home office

today was my last day driving into the office, so from now on i'll be working at home. woohoo! anthony and i actually moved my two workstations last night, but i still went in today to clean my desk, say goodbye to my coworkers, and tie up some loose ends. it was kinda sad, but i already like my new setup.

brunch with mike

since mike was in town for a wedding this weekend, we met up for brunch at eat at rudy's this morning. he was only here for a day and a half, so i'm glad he was able to squeeze me into his tight schedule!

april birthdays

tonight we went out to celebrate the april birthday celebrants.. eva and jonah! we had AYCE korean bbq at moo dae po and then ended the night at the bowling alley. all the boys bowled while us girls sat back and watched. it was pretty chill but i had fun!

upgrade

we went back to MINI tonight to check out the countryman one more time. time to upgrade!

milestone

today was the last day of week 36. tomorrow reese is officially considered "full term." woohoo!

free cookies

man, people love preggos. in my experience, i've noticed that people are MUCH nicer to me now that i'm 35 pounds heavier!! haha. something about the belly just makes strangers friendlier. so today, while i was at z pizza using a "buy one, get one" coupon on my 2 slices of pizza, the lady helping me kept saying she felt bad that i was "wasting" my coupon on something so cheap. i told her i have a ton of those coupons so i didn't mind. while she was ringing me up, i noticed they had chocolate chip cookies (which i've been CRAVING but also avoiding), so i asked her to add one to my order. she said, "of course! in fact you can have two!" haha. i didn't mean for her to give it to me for free, but she doubled my request and then offered me something to drink, too! i declined the drink offer but then scarfed down those two cookies so quick! don't judge me. i only eat chocolate like twice a week now (as opposed to 5 times a day before i had a baby in me). reese is totally taking up all the space where the good stuff used to go! rude! jk.

for anyone wondering why i'm always talking about my size/weight.. you have to understand my past. my whole life people would tell me how disgustingly skinny i was. i've been told countless times that i looked like a skeleton, scolded for not eating enough, and even accused of having eating disorders. then after i got married, i gained 20 pounds. and all of a sudden, people started asking me why i was getting so FAT. wow. there has always been a lack of restraint when it comes to people talking to me about my weight. so is it any wonder i'm so obsessed? after getting "fat" i exercised myself down to a weight i was comfortable with, but obviously pregnancy has changed all that. as much as strangers love girls with round bellies, it's not very fun for the one who actually has to carry it around.

haha this post sounds so emo. and all because i got two free cookies that actually made me really happy! i just felt the need to explain because i automatically assume people are judging me for what i put in my mouth. leave me alone and let me enjoy! haha. =P

business

jenn and i had dinner at baby guppy's. there was no smiling or laughing allowed the whole night. just eat and leave. we mean business. haha yeah right.. imagine that.

creeper

everyday i take a close-up picture of my face. haha, that sounds super vain, but i'm really just trying to monitor how fat my face is getting. a swollen face is a warning sign of pre-eclampsia. yes, i'm a super paranoid pregnant lady. anyway, while i was taking my beauty shot today, someone snuck up behind me.

hospital tour

we did our walking tour of the maternity ward at torrance memorial today. now we know exactly where to go when reese decides to join the party. on friday, i was convinced that i was gonna go into labor yesterday. apparently i was wrong, but i have a feeling he's coming sooner than his due date. at least now we know the drill!

mystery photo

we had a pretty chill day. we hung out at home most of the afternoon and then went for a stroll at wilson park in the evening. okay actually, my stroll was 1.5 miles of walking, while anthony's was 10 miles of running. haha. i didn't feel like taking a picture today, but was surprised to find that this one mysteriously appeared on my phone. weird.

m+h special

this cup of heaven is not cheap, but it sure is tasty!

baby shower dinner

the carson high crew threw me yet another baby shower dinner tonight at back home in lahaina. i felt spoiled all over again! i had a lot of fun and enjoyed seeing everyone. i really should have babies more often. sike.

nap time

after dinner, anthony and i were supposed to "rest our eyes" for 30 minutes before heading over to wilson park to go walking. 30 minutes turned into 3 hours! woops! at least it was a nice nap.

chick fil a chicks

jenn and i had dinner at chick fil a. we didn't feel like even trying to look nice for today's pic, so here we are in disguise instead. haha.

speaking of not looking nice, i know my layout isn't loading correctly. there's a problem with where my files are stored. i'll fix it sooner or later!

more orchids

meet the newest ladies of the house. i am addicted to orchids, folks. i have different plants all around the house but orchids always make me the happiest. we got these last weekend when we stopped by the flower district in LA. only $10 for these huge babies! what a steal!

onesies

i had a bunch of errands to run today, and rianne came along for part of the ride. we stopped by carter's since it was right across the street from trader joes and she ended up buying reese these cute onesies! haha. thanks, cool auntie rianne!

paris baguette

with only a handful of weekends left before my due date, anthony and i have been trying to take advantage of our freedom by going on as many dates as possible. today our plan was to have dinner at kim loan and then get some beignets for dessert at downtown disney. i was really excited for dinner 'cause it's been a while since we ate there, but it turned out that they were closed for the day! ay yi yi! while we were trying to figure out where to eat instead, i decided to at least go check out paris baguette a couple doors down because i always see them around but have never actually gone inside. it ended up being super duper cute! it's set up similar to 85c where you start with a tray and pair of tongs and then grab all the goodies you want. i loved it! there were so many things i wanted to try, but i ended up with just a chocolate croissant, stick donut, and box of macarons for myself, and then a chocolate bread and sausage croissant for hungry anthony. and no, i did not eat it all in one sitting. christine mentioned before that my blog makes it seem like i eat really bad all the time. but of course i only take pictures of the fun stuff! i only had two macarons and the stick donut today, and am saving the chocolate croissant for tomorrow. just wanted to clarify. haha.

anyway, after anthony took this picture he said he wanted to retake it because the girl was standing in the background.. but she's my favorite part of the picture! i thought it was so cute that the workers were wearing striped shirts and berets! and the dining area was super cute, too! maybe i'm hyping it up too much, but everyone knows how much i love paris so this place was just right up my alley. i'm glad we accidentally stumbled upon it! (=

helmets

anthony and i went to target earlier to take care of some baby stuff. we returned a couple duplicate gifts and then bought a few of the remaining items on our registry. we were also looking for a "going home" outfit for reesey. anthony got a little too creative and then suggested that we buy one of these helmets to go along with the outfit. haha. he is quite excited about having an excuse to start shopping in the toy section again.

34 weeks

i still get surprised when i see myself in the mirror. anthony says i still look small, but i feel like there's a whale in my belly. we actually take these pics at the end of each week, so tomorrow already starts week 35. just over a month to go!

karina and geneva

gennie and i met up for dinner at panera bread after work. it was hilarious because the people there kept calling me karina! haha. what in the world?! have they been talking to my grandma or something? anyway, i had a lovely time catching up with gennie as usual!

date with jenn

i hung out with jenn after work today. we had dinner at chipotle and then got drinks at guppy's afterwards. even though we've seen each other a number of times the past few weeks, we've both been feeling so out of touch with each other. it's almost like i felt homesick without her! haha. but nothing a little one-on-one can't cure!

rice cereal

russy baby ate solids for the first time today. looks like he enjoyed it! he's such a cutie.

easter sunday

anthony's mom is in the holyland, and my mom is sick with the flu, so we ended up having a really simple easter, just us two. actually, we had a really filipino easter. haha. we went to mass at st. philomena because it was one of the few churches in the area that still had an evening mass. on our way out, anthony was like, "why are 99% of the people here filipino?" and then to celebrate the end of lent, anthony was excited to eat beef again. we went to max's in glendale for dinner so he could have some bistek. he was sad the other day when we were at ryan's parents' house and he couldn't eat any. so yeah, once again we were surrounded entirely by filipinos. haha. we act like we're not filipino ourselves. it was just funny.

i gave up negativity for lent, and even though it's already easter, i'm still going to try keeping my complaining/bitterness/road rage/crap talking to a minimum. of course i didn't go the entire 40 days without letting anything negative slip out of my mouth, but i think it helped me catch a lot of complaints in thought, and then make a conscious effort to keep them to myself rather than voice them out. i definitely need to focus more on patience and gratitude. that's actually the whole point of my blog as well.. to focus on optimism and point out at least one thing that makes me happy each day. after remembering what easter is really all about (Christ dying on the cross for our sake), God gave me another great reminder.

happy easter, everyone!!

'lette macarons

auntie cindy brought a whole platter of macarons to our baby shower last weekend, but they were such a hit that by the time anthony and i went to grab some for ourselves, they were all gone! haha. we went to 'lette in little tokyo earlier so i could finally have a taste. deeelicious!

good friday

anthony and i both got a day off from work in honor of good friday. we had all kinds of ideas of how we could spend our day, but we ended up just hanging out at home to relax most of the afternoon. it felt nice to rest my feet. and another thing i'm quite happy about is that my swelling has finally started to go down. this is the skinniest my ankles have been in weeks!

sinigang

for the first time throughout my entire pregnancy i am sick. luckily, it's just a cold, but my already clogged sinuses and heavy breathing are just exaggerated now. haha. how lovely. anyway, we had sinigang for dinner and it helped alleviate some of the symptoms.

another farewell

saying goodbye always stinks, but i'm looking forward to next time!

cutie pies

i went straight to carson after work to hang out with the cutie pies again. i wish they would just move back to california so we could see them whenever we want. i get so sad when i think about them leaving. ahh!! i wish we could squeeze them forever!

boiling crab

we all met up at boiling crab after work today for a delicious seafood dinner. we ordered lots of food but were able to finish almost all of it. so tasty!!

the spahhhh

ahhhhh. i had such a relaxing time at the spa today. for my Christmas present, anthony gave me a gift certificate to Burke Williams. he actually got me a package deal which included three different treatments, but since i'm so far along in my pregnancy, i wasn't allowed to do those anymore. i ended up using my credit on an 80 minute pregnancy massage and a manicure. they also gave me a complimentary pregnancy bath since i wasn't allowed to use any of the other spa facilities like the hot tub, steam room, etc. i took this picture in the vanity area right before i left, but i didn't even pretty myself up with all their nifty tools because my nails were still wet from my manicure. doh! haha. anyway, back when he gave me my gift, i knew i wanted to save it for the day after my baby shower 'cause i knew i was going to need it. and yes, what a perfect time it was! i really enjoyed my evening there! i think i even fell asleep twice during my massage because i caught myself making a snoring sound two times. the first time i was like, "did i really just make that sound?" and the second time i was like, "oh yes i did." i was just SO relaxed. reese, on the other hand, was wide awake during the first 20 minutes or so. haha. i thought it was funny that he was all spinning and dancing while i was laying there like a corpse. crazy baby.