laugh
- mini push up during tummy time
- roll over back to front
- roll over front to back
- suck all his fingers
- suck just his baby thumb
- "coo" to get your attention
- nap longer (phew!)
- pull out his nuk nuk and put it back in his mouth
- hold his bottle for the early part of feeding
- grab his stinky little feet
- scream

things i will miss when i go back to work:
- him looking up at me after he is done eating and smiling with a milk mustache (i don't even know how you get a milk mustache when you BF)
- laughing when i give him rasberries
- being the first one he sees when he wakes up from a nap
- being the only one who can put him to sleep without rocking him

it is definitely gonna suck, but worth knowing that my income will give him a better life.

thanks to daily candy weekly deal, i purchased my cute as a button pendant from white trash charms. i'm glad i waited!

same.  NKOTB.  i liked jonathan mcknight.  i don't know why.  NKOTB and the spice girls!  i loved Posh Spice!

so we are basically interviewing for another admin. and the whole process just sucks. i feel like my director is so one track minded and only thinking about one sole aspect of a job that have dozens of aspects and requires more than just a pretty face and knowing when to put on the kid gloves.

but this time i'm not making the decision. the decision is all on her. both my coworker and i have valid reservations about the two we have interviewed so far. i don't know. i think i can deal with one more interview and that's about it. and really, i'm only going to recommend. i'm not making the decision.

so as i was saying in my last entry i went to stonestown to pick up lunch and to see if my shoes were available for pick up. while i was waiting round i saw this super obnoxious looking young lady, bangs in face with sunglasses on inside. i was annoyed with her cause she was tryning to use her boyfriend discount when the lady at the counter specifically told her that they have a stricter policy now. so anyway, i was staring at her purse. it was a beautiful tan color shuttle handbag. upon closer inspection, i realized it was a vintage dooney & bourke british tan shuttle bag. at first i thought it would be an awesome color for spring/summer. and it goes with everything.

so when i got home i went on ebay and i found a good amount of them. and they were cheap. like $35.00 cheap. upon more vigorous searching i found another vintage d&b all british tan doctor's satchel bag. and i fought hard for it! but i got it! and i am really happy with my purchase. i think this is my bag for the year. all this was spurned by that obnoxious taste who probably got her bag at crossroads . . . or her mom. either way. thanks kid!

the one i wanted and the one i ended up getting. i'm excited for it to arrive already.




on other news i've kinda been on an ebay kick. i hate it when this happens. it all started when i was able to get spring waltz for 20.00 on ebay. this series is new so it costs about $90.00 from a regular retailer. i was pretty happy. than i was able to score a really nice of dark brown leather boots for $21.99 and THAN! i found a free people shirt i wanted last year for 15.00. i need to quit it now before jay gets sick of bringing packages home.

Ciao!

because everyone knows i'm a killjoy, jay and i scheduled an ultrasound to find out what gender this little person is inside of me. though i'm not ready to tell the world whether it is a boy or girl we are expecting, i really just wanted to tell you how beautiful this baby, and probably any baby is when you can see them in the womb.

my baby is no bigger than an avocado right now, but when we saw the baby on the screen during the ultrasound, it look like a full fledged person. it was waving it's little skinny arms around and kicking its little legs back and forth. SO CUTE!!!! our baby was also being a little modest and kept hiding it's genitalia from the radiologist, trying to close its legs or move its arm down. she has to rub my stomach a little before it finally resisted. it was one of the greatest 30 minutes i've ever experienced. and really you should have seen the smile on jay's face. . from ear to ear.

I'M TOO EXCITED! BABY COME NOW!!

anyway, this weekend was a little uneventful. on saturday, jackie and i worked until 1:00 pm. which to us, was great because it wasn't until 5:00. i was so tired by the time i got home. i just sat on my ass and read nineteen minutes by jodi picoult and finished it. by the time i was done, jay and i went to chinese new year party at my po po's house. not everyone was there, which kinda sucks cause it really, when my brother and i were their age, we were always all up in there, instead of hanging out with our friends. kids.

today we juts laid in bed for a really long time before readying ourselves to run our errands. jay took me to lunch at macaroni grill. i don't know wht i like that place so damn much. maybe its the ciabatta. then we went to our appointment. then we hit petsmart, target, bevmo and than finally albertsons. i'm about to cook dinner, but already have dusted around the house. i'm kinda tired. i could easily take a nap, but am debating.

time to cook dinner yo's!

CIAO.

I have three days to write about but thought ii should unveil this anyhoot.

!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!

I am trying to work on a whole trip journal, as a made a rough outline of the days spent with Jason on vacation, but in the meantime and while I wait for pictures to download, I might as well update my livejournal. I have been sourly ignoring it for too long. With the hectic last few weeks of work and the packing all my energy was put towards something else. Now, with my week off, I can just chill and recapture all the memories we have made in Japan and share them with ya'll.

Let me start off by saying that Jason and I have always wanted to go to Japan. From the instant we meet, we would always talk about "when we go to Japan". Given that my work gives its employees two weeks off during the winter and Jay's flexible "take it when I need it" vacation, we thought that this would be the best time to go. Other factors were put into the decisions. One being that my coworkers, Jackie and Kim, all went to such fabulous places for vacay this year, Singapore/Bali and Europe, respectively, we just had to go somewhere! And finally, I wanted to prove to myself that Jay and I could actually do this. Not just talk about it, but actually do it and be a part of Japan for a few days. We only wish is was a few weeks.

Jay and I totally fell in love with the place. It's practicality amid technology, its order among the chaos, the modernity set upon the history. We often would say, how are we gonna get to stay longer, i know we will write an email to our parents and say, "We lost our passports, send Zeusy while we await a new one". That should buy us a few more days, right? So here goes:

( our trip journal of japan )

going to stonestown: "do a good deed and tell no one about it".

this past week, i've followed many on my peers in turning my journal into a friends only journal. i've been writing in livejournal since 2003 and have always wanted to keep it public and open. however, that was when only a few people read it and they were all people i knew and all people that i did not mind knowing. nowadays, there are people who read my journal, that i don't think i've even meet in my entire life. it is a weird feeling to share my everyday experiences, emotions, and sometimes inner thoughts with the public. of course that is too expected as the world wide web is just that, world wide.

but considering the fact that i am recently married and hope to start a family one day, "me" in now an "us". and while the "me" part of me doesn't mind being shared with the world, i now have to think about "us" and the privacy that we need to have, more so when we start our own family with a child. i don't want the first people to know certain things about my life the entire world, i want it to be my friends and family who read my journal, not to be curious but because they genuinely care about the goings ons in my life.

in past times, i've asked readers to at least let me know who you are so i would feel more comfortable sharing, but now one has, and by the looks of my site meter, they are from all over the country and at time in an entirely different one all together.

hope ya'll understand.

in the words of heidi klum Auf Wiedersehen.

( a little survey never hurt nobody! )