Secret project revealed!

So I finally have some downtime to blog again! :) Nannying is getting easier which is good! So some bummer things happened in the last few days... I wasn't chosen for the pageant this year... I was really upset when it happened, but when I was able to talk to Nathan about it, I felt more comfortable with the situation. He always knows how to make me feel better and knows the right things to say. And I know that God has a bigger plan for me.

Home made guac! Thansk ralphs for 3/99cents avocado!

I can't help it, I am a prisoner to Lemonade

Tried a breakfast place in Santa Monica on Ocean Park  with Amy :) [Zabies]

Lentils with poached egg

Didn't make this but isn't this the cutest idea!!! Oreo cookie in the center

But other than that, life has been great. I get to cook and try new things, which keep me busy. Nathan is able to call every once in a while, which is nice, but I definitely miss him a lot. I just hate that he has to miss all these moments in my life, but as long as he's safe, my heart is sound.

This past weekend, my friend Amy took me out on an adventure around LA! It was wonderful because even though I've gone to school here for 4 years, I really am not exposed to ALL of LA, and now I have so many new places I want to visit with Nathan when he gets back! We went to this one cake/ice cream shop called "Milk" Here is the Yelp for it
I loveddd their grass hopper which was a mint macaron ice cream sandwich with mint chocolate chip ice cream, and dipped in chocolate. DELICIOUS! And their sorbets taste like real fruit, its insane! It was like literally eating a frozen mango. I can't wait to try more little cute places in LA!

The store front!

Mmmm... so many options! Like the famous blue velvet cake!

"grass hopper"

Not at MILK, but at a small bakery in Irvine called Bon epi :)

So I'm trying to, every time I go to Whole Foods to get something I've never tried before. Because we all know Whole Foods has some really funky stuff! So this time I tried this "Iced Bhakti Chai" and it was DELICIOUS!!! I was debating getting Kombucha, but I'm glad I decided on something new.

Alright, so I know it's a big secret, but I made Nathan this video. And although now that its on YouTube he may find out about it, but I actually don't mind too much because he'll probably see it faster that way instead of waiting a month to get the hard copy! So I filmed this when I was at a family friends party, and it was inspired by another girls video to her Marine. I had so much fun editing the film, I can't wait to make another one! It's not professional or anything, just on iMovie but I think it'll make him very happy :) So Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=727m3Bwa8fw&context=C4af0793ADvjVQa1PpcFPb8zsnCwWyT-UP73wmMuNVhAx_H-h9e-I%3D

Cooking & Nannying!

Oh my goodness, I can't even remember the last time I blogged! I've just been so incredibly busy with my first week of nannying. It's definitely a ton of fun (mostly because I get to work with an AMAZING family) but I am EXHAUSTED. But I got paid on Friday which was fantastic. I went out and bought my parents some gifts because for the first time in my life, I CAN! And it is seriously the best feeling ever. I might be getting something for myself very soon as well :)

Alright, so over the week, I tried making stuffed bell peppers. Here is the original recipe.
I used Turkey instead of beef, but my one regret it, I needed to get BIGGER peppers! I had so much left over stuffing!

Cut the peppers in half, get the seeds out 

Boil peppers for 6-8 minutes

turkey for the healthy folks

TJ's for the win

ingredients for the stuffing (brown rice, onion, tomato sauce, ground turkey)

 cooking the turkey

and then add everything!

stuff the peppers!

wish they were bigger!

stick in oven for 30-40 min

voila!

I'm in love with cooking right now! I'll post my lentils for another post :) Also, things are looking pretty good for my future. A possible career in wedding planning? We shall see! 

Nathan has been at his base for a good while now which is great cause I hear from him at least once every day or two. He tells me how on post, he talks to the boys about how much he misses me and loves me :) Isn't that a great thing to hear from your boyfriend? The care package making party will be in a week! I'm so excited, pictures to come for sure! :)

Okay, I'm exhausted! Hopefully I'll have some more energy next week to blog more!

Lots of love and Semper Fi <3

Fresh new beginnings!

Alright, so I got to spend a week of not being a real person and it was great! But now to start full-time nannying for a while to make some cash money!

Some great blessings have happened this week! First of all, I got an Assistant Coordinator job for a wedding coordinating company I've been interning for!!!! So fantastic. Part-time but at least I'm getting paid for what I do now :) And then I got to hear from Nathan, which was FANTASTIC. I cried hearing his voice haha.

This past Easter weekend I spent with Nathan's family and family friends, basically my 2nd family! I love their home parties so much. I mean first off, its getting to eat tons of delicious Filipino food, but I also get to hang out with such an amazing group of people. It made me miss him a lot just because it was the first time I was at one of these events with out Nathan. But it was fun nonetheless! I also got to work on a little project for Nathan. It's still a surprise but here's some cute photos from the party.

Now for some Spring time resolutions! I have been SLACKING at working out -__- and eating healthy! I've definitely been pigging out so I'm going to start eating healthier. Something I tried today was a tuna and Kale sautee. Delicious! Will post pictures soon but its healthy, cheap, and SO good! Going to start my workout tomorrow, go running or some sort of Cardio! I definitely need it. Just printed out the Group fitness schedule for the quarter, and since I work in the afternoons I'm going to have to wake up SUPER early to make the classes. -__- more motivations I suppose!

Can't wait to post the video soon! 

Lots of love and Semper Fi <3

Package #3 is on it's way!

The last few days I've just been relaxing with my family. Went shopping, bought a few dresses and ate some really yummy food! Sushi twice in one week, I am SPOILED! I sent out CP #3 today! He told me that you can pretty much send anything, so I added some things he can try to use in his Jetboil. I sent him some soup, some "just add water" mashed potatoes and some rice (he can get creative with that). And of course some yummy snacks, a magazine, and some more paper so he can write me more letters! hehe I got a phone call from him last night which was wonderful, I just love hearing his voice, especially his laugh. I LOVE making him laugh, it makes me feel like I'm helping ease the stress of being away for him.

I'm super cheesy... lol

I know he's going to like this!!!

Some filipino food at the mall! BBQ pork, chicken curry, pansit and fried rice

Abalone sushi. Crunchy! nom!

I also stopped by a used-book store today. I could literally spend hours just browsing through books. Not just the novels and stuff, but the self-help ones (because let's be real, it wouldn't hurt to read those!), cook books, do-it yourself, journals, planning books etc. Here are some interesting ones I found!

Veggie patties can do no wrong!

Doesn't every girl kind of wish to do this?! 

Read Skinny Bitch! It'll make you want to go Vegan...for a day. 

I ended up buying one book and a DVD. The book I bought is called the Blue Notebook. It's a novel about a 15 year old girl from rural India who is sold into sexual slavery by her father. It sounds great, and Khaled Hosseini had some good things to say about it and i LOVED The Kite Runner. It was only $1!!!And then I got a little something for Nay. So 3 years ago, on our first real date, we went to go see "Four Christmases"(which by the way if you haven't seen it, is HILARIOUS), and that was the night we both decided that we wanted to go to the snow together and he promised he'd take me. And I think that was the moment I knew I was going to fall in love with this guy. And whadddayaknow, I sure did! So I'll be sending those along with some other DVD's like my film I did! :)

Love this movie!

If you are reading this I just want to end with PLEASE PLEASE send your thoughts and prayers for the boys of 2/5 Echo Company. They'll really need it this week. <3

Lots of love & Semper Fi <3

Back from Spring Break, first day of real life...

Hello! It's been forever! Well there's been a lot of fun things happening in my life lately, but I guess i can start with Spring Break. I went on a Carnival Cruise with my sorority sisters to Ensenada, Mexico. It was an AMAZING time but I think that will be the last time I will be going on a cruise. haha. I just could not handle the rocking of the boat. I was talking to Nathan on the phone about it and he just said, "Well, I guess I can cross of cruise off of my list of things to do with you." haha sorry babe! But it was a great week of fun and drinking with my best friends in the world. I can't wait for annual trips with my girls once we all graduate!

Our first drinks on the cruise! Ole!

Trying some escargot!

lovely Emma being sugary and sneaky!

Vanessa, Me, Mori, Emma, and Lena at the Bufadora!

Serenading us with our stashes!

Delta Love!

So now that I'm back from my cruise and out of school, I have one week of "doing nothing" slash mostly updating my resume, cover letter, applying for a job... being a real person. *sigh* But something I've always been into that I decided to incorporate more into my blog is all the yummy foods I eat! I have an obsession with taking pictures of my food, and I know there definitely is a community of people who like looking at pictures of food haha. So here are are some yummy foods I've had lately:

Sushi at Koto! 

Chirashi

Indian food at a wedding! Macarons <3

"Yuzu-Omoi" Yuzu juice and Sake

Sushi Chef!

Oyster shooters: OMG I'm in love

"Ankimo" Monkfish liver

Yellowtail

Maguro

Uni

Softshell crab roll

Spring roll, Shrimp Vemicelli, and Fried Rice

Lemonade: Salmon, Ahi-tuna and cabbage, mango thing? haha

AMAZING dinner at Lemonade: Spicy Tuna sandwich, Kale salad, Lentils and apple salad

Take home box! Definitely coming back again.

Homemade Tempura! Ika, Oba, and Renkon

Homemade sashimi salad!

So I love food. haha But for my birthday, one of my best friends took me out to this restaurant in Brentwood called "Lemonade". Here's the Yelp reviews. It is DELICIOUS! and so healthy. You definitely walk out of there feeling very organic and you did your body good. :) And then the rest of the night I went out with my sisters and had a great time celebrating 22. :)

I'm starting to prep for the Tri Delta Care Package making party for the 2/5 boys! I'm so excited and from what I hear, that's ALL the boys have been excited about!! It makes me happy knowing that we're able to bring a little bit of sunshine into their lives. I'll be doing the party on April 23rd!

I also got news of the Mid-way party for the boys deployment!!! I AM SO SO SO excited!!! It's not till June, but it's still something to look forward to and it'll be like the Journey song. "Ohhhhhhh, we're half way thereeeee!"

Missing you love!

Now he can have multiple little pictures of us!

So I've been meaning to send Nathan a miniature wallet size picture for his front little pouch thing, but then his mom told me about MyPublisher. Seriously amazing! For less than $4.00 you can make a 20 page wallet size picture scrapbook! It's a really easy program, you just choose the pictures you want in the booklet, and the program basically does it all for you! So definitely a great idea for deployment Marines, because its small enough where they can carry it around anywhere!

The Hyatt hotel ballroom

"Enchanted Forest" theme :)

Wedding seasons back! That means assisting weddings again!! I had an amazing internship with a wedding coordinating company this past summer and now I get the lovely pleasure of working with them! I worked my first wedding for 2012 this past weekend and working these really gives me a lot of ideas for my own future wedding! And seeing the real thing is much more interesting than Pinterest! (Although, Pinterest is STILL amazing) I definitely want to save up for some sort of open bar and DEFINITELY hiring a videographer that does same-day edits. I watched their same-day edit for this wedding and I was going to cry! And I didn't even know the couple! Ah, weddings are spectacular.

Alright, enough is enough! Time to go look for a job!

Lots of love and Semper Fi <3