2011!

It's 2011! A whole decade has passed and a new one starts today. There are many exciting events happening this upcoming year. I hope I can blog more this year as well as try to cook and bake more. Of course I hope to exercise more, photograph more and just enjoy life more. We shall see. ;P

Food Budget

I have a new goal! My new goal is to budget $ 200 monthly towards food just for me. I figured that if I spend about $ 5 a day on food times 7 days a week, I will spend about $ 35 weekly on food. That will be about $ 140 a month and then an extra $ 60 for special eating out.

2009 Home Renovation Ideas

The home renovation ideas or goals for 2009 include:

1. Putting in French doors between our dining room and living room. I would like someday to keep the entertainment in our living and dining rooms. I also want to create a side patio where we can step out through the French doors. Again I envision having BBQ's where our guests can hang out in the living room chatting or dine in our dining room or step out through the French doors to our backyard "oasis."


2. Replace the doors to our main entrance. I am thinking maybe Mahogany wood.


3. See picture below. I want to paint the two bookcases white and install doors for the bottom of the bookcases. Currently, the bottom of the bookcases can be open by pulling the top part up. I do not place anything in the bottom of the bookcases because it is such a pain. I would have to remove all the items on that bottom shelf in order to get to the compartment. I think that we will have to strip the laquer that is currently on the bookshelves and then paint. I also want to move the TV above the chimney. The husband and I have wanted to move the TV forever but have never progressed. It has always been just talk. Moving the TV will definitely free up that space!

Landlording

Hmm...although I have some reservations with discussing landlording or real estate investing, it is afterall my blog.

So here goes...we finally finished renovating our investment property. It has been a grueling experience with some headache and of course, its rewards. This project has been almost six months in the making and continues. Can you believe that? SIX MONTHS?!?!? I have to admit, I am very happy with the results. So let's go ahead and provide the pictures as pictures are so much more interesting right now.

Kitchen (Before) - The floor was disgusting as there were no tiles. The range was not hooked up, no range hood and look at at awful backsplash behind the sink. The sink was about 5 inches deep!

Kitchen (After) - New laminate cabinets - customized by the husband's dad (that was another headache that I will not go into details about). We added granite countertops. New range and range hood as well as new sink. New floor. I love the color of the cabinets and although the stainless steel appliance was more expensive - I think it is worth the money.

Bathroom (Before) - Disgusting floor and holes in the walls. Big window and white tiles midway up to the window makes the bathroom feel smaller. The vanity top did not flush with the cabinet again making the space smaller. Bathroom (After) - New wall tiles, new smaller window, new vanity and medicine cabinet, new toilet, new floor and new door. The smaller window and tiles up to the ceiling help to create the feeling that the bathroom is bigger. New vanity cabinet gives the feeling that there is more storage space.

Bedroom (before) - What were they thinking? The walls were blue and the ceiling was green. I guess they weren't thinking!Bedroom (After) - Ceiling is white (although you can't see it in this picture). New wall color called "lightweight beige." Does it look like beige? I don't think it does. It is more of a vanilla or cream color. New window for the bedroom as well as throughout the place. We decided to go with laminate instead of carpet. We hope the floors will last....

Inspired

I am inspired!

I have a new goal for 2009! It will be working on our backyard! I was looking at whiteonricecouple's blog and their garden is just perfect!! Now I just need to pull all the information together. This will definitely be continued work in progress.

Christmas Came and Went

CRY!!!

I return to work tomorrow. I can't believe Christmas came and went just like that! It's been so hectic for the past several weeks that I just have not had time to blog.

The little down time I do have is spent vegetating on the husband's futon watching anime. I am just exhausted and the work week is about to start again. The good news is that it's a short week. The bad news is that I think I will return tomorrow with a pile of work on my desk. :(

I feel as if I am moving 100 miles per hour nonstop. I think I need to take a break soon and give myself a little R&R. This remodeling stuff is just kicking my butt! The good thing is that it is hopefully wrapping up soon. The bad news - I have about a million other things I need to accomplish as well. I really can't blame anyone but myself. My biggest problem is learning to slow down...

I've been so busy that I haven't even had a chance to review 2008's accomplishments and areas for improvements as well as come up with 2009 resolutions. Cliche you say? Why yes it is but I think it's good to evaluate how the year went. How else can I improve and learn? It is self-evaluating. I think everyone should self-evaluate more often.

Anyway...that is all I want to post for now. I must return back to my contract work now.

Tea Time

I have a new quest. My new quest is to try out as many "high tea" or "afternoon tea" places as possible. :)

This was from Chado Tea Room in Pasadena, CA in September 2008. The scones and devonshire cream were to die for!
My tea drink: Jasmine iced tea. I know it's not English tea nor is it hot but I like it that way. Very refreshing! :)Christmas tree 2007. What can I say? It's the holiday season!
We will probably put up our tree sometime soon.

Life Update

Finally a chance to update my life. It has been a hectic few months….

• New 9 to 5. I made the decision at the beginning of October to find a new 9 to 5. I am happy to report back that I have made the switch! I originally thought it was going to take some time to find something different but lady luck was on my side as I was able to find a new place rather quickly. It is strange. I encountered different emotions as the final days approached. I must say that the emotions changed from being glad for a change in scenery to being sad for leaving the familiarity. My former co-workers were so sweet as I had free lunches practically every day of that final week. As one chapter closes, another one opens with new dreams and experiences…
• The husband and I are in the process of becoming landlords! This was a project in the making for four months going on five months. I won’t go into the mechanics but it was stressful! Imagine trying to close on a property and interviewing at the same time! Anyway, it is major fixer upper so we have been in the process of fixing up the property for the past several weeks.
• Well, we are finally in December! The holidays are quickly approaching and before long, 2009 will be here. It is time to reflect on 2008’s achievements and figure what are my 2009 goals. This blog is more than a year old now and I am glad I have kept it up (even if it’s not daily).
• Video selection = DONE!! I have completed selecting the songs and images! I plan to send off the information to my videographer tomorrow! Now everybody can stop bothering me about our wedding video!).

OK, that's all for now.

Whining Post

Hello Blog,

It's been a few weeks since I have posted anything. I have some events going on in my life that has kept me from blogging the past few weeks. On a brighter note, I am starting to see light at the end of tunnel.

Anyway - this is more of a whining post just because I have the need to whine right now. I need to cook more. Yes that is my whine but I need to find the inspiration to cook. I have not been able to find that inspiration. So strange. I like to think of myself as a person who can do almost anything if she puts her mind to it. Unfortunately - I cannot seem to put my mind to cooking. I literally draw a blank when it comes to deciding what to cook. Sad. I try to come up with a weekly menu but that provides little inspiration as well.

Why all of the sudden this urgency to cook more? Well....I've always felt the need to cook more just because it is probably healthier to eat the food I make. The reality and practice on my part completely sucks. The other reason is because I am tired of eating all the fast food joints out there. McDonald's, Carl's, In-N-Out, you name it and we probably eat those at least once a week. I am fortunate that I am not a balloon and that my recent bloodwork actually came back normal. Amazing.

Anyway, I will try to update my life again when I get a chance. Don't go anywhere now. ;P

Disney Half Marathon

I finished the Disneyland half marathon in 2 hours and 35 minutes without stopping and beat my previous time from the OC half marathon! What an accomplishment!

Quick Update

One word: Busy.

The husband and I are in the process of a BIG project! I am super excited and, no, it does not involve a baby. If anyone else ask me about kids, I will scream. If my parents or his parents mention kids again, I will scream.

I ran 10.5 miles over the weekend! Yahoo for me!

I still have not finished selecting pictures for our wedding video. Yes, I am lagging. Why am I lagging? It is the process of sitting in front of my computer, going through hundreds of pictures and determining what to include, renaming them for the videographer and selecting the songs that make this project unpleasant. I must, I must, I must get off my butt and do this before month end.

2008 Goals

I originally started a blog thinking that it would be nice to keep track of my life. Unfortunately, I am such a lazy blogger but since I am on a roll tonight, I will try to list some of my goals for 2008.

1) Donate my time to a charitable organization. I have not decided what type of organization but I am thinking of the following orgs: Animal humane, cancer cure or battered women's shelters. I am going to try to do some research this weekend to get the ball rolling on this goal.

2) Get updated on my continuing education. I am so behind and I probably have about 100 hours of CPE's that I must complete for my licensing. I already know the company I want to use for the CPE's but I'm being cheap right now and do not want to fork over the $ 450 to sign up for the courses. I really should just bite the bullet (is this the correct saying? I am so bad with these cliches) and pay the fee.

3) Spend more time with my family. Hmm....this will be a challenge. My parents have decided to work on Mondays now (their usual day off) so I am not sure when the "quality time" will happen. Maybe the weekends but it will be at least nice to keep to some commitment to see the parents.

4) Visit Japan!!! We are trying to plan a trip this April to celebrate our 1 year anniversary (wedding), 10 years anniversary (of being together) and my birthday! Yes...it all happened in the same month about a week a part. Even our engagement party happened in April. However, the husband actually purposed in December 2005.

5) Hmm....I really want to visit Canada and Arizona too but I am not sure about this as the more we spend on vacation, the less we save. (sighed) It's a give and take. I emailed the husband our 2008 budget and he told me that I did not have an allowance for vacationing! Haha...I told him that vacationing dips into savings....so if we take a vacation, we will just have to subtract from our savings.

6) Eat vegetarian once a month. This was my resolution for 2007 and I would say that I probably met it halfway, meaning I probably ate vegetarian about 6 times out of the whole year. I must try harder this year.

7) Learn to cook more. (Another sigh here.) I don't like cooking. It's such a pain to prepare the food and it takes about 20 minutes to devour the food but I will try. I love collecting cookbooks but I don't like cooking. I guess I like to "appear" like I cook. HAHAHAHAHA

8) Finish at least one book a month. Gone are the days when I would spend endless nights reading. Now I spend my time blog stalking but I can't say I really read the blogs all that much. The good news is that I met my quota for January (I must give myself a pat on the back). I finished The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Maybe I will write a review of what I think about the book one of these days.

9) Get my wedding coordinating certificate! Again...another education thing. I don't think this certificate will be too difficult to get. I am currently doing wedding coordinating for some brides and it will be nice to build a bigger portfolio of brides. This business will help keep my creative energy going! =) (Hmm...I must learn how to post some of those neat emoticons I see some other bloggers do.)

10) Learn more about photography. I will be starting a digital photography class at a junior college at the end of this month and I am hoping that I can take some nice and fancy pictures to share on this blog one of these days. (I've taken a black and white photography class but that was back in 2001 and that was with the regular SLR. Now technology has advanced to the DSLR. I purchased the Canon Rebel XTI last year and although I think it is a nice camera, I will have to admit that it is a beginner camera (good for someone like me who's a novice). I want to move onto the better camera (like the Canon 5D) but I refuse to spend the money until I know I am capability of taking nice pictures.

OK....I have some other personal goals but I think they are too personal to share on this blog so I will just keep those to myself for now. ;P