Labor of Love

There's something soothing and calm about cooking. I lost the joy and the passion for cooking a meal. I blame it on my fire alarm. Eating has become a necessity to survive, not an enjoyment of life. Angie and I talked about getting together to cook. I never had a cooking partner. I am usually the one to plan, buy, haul, prep, cook, and clean. I have a passion for cooking, but it's soo much work! I cook out of love and that is one way I express it. Couponing is the same thing. Saving money for my family and friends.

Jinhehehe: I got you some free Colgate total toothpaste. Starting my pile on baby liquids from Johnson and johnson. If you want baby aveeno or baby burt's bee. Your on your own.
Chocolateang: waiting on the aquafresh to go on sale.
Margret: welcome to go "shopping" in my room. I turned my bookcase into a stockpile shrine. The $2 off coupon for milk makes it .99 cents!

That and my love for shopping = winner!! Yes, I buy things I don't technically need, who wouldn't buy a big bottle of baby shampoo for $1? It's getting the trial size price for the real thing. No generics.

The theme for Sunday is slow cooking. We made a short rib roast with ratatouille, and Waldorf salad. I picked up coffee and went to her house. We made a list, and headed out to H-mart and Publix. I loved it! I always go grocery shopping by myself. We got to share some tips and things we love. This is what we brought.

Ang has an island in her kitchen, which was perfect for two people to work on either sides. Can see me in action!

Fresh cracked pepper is key! I haven't hung out with Ang in a really long time. I knew that I get along with her. She's a lot on the A type personality side, where I am all over the place. I love her as a sister and I can be myself. I think that is the key. We joke around that our common bond between us, is our parents beauty supply business. I got to know Ang more as we jumped from topic to topic. Not even resting at all! That reminds me, I figured out our next cooking theme. Cheap meal for under $10 for 4 people, shopping at Publix.

Can you figure out who the guest is??

Stick out your belly!

Friday night.

I emailed Jin during the daytime, to see if she was free to hang out with me. I went over to her condo after work, for a nice meal of Kimchee mando jigae and her mom's kalbi. Yum. I haven't seen Jin in like, two weeks? and her belly got significantly bigger! Boomer was also happy to see me, although she might have been more happier with my jeweled flats. After our meal, we decided to go shopping for Sharon's 100th day baby party. We scored some cute dresses and shoe socks. My car was parked in the shopping plaza, so I gave Jin her first ride in my minivan. We were going to go browse some books and eat some Pink berry. Heading over to the Border's plaza, the bookstore was closed for the day. Probably getting ready for the huge going out of buisness sale. Finally, we headed to Pink berry. Let me remind you, I don't love frozen yogurt. I eat it to eat it, but not my desert of choice. That's until I tried Pink berry. I love the original with the fruit toppings. Yum! I ask for a lychee sample, and order a small cup of original. Jin and I paid for our treats and went outside. There are only three tables. In my head, I was going to tell Jin to stick out her stomach, so maybe people would want to give up their seats? That's so wrong of me to think right? So, I kept that thought to myself. We headed to the left side of the building to do the whole lean and scoop. My bag was getting a little heavy on my shoulders, so I put it on the ground. We stood there for maybe one minute? I didn't want the baby momma to be standing, so I was determined to get a table. I turn around to see that a table was empty! I immediately, went out and told Jin to come with my bag. I rushed to sit down. Mind you, there was at least 10 people inside Pink berry, and I had to beat the crowd. Jin took her time and finally came over with her yogurt. She was complaining on how I made a pregnant women carry my bag and her stuff also. I was just looking out for her to sit! We were joking on how we both was thinking about how to use her belly to our advantage.

Going to think some more ways! hah.

Krazy Mi

I been driving my minivan around for about two weeks or so. My stepdad is sorta cute. He has the key to my car and I would go in and he would attached a mirror for me, or he would put an extra padding on the seat. It's sad to say this... but, I have finally gotten over the embarrassment of driving a minivan. I mean, yeah, people still crack jokes to me. Recently, my coworker (who is 42 years old), was outside. I was driving past her and she tells me to roll down my window. She says one comment.. "You look the same age as me!" I just laughed it off, but secretly it hurt a little. I think my best thing about me and the worst is that I am not sensitive. This is where my sarcasm starts. Neways, back to my point, the minivan is starting to grow on me. I am still not comfortable parking next to other cars. Exercise is good anyways. Who doesn't need to burn some extra calories? So what does a girl with a minivan really do?

START COUPONING!!

Yes, I have entered a world that I didn't think I would. I first got inspired with Esther Lee. She keeps referring everybody to go to thekrazycouponlady.com. Honestly, it looks jibberish and I couldn't understand why people would coupon. The other day I was at Target and this lady had a whole cart of stuff. I stood behind her, knowing that her transaction was going to take a long time, but too lazy to move. She gave a whole bunch of coupons at the end and her total went down by $40! That's so crazy. I barely bought anything and I spent $40. So this is my adventure of couponing. I bought a sunday newspaper, watched youtube videos, researched, and made a coupon binder. My first purchase...

CVS

Here's the breakdown:
5 Clorox, Sale for $2 each and if you bought over $15 you got $5 in Extra Bucks
2 Clorox clean up 2/$5, $15.00 - $5 Extra bucks = $10.00
1 Spin Brush toothbrush $6.49 - $2 coupon - $2 ExtraBucks = $2.49
1 Schick Shaver $8.79, $4 Extra Bucks + $2 coupon = $2.79
1 Lysol Hand Soap, +$12.99-$6.00 Extra bucks -$3.00 coupon = 3.99
1 Glide Floss, +3.49 - $2.50 Extra rewards bucks = $.99
1 Colgate Toothpaste, $2.99 - 2.00 Extra rewards bucks = $.99
1 Allegra, $6.99 - $6.99 extra rewards bucks - $2.00 coupon = -2.00
1 Bronzer (40% off. original $13.99) $8.49 - $3.00(Peelie coupon on the box, I asked the cashier to scan it for discount)= $5.49
TOTAL Overal: $93.65
What I really paid????? = $26.76

Before I know about couponing, I would have bought the bronzer and bleach full price, yet those two products alone is around $24. If you think about it, all the rest was free!! Pegs and I already have a plan to store all our items. Thinking ahead =)

Stay tuned for my Walgreens haul. I still haven't gotten the hang of it. Still learning the art of couponing =)

What makeup can do to you

Make up is so fascinating. I been collecting makeup for about a year now. Just fascinating on how it can change people. So here I am up at 2am. No where to go, and no one to see. But I wanted to see if I can pull this off. So, this is my "clubbing" look. Too bad I haven't gone over a year! Debating to go out with this look in public. I might shock some people. Guess I will have to do this in hiding for now.

Yesterday, out of nowhere I told Peggy that I wanted a tripod. She thought it was to take pictures. I told her that I wanted to make youtube videos. haha. The look on her face was shock. so funny. hehe

Gosh darn it. My smile looks fake again. Some of my eyeshadow is smudge on one eye. errrrrr.

This is the makeup that I used. I tried to use mostly drug store makeup. I think I used too many combinations. oops

My new ride...

My parents and I had a discussion about a car for the business. I told them to get a cargo van to use and I will drive my car until it dies. My 4Runner is a 1998 white limited model. Honestly.. I thought the car would out live me because of it's great condition. Yesterday, my mom tells me to get my things to go to Carmax. I am thinking.. oh. we decided to buy a cargo van. We arrive to the location to find out that they have picked out a White Chrysler Town and Country Mini Van. I was to give my car to someone else and "temporarily" use the minivan. I went hysterical. I mean... who drives a minivan!!! I went home to vent to Peggy about my car. I seriously wasn't going to tell anybody about my new ride. I could hear them all laughing at me.....

I woke up this morning a little bit more calm. I was starting to get used to driving a minivan. I was a little scarred about my image, who cares. The car drives. While I was pulling out of my apartment, I get a thought in my mind. I could probably use this van to give people rides. I got stuck in the light on buford highway. A black lady was standing there and knocks on my window. I pull the window down, and she asks me for a ride to the marta station. She missed the bus. Automatically, I think.. will she rob me? Do I have any valuables? I say yes, because I couldn't say no. She hops in the other side. I am freaking out by myself because I have never given a ride to a stranger before. It's a little awkward. I don't say anything. The only sound in the background is Hillsong's new cd, Aftermath. I notice her tapping her hands, going along the beat. Could she be a lover of Jesus? She breaks the silence by asking who the artist is. I tell her that it is Hillsong. She knows who the are, and it is one of her favorites. It was then we introduced ourselves and began talking about the music and where we live. It turns out that she lives two building down from me. We arrive at the Marta station and I gave her a copy of the cd for her to listen to. End of story.

Would she asked me for a ride if I was in my 4runner? Maybe this minivan is not so bad after all.

Stuck on 27

I have come to an age where I have more common with my mom than not. I have recently turned 29 this year. I don't feel 29. Couple of my friends went to a restaurant. I ordered their margaritas on the rocks as my drink choice. The waitress asked me for my age and I hesitated and blurted out 27..28? Kathleen was beside me and was like.. your 29. Eeeeek. I should know my own age, yet I don't. Was it because I didn't have a cake for my birthday that spells out Happy Birthday Young Mi with 29 candles? Where did the years go by?

Chatting with my mom the other day, we got to the topic of lotions. I have very dry skin, whereas my mom has oily skin. I was on the way to drop my mom off to work and go to Sephora to stock on my extra dry Clarins lotion and eye cream. My mom swears by Oil of Olay brand that it's better than the department store. We stopped by Sams to stock up on serum, cleaner, lotion, and anti age eye roller. The packets at Sams comes in two to three in bulk. I think she was more happy to share with our agingness than the actual product.

the bbc list..

i told you i like lists...

The BBC apparently believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here:

let's see if i completed at least 6 books.
Bold = read
itallics= on my shelf.... tbr

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare -
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy.
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth.
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo