My husband and I are going to a mini vacation in Orlando from this Friday – Sunday. I am sooooooooo excited. We’re going to shop Friday morning at the premium outlet (for my families) and then see a concert Friday night. On Saturday we are going to Walt Disney World. And then Sunday morning I’d like to get some more shopping done.
We will be staying at the Wyndham on I-drive. My husband bid for the hotel room today and he got it for $45 a night. Disney tickets are $65 a piece. I am just so excited that we’ll be able to go on a mini vacation without splurging so much. Some of our friends at work are going on vacations and they will be spending thousands. I gulped when I heard how much it cost them to vacation. We’re not poor but jeez, we just choose to travel smart.
I am so excited!!!!!!
oh and payday is this Thursday!! yay.
What a tiring day. Very productive, however. Today my husband found someone who was selling a vintage crib at a city about 45 minutes away from where we live. We called the seller and we went get it. It was only $30. It’s very pretty. A vintage crib with beautiful drawings on it. We need a baby mattress but I am going to wait. I looked online for baby mattresses and they are pretty expensive. A good one is probably around $100 – $125. I’ll put that on registry–LOL.
We also stopped by at this vintage shop and I bought a nice stack of used children’s books for $.25 a piece. I paid $6 for everything.
Other baby things we bought today: gently used cart placemat thingy ($10) and baby wipe warmer ($10). I bought them both at a second-hand shop for baby. They are still in good condition.
Tomorrow, I will be meeting with 2 people who are selling gently-used baby items.
My husband said he is excited for us to get pregnant. Well, I guess I am going to be the pregnant one but he will be as excited as I am going to be.
My husband and I went to Lowe’s to get some wires for the kitchen and some other stuff to finish closet projects. My husband finished installing my closet tonight. I have too much clothes!!!! I need to donate some of them for sure.
Oh yeah, my husband assembled the baby crib tonight. We put it in our master bedroom for now. That thing is huge. I didn’t think it was going to be that space eater. I am thinking our baby will be able to sleep in it for few years…Two years maybe?? I don’t know but I will keep the crib for our second (and maybe third!!) baby. It’s really cute. It’s not a convertible crib but it will do it for now. The crib breaks down pretty easily too.
Anyways. It is late now. I am going to sleep soon.
Another day I started early.
I woke up before 8AM. But I didn’t really get up until about 8.15AM. I went to catholic class at 9AM. Class started at 9.10AM. Another nice class. Today was our 3rd meeting and I enjoyed it so much. My husband joined me at church for the 10 o’clock mass. We enjoyed free donuts and coffee after mass. I know it’s kinda bad but I thought it was nice of the church to provide us with free donuts and coffee after each mass on Sundays.
We did laundry after church. We spent $7.50 today. Oh yeah, we had seafoods for lunch today. We had a buy-one-get-one-free coupon so we used that. Lunch for two was $16.00 (tips included). I had some leftover lunch so I will take that for lunch tomorrow.
After laundry, we went to Target to check out some of their Hallowen stuff. I didn’t buy anything for Halloween yet though. Maybe in a week or two. I am waiting for candy sales. I am sure stores will be having some serious sales soon. I am excited. I think Halloween is the start of the holiday season. Ok sure some people think Halloween is satan’s holiday but I don’t think that way. I didn’t grow up in this country and back home, we did not have Halloween. So to me, Halloween is just a fun day to give out candies to little kids. I always give out good candies too–chocolates mostly. I don’t give kids nasty stuff. I plan to spend between $25 – $30 on candies this Halloween. But if can get them on sales, I probably don’t have to spend as much. I am going to decorate the house again this Halloween. My husband is going to register our house as one of the safe houses in our neighborhood so kids can come and do trick-or-treating. It’ll be fun.
Back to today’s activities. After Target, we went grocery at Publix. I spent about $50 on grocery today. Got a lot of buy-one-get-one-free deals. We bought meats (pork chop, T-bone steak, and ground beef)for my husband to eat for the week, olive oils, spinach, sweet teas, dog bones, gallon water, fruits, dry pasta, and 2 pieces of tilapia fish. I made my husband pasta with meat sauce for dinner tonight. There were enough to make 2 dinners and 2 lunches. I baked 4 garlic breads as well–frozen. Tomorrow, I am thinking I can grill the steak for my husband. I have some fresh green beans I need to cook tomorrow. And some spinach too. Yum.
Ok. I am so tired now. I cannot wait until our house is completely done so we can relax on weekends at home. Doing nothing. Nothing. Just relaxing with the dogs…..
So I decided to make a little treat for my American-born Korean husband. I made him some Scallion pancake. I saw the recipe in a cooking book I borrowed from the library yesterday. He said he used to eat them a lot when he lived with his Korean family. I ate it several times as well during various visits to his grandma’s house. My Scallion Pancake turned out well. It’s so good eaten with the soy dipping sauce (I mixed it with little bit of sugar and chopped scallions). So I have everything ready downstairs and I am just waiting fo rmy husband to come home from his bicycling activity. I hope he likes my scallion pancakes.
For dinner tonight, I have several dinners made ahead of time yesterday so we should be good until the end of this week.
Something bothers me a little bit. When I took my little sister to the mall (Build A Bear store to be exact) last weekend, she told me that her mom told her to tell me that I could buy her (my little sister) a DS. At first I didn’t know what a DS was. I asked her what it was and she explained to me. A Nintendo DS. The thing that surprised me was she actually had the courage to ask something.
I took her to Walt Disney World last month. It cost me some couple hundreds dollars to do that. I should have done that as part of her birthday present. Anyways. Now I feel that she’s taken advantage of me–well, a little bit. Sure she is only 10 but I just don’t like the idea how she started asking me to buy her stuff. If I was her close relative, sure maybe I would understand more but I am not. I am a volunteer.
I didn’t know how to react to some of her actions sometimes. I am not used to it. I am not used to having someone to ask me for something. And I am just so used to get everything for myself. Ok yeah, I always provide my husband with a mile long list of things I want for Christmas every year but this is to my husband and he knows I can get those with my own money if I want it to. My point is, I wanted to explain to my little sister that money is not everything; that it has to be earned; that there are way many more important things she can have other than tangible possesions. I was having a hard time doing this. So I joked to her by saying, I want a DS too!! And I left the conversation right there. I didn’t mention or ask her about her wish anymore that day. Next birthday, we’re going to a waterpark. Or maybe I’ll just get her an outfit. Or $20 gift card to a bookstore. But you know what though, considering what she has now and what I had when I was her age…. she has it tougher than me.
I remember when I was young (lived with my parents), I would get anything I wanted, I mean anything!!!–from toys to whatever. But this does not mean that I will spoil my little sister. I will be generous but not overly generous that she takes advantage of me. When she turns 18, I’d like to give her a special gift. This is also the age when we won’t be Big Sister Little Sister anymore. For now, I’ll just try to be the best Big Sister she’ll always remember. And my hope is that oneday when she is old enough, she’ll continue the circle by being a Big sister to someone else.
Time to get serious in getting fit.
I used to wear size 0 or 2. I’m almost 5′8″ so yeah I was pretty skinny. Now I wear size 6 – 8 depending on the clothing brand. Same thing remains the same: I still love to shop for clothes. Growing up, my mom would always take me to clothes shopping with her. I remember looking at her armoires filled with beautiful clothes. She loves to shop. She even has her own tailor. For special occasions such as birthdays and weddings, she would have a dress made for her. She’d wear it once only.
I think I am inheriting my mom’s love for shopping. The only difference is she has lots more money that I do. I am always on budget so clothes shopping can be a challenge sometimes.
I love to look put-together. It bugs me looking at people who look slouchy. I have no special budget to buy clothes but I follow fashion (I am a part-time model) and I know where to get those designer-look clothes at fraction of the costs. I am thankful for my figure–it makes it easier for those very affordable clothes to look like a million dollars when I wear them.
Tonight, I realized that I have to do something about my figure. I cannot keep on gaining weight. I’d like to go back to my former size 0 or 2. It used to be whenever I went to a clothing store, the salesgirls wouldn’t need to ask me which size I needed. They would just grabbed the smallest size they had for me. Now, they have to ask me. Quite a shock for me. For sometimes, I was in denial with my size change. There was a time where I did not want to buy clothes in sizes bigger than 0 or 2. Althought I knew I no longer fit in size 0 or 2. I would forced my body to fit into my old clothes. They were not comfortable and they made me looked fat although I was only size 4!!!!!!!! I wore the wrong size that’s why. Slowly, I decided to shop for bigger size; size 4. And then recently I had to start shopping for another bigger size: size 6 or 8. But this is it. I need to do something about it. I need to lose some of my weight. Starting tomorrow I am going to reduce what I eat and start exercising–which I am not a big fan of.
Wish me luck.
The internet at home was not working for 2 evenings. It was a bummer but we survived.
I am excited that this is a long weekend. We have Labor Day on Monday so no work for me. Wooohoo. I get to spend an extra day with my husband.
One of our neighbors is having an estate sale. I bought a huge beautiful Venetian mirror for $160. It’s huge. And very, very pretty. I plan on displaying it in the entrance hallway. Today we went to the estate sale again and wanted to get a lovely vintage sofa but we decided to wait tomorrow morning when they open at 8 to see if it’s still there. They will be offering 50% off tomorrow.
Today my husband and I had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. It was pleasant as always. After that we went to Ross. Then we went to the mall to return something at Belk. We ended our trip by going to Babies R Us. We just looked around. I saw the baby bedroom set that I like. I sure hope to purchase them one day. We both were surprised by the price of some of those things they sell. Well, I guess this is why we need to start saving agressively!!!
Now I am at home. Relaxing. I am getting tired and ready for bed. I bought a beatiful bedding set at Ross. It was only $24.99. Can you believe it??? I love it. I’ll wash them tomorrow so I can use it for the weekend.
Ok. Time to sleep.
Today was great. We went to church at 10AM. Then my husband drove me to Walgreens to pick up my prescription (for vertigo–I had vertigo on Friday morning – afternoon). Then we did laundry. We were done doing laundry close to 1.30PM. I made an appointment to do an activity with my little sister at 2PM; we were going to the roller skate place together. My husband decided that he wanted to come. So all three of us went.
We arrived at my little sister’s house at 2PM. Since we hadn’t had breakfast/lunch we decided to get something to eat first. We went to Bob Evans ($30–including tips). Then off we went to the roller skate place. It cost $18 for all three of us to go. We were there for about an hour and a half. It was fun. My little sister fell down 7 times. I didn’t fall down but I didn’t too well. I know how to roller skate but last time I skate was when I was 15 maybe. We had so much fun!!!!
We dropped off my little sister back at her house close to 5PM. Then my husband took me grocery shopping. We spent $85. This is grocery for a week. Kind of on the expensive side. We bought lots of fresh produce and fruits. We’re eating healthy, remember! I could have bought less expensive fruits I guess. But I love Pluots and they had them for $2.49/lb so I bought 2. They were huge though. Then I bought about almost 2 lbs of plums 9$1.69/lb). Cauliflower was on sale 2 for $4 so I bought 1. I grabbed 2 containers of grape tomatoes for $5. A 5-lb bag of red potatoes was $2.99. Dannon yogurt was on sale $.25 each so we bought 12 of them. My husband bought a box of granola cereals to go with his yogurts. Eggs were not on sale but I need them so I bought one (12) for $2.49. I saw a 2-lb container of ripe strawberries for $4.99 so I got one. We actually ate it for dessert after dinner tonight and they were so sweet. I packed some for my husband’s lunch dessert tomorrow. We got some bananas too. The rest are a bag of frozen peas, tortillas to make quesadillas, ground beef, pork steaks, chicken breast fillets (meats are for my husband), one box of stuffing mix, 2 packets of sauce mixes, 2 jars of pasta sauce, fresh green beans, and 6 gallons of water.
For dinner tonight, I made myself cheese quesadillas. For my husband I made him egg noodles topped with meat sauce. Same menu for lunch tomorrow.
Tomorrow for dinner, depending on what my husband wants, I plan to make him pork chop dinner with sides of roasted garlic potatoes and sautee green beans or chicken quesadilla with side of sautee green beans and spinach. Ok I just asked my husband and he wants the pork chop dinner. I am going to make white beans and tuna salad. I can probably eat that with left over egg noodles I made tonight. I can have the same sides my husband has for dinner since I usually make them vegetarian.
Anyways. This is my Sunday. I had a busy Sunday but it was fun. Before I go to bed, I am going to make a list of what needs to be bought to prepare for the baby’s arrival.
We finished day 2 in Savannah with great success. We started the day with a sweet visit to Back in the Day Bakery (www.backinthedaybakery.com). Tell me what a better way to start your day than having a cupcake as breakfast? I had a Vanilla cupcake with pink icing (it’s basically vanilla on vanilla). My husband got the blue one. We sat on our little table next to the window. I loved every moment I spent in that place. I savored every bite of that cute little cupcake. I even had the courage to order 3 more!!!!!!! to-go of course. I had the chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing, coconut-lemon cupcake, and another traditional vanilla on vanilla cupcake. I left that place happy!!!
We then head off to downtown. The intention was to have small lunch at Paula Deen’s restaurant The Lady and Sons (www.ladyandsons.com) . I saw the menu online the night before and I already knew what I wanted–crabcake. That was it. I love crabcakes so every time I go to a restaurant that serves crabcakes, I always try one. Anyways. After several rounds trying to find a parking spot, we finally parked somewhere and walked to the restaurant. We saw a line–wasn’t that long. But it never moved. So I said to my husband, let me go to the gift shop (there is a gift shop next to Paula Deen’s restaurant–it’s owned by Paula). I was at the store for about 5 mins when my husband came up to me and said, we can’t lunch at the restaurant. I asked why. He said because we didn’t have a reservation. Ah what a bummer. We left the place.
I decided to visit a kitchen store called Kitchen on the Square. It is located not too far from Paula’s restaurant. I bought all sorts of cookie cutters, pie weigh, and some scoopers. I really took my time at the store. I just loved it.
Well, by the time I finished shopping, we felt kinda hungry. So we decided to eat at a small restaurant called Zunzi’s (http://www.zunzis.com/). We’ve always gone there everytime we visit Savannah. They have vegetarian-friendly menus. I orderd my favorite Portabello Mushroom’s sub (served on a baguette). Oh it is sooooo yummmyyy!!!! And it is HUGE!!!! My husband had the Beef Curry served on white rice. We both ordered African sweet tea (one of the owners is from South Africa). It was the perfect lunch. Affordable and very very good for your tummy.
After that great lunch, we decided to do some window shopping. We walked around downtown Savannah (Broughton street). I bought an antique gilded mirror ($60); bought two lottery tickets ($2); bought one supersize + super cute ring ($32); and bought 2 vintage wire caddies–different sizes and style ($21 and $10). I saw some cute clothes but they were too expensive so I didn’t buy them.
We also went window shopping on Whitaker street. We visited so many great furniture shops on that street. I found a cute little boutique called Custard (www.custard.com) that sells chic clothes mostly for under $100. The owner showed me a rack that filled with 40% off clothes. I found several pieces I loved and decided to buy 3 of them ($182).
It was already past 5 when we finished shopping. We deciced to go back to our hotel to walk our dogs. We spent few hours with the dogs before we headed back to downtown (River street) area to grab dinner. That evening we went to have dinner at Tubby’s Tank House (www.tubbystankhouse.com) on River street. The lines was long so we had to wait about 45 minutes. We walked along the River street to kill time. I bought some sweet goodies at The Peanut Shop (www.thepeanutshop). We visited many other shops as well. There were so many local artists showing off their talents that night and we truly enjoyed that. We had a good time that evening!!!
We left Savannah the day after in the morning. Before we left, we grabbed some breakfast. I ordered a to-go breakfast from the Firefly cafe (www.fireflycafega.com) –spinach and crab omelette and strawberry+banana smoothie. Breakfast was good but a bit pricey. My husband had some Gyro at a Greek restaurant on River Street. It was good–and affordable– he said.
While we were driving, we passed a Dog park!!! We decided to stop by. The dog park (www.savannahdogpark.com) is not a public dog park so you would actually have to have a membership but since we were visiting, they let us stay. The dogs loved it. They were running around–happy. We stayed there about an hour and a half. We continued our trip to the Forsyth park. We put the dogs on their leash and we walked around the park with them. Fun!!!!!!!! They enjoyed meeting new people. They sniffed and wagged their tails to everyone they met.
When we left Savannah, we felt so tired but very happy indeed. Our dogs were too tired to do anything else but sleep in the car. What a fun weekend we had. I enjoyed this trip as much as my other trips to this city. Savannah will always be in my heart.
I cannot wait to go back there again in the fall….
My husband and I (and the dogs) are visiting Savannah again this weekend from Friday – Sunday. We arrived today around 3PM. We’re lucky we don’t live too far from Savannah. This is our 4th visit to Savannah in almost a year and a half. I am so in love with Savannah. If I won the lottery this weekend, I am going to quit my job on Monday; buy a house in Savannah and move here!!!!!
Savannah is a charming little city. It is packed with histories and old homes–just the way my husband and I like from a city. Although I am only 30 and my husband 28, we both have true love for old homes–Victorian to be exact.
Walking through the streets of Savannah, I always feel some kind of dejavu-like-moments. Like I belong here…my past was here…
I just love it here.
Tonight we went walking down the Riverfront area. We had dinner at Huey’s. I had my favorite Shrimp and Grits while my husband ordered Crawfish Ettoufee. Sure, they are not originally from Savannah (more like Louisiana origin) but they’re still representing the Southern foods strereotype. And of course, we always drink Sweet Tea with our meals when dining out.
Tomorrow morning, we are going to visit my favorite bakery, Back in The Day Bakery (http://www.backinthedaybakery.com/) on Bull Street, to get some yummy cupcakes. The owner has been featured on Paula Deen’s show. Paula Deen is also from Savannah. We plan to grab some lunch tomorrow at Paula Deen’s restaurant, The Lady and Sons (http://www.ladyandsons.com/). Although we have been to Savannah several times, we haven’t had the chance to eat at the restaurant. People say it’s not so good but I love Paula Deen so I’d like to try her restaurant and be the judge myself!! And not far from Paula’s restaurant, there is a kitchen shop I love to visit (and I visit this place everytime I go to Savannah!!), Kitchens on The Square (http://www.kitchensonthesquare.com/). If you love to cook, this place is a must to visit!! Last time I went there, I bought a bunch of cookie cutters in different shapes and sizes!! Very cute.
Anyways. That’s my report from Savannah for now. I will be posting some pics and more stories tomorrow. I love Savannah!!!!
