Wednesday, June 24, 2009  
i'm not sure that i've ever done this...blog at work (at this job). it's definitely an indication of the change that is about to come. things are winding down...

this morning i had a hard time getting out of bed. i've been so exhausted. i could blame it on the fact that i'm in my 9th month of pregnancy, but the reality is that i've been staying up way too late. (darn, bejeweled blitz! i could play that game for hours.) i lay in bed, considered calling in sick and watched isaiah sleep. he usually makes his way into our bed around 7 a.m. only to sleep a little bit more next to me. eric and isaiah were both wearing blue shorts and were sleeping in the exact same position. what a funny pair of daddy and son. i can't believe how big isaiah is. my first baby. he's going to be 5 years old next month and will start kindergarten the month after that. where did the time go? i love him SO much and get sad that the years have gone by so fast.

i told myself that i need to remember this feeling - the feeling of being so overwhelmed by how much i love the boys and how very important it is to devote quality time and attention to each one of them. i want them to know how loved they are. i think they know that we love them, but, at least for me, i know that i have fallen short of really letting them know *how much* i love them. work is a big part of that. i'm looking forward to july 10. i just need to remember this feeling.


[ nanaba | 9:58 AM | | ]



Monday, June 08, 2009  
t-minus one month and 2 days...


[ nanaba | 1:50 PM | | ]



Thursday, April 30, 2009  
i have a relay in three days. for whatever reason, i have not been overcome by a wave of anxiety and panic. it could be that i don't care...that's probably only a tiny bit true. i think it's more that i can see the light at the end of the tunnel.


[ nanaba | 1:03 AM | | ]



Sunday, March 01, 2009  
what do you name a 4th baby boy agustin????


[ nanaba | 10:06 PM | | ]



Monday, February 16, 2009  
if there was ever a time that i was getting my butt kicked, it was nothing compared to 2009.

we are six weeks into the new year, and i'm fried. physically, i can't find enough time in the day. emotionally, i can't divide myself into more pieces. the work-life balance is not so balanced. i'm feeling a lot of sadness because work pulls me away from eric and the boys a lot these days. i knew going to work at this organization that it would ask a lot of me, but we were prepared for that. with two kids, it wasn't asking too much. with three, it's a stretch (and it's hard!). with four...i don't know, man...

things are different. i would love to be that person that could do it all - have a great, challenging career that i love, have a great marriage, and raise four young children. but i'm realizing that you can't have it all - at least not with one or two of those things dropping. not as a woman, and not in my line of work. and i'm okay with that. i can't be that mom that misses huge chunks of her babies growing up because other people at/through work - people not as important to her as her own family - came first. i also can't be that wife that keeps asking her husband to cover for her part of the child rearing and is too exhausted to hang out or even have grown up conversations that don't revolve around child care.

if anyone ever figures out how to have it all, let me know.

one day, i will be able to leave work promptly at 5 p.m. (or earlier!) and not feel bad about leaving things unfinished. one day, i will work within 10 miles of my house. one day, i will be exhausted only because i spent the day running around the park with the boys. one day....soon?


[ nanaba | 10:34 PM | | ]



Wednesday, December 17, 2008  
i've been collecting the state quarters for 10 years. in just a couple weeks, all of the state quarters will have been issued. it's the only thing i've ever collected. i have them all (thanks to help from connie and donna who always kept me in mind whenever they got change)...except the non-contiguous states. i just need alaska and hawaii and my collection will be complete!


[ nanaba | 6:20 PM | | ]



Wednesday, October 22, 2008  
my scramble skills are deteriorating. i randomly played several games of scramble with one of my high school classmates. we weren't really friends in high school yet we were facebook scramble buddies. i ran into her at the finish line of our breast cancer walk last saturday. it's funny how much closer facebook makes people to one another.

the three-hour time difference between michigan and california makes it impossible to talk to my dinner buddy. has it been a month that we've been trading voicemails and text messages?

i found my halloween bowl over the weekend and decided to buy all kinds of chocolate to fill it up. hersheys, twix, kit kats. all gratifying when seeking a true chocolate fix. eric gave up chocolate and fried foods again. it was probably insensitive of me to not get any non-chocolate candy for the bowl. but who wants sweet-tart scented hershey bars? not me.

i've made the switch to diet cola. i can't do diet anything else yet. just the cola. other than red pop, i really only like coke anyway (and pepsi if coke is not available). when i was younger, i categorized myself as a pepsi drinker. part of me wanted to be supportive of tito henry's career (that would be jeff's dad who retired from pepsi). another part of me just like it more because that's what my dad always bought. i didn't think i could tell the difference until i took a taste test at the showcase cinema in ann arbor when i was in college.

such random thoughts tonight. i'm letting my brain veg because i've been thinking really hard lately at work. it needs a rest.


[ nanaba | 10:07 PM | | ]



Friday, September 12, 2008  
there is no time to blog. only time to play scramble.


[ nanaba | 9:38 PM | | ]



Thursday, July 17, 2008  
i got the call this morning at 10 a.m. it was eric. "The United States' chances of winning gold in women's soccer at next month's Olympics were dealt a major blow Wednesday when striker Abby Wambach suffered a broken leg in a friendly against Brazil."

:O!!!!!!!!!!

i love love love the u.s. women's soccer teams so this news is so upsetting. wambach is out for at least 12 weeks...meaning she's missing the olympics. sad sad news. :(


[ nanaba | 11:52 AM | | ]



Sunday, July 13, 2008  
summer is half over. it has been eventful so far...isaiah finishing his first year of school, road trip to jersey for a wedding, road trip to cheboygan to join the guevaras for their first weekend in their new home, relay after relay, ryan's surprise party (er, parties), new babies, plenty of hanging out - especially with rob, ellen, noah, and ellie....

the rest of the summer is going to fly by. we have trips to new york and connecticut (possibly virginia?) planned, a visit from nj cousins, ethan's birthday, isaiah's birthday...and all i can think about is when is the next chance we'll get to go back up to the wonderful land of cheboygan? the land where clean shallow lake water extends for days into the lake, where there are so many fireworks displays that you actually tire of watching them, where the clear night sky reveals more stars than you ever thought could exist, where big ice cream cones cost $1.35, where kites fly on their own and our toddlers can catch (many) fish by just dropping their lines into the river bank behind the guevaras' house. the wonderful land of cheboygan. :)

****

i am emotionally ready to get back to soccer fit. not that i was ever soccer fit, but at least to where i can run around enough to be a productive defensive player. eric thought he could get me to play mid. yeah right! the goal is to be soccer fit for outdoor 2009. stretch goal is for the indoor session right before outdoor starts. yikes! i haven't played since isaiah was 6 months old. four years. man. i'll have to be creative with how i can squeeze in the time. wish me luck!


[ nanaba | 11:31 PM | | ]



Friday, June 20, 2008  
i'm still recovering from our trip to new jersey last weekend. we drove. the 10 hour trip to new jersey turned into a 20 hour one because we decided to be smart and crash in a hotel instead of trying to drive through the night. the 10 hour trip home was really 11.5, thanks to angels and demons on audio book. i swear if i had to, i could drive across the country listening to that book. the suspense just does not stop! it feels like i'm at the end of the book, but there are still 2.5 hours left. these days, i don't mind traffic much. :)

we stayed with one of eric's cousins in new jersey. (thanks for housing us, nini!) she has three boys. his other cousin jeremy also stayed with us. he has two boys. all in all there were 8 boys 8 and under! i thought it would be so incredibly crazy, but it wasn't. the older boys kind of took care of the younger boys, and they all loved being around each other. besides, i think all of us parents have given into the madness and have accepted that boys will be boys. they will punch and kick and be loud and run around and fall off of stuff and wrestle. it's so different from the last time we were in jersey. there were only 5 boys at the time and isaiah was just 10 weeks old. eric and i were such different parents then. jumping up whenever the baby cried, worrying about all these little things. ahhh...the days of just one child. life was so simple then. oh, but the joys and love of having two more boys will never outweigh that simplicity.

8 boys 8 and under + emily and jd!


congratulations to omar and marilou! thanks for getting us out to new jersey. wishing you a lifetime of happiness!


[ nanaba | 11:15 AM | | ]



Monday, May 19, 2008  
so the day after my last post was probably the worst day of work that i have ever had. it was probably the most humbling as well, so i am thankful for it. i have been working my butt off with more focus and accomplishment ever since.

it has been a rough six weeks returning to work. these weeks have been hard. on me, on eric, on our family. and the laundry has piled up again. i swear it will take me six weeks to catch up.

the highs and lows of volunteer management are extreme. it seems ridiculous and greedy to keep asking for more...but the reality is that if you never ask, you'll never know what you can get. i have learned that people are waiting to *be* asked, for that opportunity to make a difference, and it is only fair to offer it to them. i have a hard time asking people for stuff, which is ironic because my whole job is about asking people for stuff. i really have no idea where i'm going with this post. i guess i'm just in awe of my volunteers. their capacity to give of themselves to the point where they are doing so much for us that it could be a second job to them is amazing to me. i appreciate them and am inspired by them.

if only you could hear the stories i have heard in the last six weeks...mothers fighting for their children, cancer survivors fighting for themselves and future survivors, sons fighting for their fathers, husbands fighting for their wives....mothers losing their children, sons losing their fathers, husbands losing their wives. an 8-year old student from one of my dearborn teams lost his battle the day of the dearborn relay. another 8-year old cancer survivor celebrated his birthday that same day. i cried for both of their mothers that day. can you imagine the incredible relief that you would have when your baby with cancer makes it through another year of life? what a gift life is! i come home to my boys and am so thankful that the worst we have had to deal with is a couple of viruses and my crazy work schedule.

my relays are done, so now i can actually focus on doing my job. even better, no more working late nights...i can come home and hang out with eric and the boys!


[ nanaba | 10:59 PM | | ]



Wednesday, April 23, 2008  
i am exhausted and overwhelmed. i hate to admit that i am either of these things because it makes me feel weak and incompetent, which i hate. i have been able to will myself to push through anything up until now.

the truth is that i am exhausted. i have run out of steam. my body just does not want to keep up with all the things my mind wants it to do. there are not enough hours in the day or enough of me to go around.

i feel myself sinking deeper and deeper into work. i need to take a break before it swallows me whole and won't let me out....


[ nanaba | 10:26 PM | | ]



Thursday, March 27, 2008  
today was my last full day with my boys before heading back to work. my maternity leave officially ends tomorrow. after that, it's just another weekend.

we spent a few hours today getting our butts kicked by isaiah at wii sports. (yes, eric too!) isaiah actually mercied eric in baseball. isaiah hit 9 homeruns in the first inning and eric could not hang. ha. i think one of the reasons that isaiah loves wii sports so much is because he gets to see everyone (as mii's) when he plays. "hey, there's lola! that's my dad! it's alvin and the chipmunks!"

9 weeks has gone be super fast. things i will miss very much when i go back to work:
  • picking up isaiah from school
  • isaiah and ethan finding their way into eric's and my room in the morning and sleeping in with all three boys
  • just hanging out with the boys and watching them play together and make each other laugh
  • play dates with noah and ellie
  • having time to cook and clean
  • having lunch with eric
  • only filling up my gas tank twice in 9 weeks
  • no night meetings
  • mid-afternoon naps
next week will be a big adjustment for all of us. wish me luck!


[ nanaba | 9:53 PM | | ]



Tuesday, March 18, 2008  
less than two weeks left of maternity leave. the nice part is that isaiah is off of school all next week for spring break, so i will have to make sure that i take advantage of the rest of my time off with the boys.

owen is HUGE. at least compared to when he was born. i'm guessing he's pushing 9 pounds by now. 7 weeks old. how did 7 weeks go by already? he has to wear mittens because he scratches his face and aggravates his baby acne. his legs are getting stronger and i swear he wiggled himself across his floor gym last week.

ethan is rocking him right now and shushing him because he is crying. ethan is so incredibly sweet these days. more so than before. he copies everything isaiah does, including "mmm...pop!" awesome. if you pretend to be sleeping, ethan will give you a kiss to wake you up.

isaiah is so helpful and loves loves loooooves his baby brother. he also loves the color blue and playing Playground on the wii (yes! we finally have one!). noah is his best friend. they love playing Playground together. isaiah is "songer' and noah is "robot." songer is actually the kid with the headphones and robot is actually the kid in the glasses that does that robot as a victory dance.

i'm a little bit hooked on bizarre foods with andrew zimmerman and no reservations with anthony bourdain. they eat the grossest things, and i can't help tuning in tuning in to see the latest gross thing they are brave enough to stomach. (gosh, i wish i had something more intelligent to offer.)


[ nanaba | 10:10 PM | | ]



Sunday, March 02, 2008  
let it be known that today i am officially caught up with the laundry!!!


[ nanaba | 1:12 AM | | ]



Thursday, February 28, 2008  
i met eric in 1995. i was 15 and a sophomore and he was 17 on the verge of turning 18 and a senior. he invited me to his birthday party at his house where i knew exactly 1 person: him. my brother came with me since he was also friends with eric...it also happened that a couple of his friends (that i didn't know) were also at the party.

i don't remember remember having much fun at the party because:
1. eric didn't introduce me to anyone. no one. keep in mind that i was a lowly sophomore at a senior party. i was also too shy to start making friends that night.
2. eric put on a wig and made fun of me. "look at me! i'm anna!" awesome. i love being laughed at by a room full of people that i don't know. (*note the sarcasm.)

apparently, eric was charming enough to win me over because here we are, 13 years later, married, 3 kids, and still in love.

happy birthday, babe! just a few more years and you'll have known me for most of your life.


[ nanaba | 2:13 PM | | ]



Tuesday, February 19, 2008  

my three sons


[ nanaba | 11:02 AM | | ]



Friday, February 15, 2008  
i have this thing for pop. i love drinking it. most pop is caffeinated, so giving it up during pregnancy is pretty tough (i'm not the biggest fan of sprite/sierra mist).

faygo red pop is one of my favorite drinks and happens to be caffeine free. :) my meijer store stocks it at the end of the pop aisle. one day, it was not in its usual spot - it was more towards the middle of the pop aisle, which i thought was strange, but whatever, someone stocked the red pop in the wrong place. i picked up the red box and put it in my cart.

when i got home, i was enjoying my red pop. mmm, red pop. yummy! later, i was pouring out a couple unfinished cans of red pop and noticed that the red pop was no longer obnoxiously red, but a more reddish brown. huh. they must have gone with more natural ingredients and nixed the crazy red dye. so i took a look at the box of red pop. that's weird. why is there a cherry on the box? red pop is strawberry soda. i blinked a few times. does that box say 'cherry cola'????

so i had purchased faygo cherry cola instead of red pop. (in my defense, the boxes were both red and had a picture of red fruit on it.) in my eagerness to enjoy one of my favorite drinks, i didn't even notice that it wasn't red pop. i drank a whole can of cherry cola thinking it was red pop and didn't even realize that the red pop tasted a lot like cherry cola because it was cherry cola.

i recounted my experience to my siblings, who of course will never let me live it down. whenever either of them take a sip of cherry coke, cola, pepsi, etc. in front of me, it's immediately followed by a "mmm..red pop!" in fact, why not spread the fun?

isaiah as he takes a sip of his chai: "look at me mom! mmm....red pop!"

isaiah as he takes a sip of his juice: "look mama! mmm...red pop!"

isaiah talking to me: "hey mama, do you remember when i took a sip of my drink and said 'mmm...red pop!'"??

isaiah after i asked him who taught him that: "tito ryan!"

haha. soooo funny. :|


[ nanaba | 12:02 AM | | ]



Tuesday, February 12, 2008  

13 days old.


[ nanaba | 12:30 AM | | ]



Monday, February 11, 2008  



introducing owen.


[ nanaba | 5:10 PM | | ]



Wednesday, February 06, 2008  
i think this past week of lack of sleep has shortened my patience by about 40%. i don't like being cranky. it is probably good timing with lent starting today.


[ nanaba | 1:08 AM | | ]



Thursday, January 31, 2008  
the bet:

players - me and kimmie
the stakes - achatz pie
the terms - owen comes after feb. 2, i win. owen comes before feb. 2, kimmie wins.

on the way home from the hospital on tuesday, eric and i stopped by achatz to pick up a banana split pie for kimmie.

i don't think that you should be allowed to go into labor when you have the flu. it was like the second my fever broke and my headache subsided, the real contractions began. thankfully, it was a quick labor and semi-quick delivery.

i love epidurals. i think i would have cried if i missed my chance to have one.

we got to the hospital at 10:30 p.m. and owen ambrosio agustin was born just four hours later. (see eric's blog for a more detailed account.) he is just so tiny and precious and i love him so much!

i would post pictures except i haven't gotten around to downloading them yet. soon. stay tuned...

also, the entire family is sick so we're kind of keeping the boys away from owen. hopefully we'll get to take a family picture sometime soon...

thanks for the prayers and good thoughts sent our way!


[ nanaba | 2:50 PM | | ]



Thursday, January 17, 2008  
wow. first post of 2008. i'm surprised it has taken me this long.

it was great having a lazy two and a half weeks at home. it wasn't really lazy because it's hard to be lazy when hanging out with two toddlers. but it was nice to just all be home together. especially since 2008 came around and proceeded to kick my butt up until tuesday. and now i'm coasting through to the end of the month when my maternity leave starts...

all of my co-workers were so certain i would go into labor the morning of the conference that i was in charge of. i was (and still am) absolutely certain this baby will arrive one week late, just like his brothers.

...isaiah beckons me to play go fish...more later....


[ nanaba | 8:37 PM | | ]



Monday, December 17, 2007  
...and i'm done working for 2007.

today was a long day. i told eric i would be working late because i had to wrap a lot of things up. i told him at 5pm that i would probably work until 6pm. i finally left the office at 8:30 pm. i hate that i told eric that i'd be an extra hour at work and ended up being an extra three and a half. he was wonderfully understanding, so i am thankful for that. i am sad, though that isaiah and ethan were already asleep when i got home. i hate that a day can go by without me seeing them. the good news is that we have the next two weeks together...eric and i are both off until after the new year.

i still can't get over how strange (and great) it is to wake up and want to go to work. even stranger is when your bosses understand that having a life outside of work is just as important to your productivity as is the time you spend actually working. i appreciate that. my quality of life is increased.

we spent last weekend helping gary out with a retreat for his high-schoolers at bethany house. the topic: theology of the body - heavy stuff. gary and the other youth director did a great job presenting the content on a level that the kids could understand. free total faithful fruitful. they gave us silicon bracelets with those words printed on it. it reminds me that that is the kind of love we are meant to give and to receive. we helped out at this high school retreat last year, too...i love that we ended the year serving together as a bible study.

just like that...2007 is just about gone.


[ nanaba | 11:38 PM | | ]



Wednesday, November 28, 2007  
there is LOTS to do before the holidays. i'm hoping to be able to take off the last two weeks in December because i have 9 vacation days to burn before the year ends. i'm not really sure when i'm going to be able to take them. i've never had this problem before. it's an odd feeling. i'm going to have to bust my ass to get everything done because i really really really don't want to have to work when eric is off.

30 weeks and counting. owen will be here before we know it.

i want to say that 85% of our christmas shopping is done. all those presents are wrapped and under the tree. i have never before been this prepared with christmas gifts. all i know is that i accept that i am one of those crazy people that shops at 4am on black friday. however, i am not one of those mean and crazy people. there's a difference. i played the pregnant card to this woman who was being particularly nasty to me about not being able to get by in the aisle i was in at the super packed kohls. i never do that. but she was NOT nice at all, and i was not in the mood to deal with someone so rude and incosiderate at 4am. especially someone that was trying to push me over into a bunch of people. anyway.

hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!


[ nanaba | 12:06 PM | | ]



Wednesday, October 24, 2007  
it has been 4 days since alvin and jenny got married.

gorgeous. elegant. lovely.

all the things that alvin and jenny are...their wedding echoed them. i'm not even going to try to describe it. i'll just say this: what. a kick ass. party. :D (oh, and i think i'm still full from all of the food i ate over the weekend.)

i couldn't help thinking when i saw alvin walk down the aisle, that this was really it...we were really letting him go. this was basically the last thing he's doing in michigan before heading off to the east coast. i mean, he's been in d.c. for almost a year now, but now he and jenny are married. one. starting a brand new life together. to me, it was like the wedding made his move official. i'm so excited for everything they have ahead of them. i love how perfect they are together, and i love how well they compliment each other and how much they love each other. i miss my friend being in michigan, but more than that i am thrilled that he and his perfect mate get to be together forever! it sounds so corny, but a relationship like theirs really has to be celebrated these days.

so congratulations, alvin and jenny! i love you both to a million pieces! muah!


[ nanaba | 10:28 PM | | ]



Wednesday, October 17, 2007  
i'm so overwhelmed. work is so so so so so so so so busy. life is so so so so so busy. i couldn't possibly fit anything more into my days. i worked until 9pm last night and started my day today at 5:15am. the good part is that the work madness just lights a fire under me and makes me want to work really hard so that i can get home. i feel that if this was any other job, i would just want to crawl back into bed and hide under the covers.

i need to find time to clean out the office closet so we can clean out the guest bedroom closet so kimmie can start moving her stuff in.

i need to find time to hang out with my mom. i haven't spent quality time with her since she got back from the philippines last friday. i miss my mom.

i need to find time to go with my mom to pick out her wedding flowers and look at her wedding dress.

i can't believe my mom is getting married next week.

i can't believe alvin and jenny are finally getting married this week. my mom wasn't able to get them barongs in the philippines (they ran out). so tuxedo t-shirts for isaiah and matthew it is!

i need to find time to play with isaiah and ethan. i need to be able to spend some quality one on one time with them. it breaks my heart when isaiah asks me to read to him and i have to tell him no because i have to go to work. i can't tell you how many times i've been late to work because ethan and isaiah pop awake and just want to play and cuddle.

i dare say that i am 95% caught up with laundry. laundry is the constant dark cloud lingering over my head (and pile sitting in the basement) reminding me that i suck at housework.

24 weeks and 2 days along...more than halfway there. february 6th is coming fast!


[ nanaba | 7:31 AM | | ]



Friday, September 14, 2007  
dot is my car. i think porta named her. she has been through a lot with me. i love my car. she's so fun to drive. so much fun, that i think that i will forever favor manual cars.

when i bought dot, i threw all practicality out the window. she wasn't the most affordable. she wasn't going to be able to fit a ton of people in her comfortably. she wasn't the safest. she wasn't going to drive well in the snow. she wasn't domestic. i think the only thing that she had going for her was her gas mileage. i think the only thing i cared about was 1) if i liked how it looked and how it drove and 2) if my snowboard would fit inside. i knew that this was probably going to be the last fun car i owned before kids and family dictated my vehicle. i knew that after this car, i'd probably be buying gm. gm - the auto maker that makes cars that look like they were made for older men. but how could i - in good conscience - not buy gm with eric working so hard for them?

i was right. the time is now. in preparation for the third baby boy agustin, eric and i have no choice but to both get new cars. my car is here. despite having to give up my very fun and cute car, i am pretty excited about the new one. the saturn outlook. in cocoa. lots of fun extras. i'm thrilled that there is a gm car out there that i can be happy to own. in fact, we both like the car so much that we're his and hers outlooks. awww.

i think it's time to get behind gm...so i am. if i can do it, so can anyone. so just do it. eric and connie work really hard. it's fun to support them. and they can get you a discount. buy gm. yay!


[ nanaba | 6:23 PM | | ]



Tuesday, September 04, 2007  
labor day weekend brain dump:

it started on my birthday, which was spent mostly in a meeting at our headquarters in lansing. fast forward to a quick stop home to finish packing and then to my mom's. she's so cute. she tried calling me several times that day, and when she finally got a hold of me, she asked if i was going to eat pancit. (it's tradition to eat pancit or long noodles on your birthday....the long noodles translate into a long life apparently.) i told her no, so she told me she'd make me some. thanks, mommy! it was really important to her that i ate pancit on my birthday. i think it makes my mom happy that she can still take care of me in that way.

8/29/07, 10pm - leave for chicago, 3 hrs later than the planned time of departure.

the boys were so good the entire weekend. i thought they would be a little crazy from being in the car for so long. turns out leaving around their bedtime was pure genius on our part. they weren't thrown off their schedule one bit.

* * *

got to spend time with donna - a lot of that time was just attempting to go to the shedd aquarium. for future reference: do not attempt to go to shedd aquarium the day of a chicago bears tailgate/game unless you want to pay $40 to park. we didn't, so we went to navy pier and the children't museum. i missed out on lazo's tacos because i was celebrating kelly's bachelorette-hood on the chicago odyssey. great food, fun times, gorgeous view...and the best part: entirely free!

* * *

construction traffic in chicago is terrible. i really hate traffic, and i kind of turn into an angry monster when i have to sit in it for a very long time. it is just ridiculous when it takes an hour to move a mile.

* * *

kelly and ariel's wedding was wonderful. the church was beautiful, kelly and ariel looked beautiful, the trolley was a fun time. i love weddings...especially now that i'm married. there's something so awesome about uniting one's life with another and making that vow to constantly choose to love someone with one's whole self. it's so hard, but so worth it a thousand times over.

for the most part, i was able to control the tears...except for when kelly asked me to lead the prayer right before she walked down the aisle. and except for when they were signing their marriage license. i was thinking how cool it was that they signed their license during the ceremony, and i heard the choir singing.

wherever you go, i will go
wherever you live, i'll be with you
wherever you lie, i'll be there beside you
wherever you go, i'll be there...

so beautiful. how could you not cry? so congrats (again), ariel and kelly! SO excited that you'll be in michigan together!!

* * *

we spent some time with steen and phil on sunday. i love them (and their little dog, yoshi, who might be the best dog in the whole world - and that says a lot, being that i am so not a dog person). i really miss spending time with steen...we used to be inseperable before college. and then we both kind of did our own thing for a few years. it's nice to be able to reconnect after all that time. our 10-year high school reunion is at the end of the month...should be very interesting.

* * *

completely unrelated to labor day weekend: my mom is having me and my brother give her away at her wedding in october. doesn't that make you want to cry?


[ nanaba | 1:01 PM | | ]



Thursday, August 23, 2007  
for the first time ever, i am taking a sick day that i don't want to take. i figured that my co-workers would not appreciate me coughing all over them and infecting them with my germs. i'm so mad at myself for not taking my computer home with me.


[ nanaba | 9:29 AM | | ]



Friday, August 10, 2007  
these are exciting times...

congrats to dinner buddy on finishing your thesis and having a stellar defense. from now on, you will be known as master chrissy.

new job, same organization. promotion and management responsibilities (i get my own admin assistant!)...all because God has a plan to take care of my family. i could write pages of how things have *just happened* to have fallen into place. instead, you should ask me. it's a good story, i promise.

speaking of family, stay tuned for baby agustin #3 in february 2008! let's hope ethan and isaiah get a baby sister!


[ nanaba | 12:55 PM | | ]



Monday, July 23, 2007  
i brought the new harry potter book into the office today.

my co-worker reserved the large board room for lunch so a bunch of us could have a quiet place to read.

i am a useless employee today.


[ nanaba | 1:49 PM | | ]



Wednesday, July 11, 2007  
i am spoiled by air conditioning.

in 2005, my whole family, including my mom's brothers and sister and spouses, went to boracay on vacation. we had an awesome time. except for the ride in the van on the way back to the airport. we were wet to our hips from having to wade to shore from the boat. it was hot. like 100 degrees hot. it was humid. we were stuffed in a van with no a/c. we were cranky. very cranky.

i had a scare on sunday and thought the a/c in my car busted. thankfully, i turned my car on monday morning and my a/c was working perfectly. there's just something about driving with the windows down on the freeway and walking into the office smelling like the outside that's not very appealing to me.

on a completely separate note: ethan is going to be one in 9 days. he was supposed to be born one year ago today.


[ nanaba | 11:55 AM | | ]



Monday, June 25, 2007  
yay! benda and rosie are married! congrats!

highlights:
  • eric and i getting to spend an evening as a young hip couple (sans parental duties)
  • boogie-ing with my mom (that woman can lead a mean boogie!)
  • the grapes
  • lyrical dancing by ryan and...phil pompa (??!!) - this statement does absolutely no justice to what actually transpired
  • ryan and phil on the cordless mics


[ nanaba | 4:31 PM | | ]



Tuesday, June 19, 2007  
i think that all of the moths in michigan got together last week and decided to bombard my garage and driveway, and then follow me to the state capitol building in lansing.

now i know that moths aren't dangerous and that i shouldn't be afraid of them. however, i have a problem with 4-inch bugs constantly flying at my head. i have a HUGE problem with 4-inch bugs flying at my head while i'm in the car. *shudder* yuck! i hate bugs!

even worse, i'm driving in my car and i hear this *click click click* on my sunroof. *click click click. click click click* an enormous (yes, enormous! the legs were 2-inches long!) RED spider is on the inside of my sunroof! EWWW!! getoutgetoutgetoutgetoutgetout, i said, as i openeed up my sunroof so the spider could exit without falling into my car (read: on ME). eeeee. it looks like the red hardy spider. google it. it's scary looking.

but no worries, i am safe (because i know that you're worried. you are definitely not thinking that my fear of bugs is totally ridiculous). i didn't get in any crazy car accidents despite bugs basically attacking ;) me in transit.


[ nanaba | 2:57 PM | | ]



Tuesday, June 05, 2007  
my co-worker had to make a call today to a company called "athletic support."

heh heh.


[ nanaba | 3:36 PM | | ]



Monday, May 21, 2007  
*EXHALE*

it is really important to have an insanely supportive husband when working 30 days straight (including three 30+ hour shifts). eric's the bomb. he watched our two very active boys for three weekends in a row and did not complain once.

wanna know the count for my three events?
  • dollars raised: $184,000+
  • # participants: 890
  • # luminaria lit to honor/remember a loved one who has faced cancer: 1,578
  • # survivors celebrated: 111
  • # times cried in the last three weekend: countless
  • total hours slept in the last three saturdays: 4.5
  • being completely done with all of my events: priceless

i cannot even say how much it meant to me if you came out to my event (or were part of a team - hi, j, kelly and ariel!). i loooooved seeing my friends and family. real people i didn't have to please or coddle. plus it's just nice that the people you love can see what the heck you've been doing that you had to be away from them for so many nights.

it goes without saying that i'm exhausted. physically, mentally, emotionally. i think my heart broke a thousand times because of all of the personal accounts that have been shared with me as to why someone participates in Relay For Life. at my first event, i glanced over at the survivor registration area and saw two small kids in purple survivor t-shirts. turns out, they are brother and sister and both under the age of six. i hate cancer. i hate that those kids have to go through cancer. i hate that their mother has to watch her kids suffer. one of my oxford team captains died 8 days before my last relay. he had been diagnosed with brain cancer not 3 weeks ago. his family still came to the relay with t-shirts that said "laps for luke." another woman came to the oxford relay to buy a luminaria bag for her husband that had died the day before. i am continually amazed at what Relay For Life does for people. it gives people hope and a place to be emotionally vulnerable with others in the same situation.

anyway...we're working really hard for you (yes, you!) so that you won't get cancer, and if you do get cancer, we're working really hard to make the cancer experience as comfortable and short as possible. so please: practice sun safety. quit smoking. get your cancer screenings. practice early detection methods. i don't ever want to have to light a luminaria bag for you.



[ nanaba | 12:18 PM | | ]



Monday, April 30, 2007  
hell week. it's what we called the week before the high school play. crunch time before the big show. a series of hell weeks are about to commence for me. i'd love it if you'd send up a prayer or send some good thoughts my way. i'm stressed, mildly scared, very excited. i have been very blessed to have so many great (and not so great) volunteers to help me make these events happen.

it made me happy to see so many of my friends yesterday. soccer & grilling on a perfect spring day. awesome. it's like my gift before i fall off the face of the earth....

right...

now.


[ nanaba | 11:05 AM | | ]



Monday, April 16, 2007  
2 (looong) meetings with volunteers
+ 3 hours in starbucks
+ 2 big coffees
+ 1 iced tea
+ 0 meals
good idea
jittery and sick to my stomach


[ nanaba | 4:06 PM | | ]



Wednesday, March 28, 2007  
i've been to three pistons game this season:

1.17.07 chris webber debuts as a piston. lose to utah. strike one.

2.14.07 get stomped by the spurs. that sucked. strike two.

3.20.07 eric gets free tickets to the denver game. score. we take the boys.

1.5 seconds left in the game. down 95-98. we don't have the ball. all of a sudden, i just see the ball sailing across the court and bank in. AAAHHHH!!!!! a lucky shot leads to a victory in overtime.

the point of my blog: it is SO not my fault that the pistons lose when i attend home games. let me tell ya, it's a relief!


[ nanaba | 8:15 PM | | ]



Thursday, March 01, 2007  
been up since 4am packing. accidentally fell asleep when putting isaiah to sleep. drive to lansing. go to training. drive home. pack up car. drive to connie's. drive to dtw. go go go...

park city, here we come!


[ nanaba | 6:48 AM | | ]



Monday, February 19, 2007  
points points points.

points for wearing sweats. more points if they match. even more points if they are not name brand. even more if they cuff at the ankle. super star points for wearing hyper color. points for beating ariel at eating white castle. points for every shot in le club de centuree. points for knowing more pop culture/celebrity gossip than lorie. points for beating eric at two-minute chess. points for hugging isaiah and ethan. points for catching the spy.

96 candles on an 8" birthday cake was not enough. happy 30ish birthday party to you, ariel, eric, j, and lorie! thanks for giving us a reason to party like it was 1999!


[ nanaba | 11:39 PM | | ]



Friday, February 09, 2007  
head on. i've heard the commercials are obnoxious. i've never seen them. all i know is that it works freakishly well. i don't really care to know how...all i know is that my headache disappears when i use it.

i've never been a headache person. i never understood people that constantly had a headache. how could you ALWAYS have a headache? i never got them (except when i had the flu), so i couldn't understand it.

i have a fun job. most of the time. (we'll focus on the positive.) i get to have meetings with volunteers to talk about what we need to do next to plan our big event. i get to meet some remarkable people. i get to meet corporate execs and township officials to tell them that my organization can provide your company free health and wellness programs to reduce your health care costs and improve productivity. i get to share with people that 1 in 3 americans will be diagnosed with cancer and how it doesn't have to be that way...that 2/3 of all cancers are preventable and that there are things you can do so that you and your children and their children won't have to die from cancer. but all the planning and the deadlines have created this incredible amount of stress that i have never before experienced. i don't let myself get super stressed out. i may actually be super stressed out, but that never manifests itself into anything more than me forgetting to eat lunch or go to the bathroom. this whole new level of stress from my job is crazy. i may or may not want to cry because of all the work that needs to be done in one of my communities. this crazy stress...it gives me headaches. the kind that sit right at the bottom of your forehead making your eyes feel like they will fall out of your head. yuck. which brings me back to head on. use it. love it. i do.

TGIF!


[ nanaba | 9:55 AM | | ]



Friday, January 19, 2007  
i miss being able to randomly im people during the work day. sometimes it's the only time you get to catch up with people.

if i could have im'ed you last week i would have told you that every time someone asks me how my boys are doing, they reciprocate with stories about their dogs. my co-workers love their dogs. none of them have children.

if i could have im'ed this week i would have told you that relay for life events with an elvis impersonator are 20% more likely to reach their goals. random.

if i could have im'ed you yesterday, i would have shared my excitement at being able to see chris webber's pistons debut. too bad we lost - it was the first pistons game that i have attended in 4 years that we lost. i blame alvin's absence. just kidding. well, half kidding.

there is a teeny tiny possibility that i could get sick of drinking coffee all the time. we'll see how that goes...


[ nanaba | 1:00 AM | | ]



Monday, January 15, 2007  
two weeks into 2007 already. happy new year, everybody!

i started off the new year in florida. spent new years day at discovery cove in the water all day. isaiah looked very cool in a wetsuit. ethan was so cute in the little swimming vest. we swam with a ridiculous number of fish and ENORMOUS manta rays. i like swimming with the fish, but i don't like getting swarmed by them. i'd rather just look and say "ooh" and "ahh" - no need to be touched by the fish, thank you very much. my favorite part of that day was eric and the shark tank. "is there glass???!" that day ended sucky because of the horrible michigan performance in the rose bowl. ugh.

i signed up for the discovery health national body challenge. it's an 8-week program to help you start better eating and exercising habits. at work, we offer free health and wellness programs to worksites to promote the same thing. those programs are 10 weeks because studies have shown that that's how long it takes to form a habit. does that mean that the national body challenge won't work? i guess we shall see....


[ nanaba | 9:48 AM | | ]



Thursday, December 28, 2006  
two more days until florida! hope everyone had a merry christmas and has a happy new year!!


[ nanaba | 12:48 PM | | ]



Tuesday, December 12, 2006  
i am behind. the day i accepted this job, i was already behind. the good part about my job is that i blink, and half of my work day has gone by. the bad part is that i blink and half of my work day has gone by and my "to do" list just keeps getting longer. i decided to opt for the paper planner rather than use my pda. i like writing stuff down and crossing stuff off. there's something about the sound of the pen or pencil scratching the paper that is so satisfying. the problem with crossing stuff off of my "to do" list is that crossing one thing off means adding three follow up items.

*sigh*

who thought that one day i would have a job that would keep me so busy that i couldn't chat at my leisure or check blogs 10 times a day? crazy.

eric and i had some time off of work yesterday and spent 90 percent of that time finishing the last couple dvds of season 2 of grey's anatomy. we spent the other 10 percent looking for christmas lights at target.


[ nanaba | 2:34 PM | | ]



Friday, December 01, 2006  
it's supposed to snow up to 3 inches tomorrow. i'm fully anticipating crazy driving (not from me, of course) and lots of traffic. one would think that i would go to bed earlier so that i could wake up earlier in order to give myself a little more commute time. but no. i've been up late a lot lately. i've also been getting bad sleep. i think that bad sleep is worse than not enough sleep.

i'm totally getting my ass kicked at work, but am loving it. i worked until 9pm the other night...but instead of slaving away over a never-ending and boring report like i used to at my old job, i was sitting in a room of 12 passionate volunteers brainstorming a kick off event for our signature fundraiser. i get to write on giant post-it paper in pretty colored markers and get paid for it. sweet.

can you name the capital of iowa?
now can you name two more cities in iowa?
repeat with each of the remaining 49 states.
fun times, right?!!
*note: maximize fun by doing this with a friend!


[ nanaba | 12:36 AM | | ]



Monday, November 13, 2006  
thanksgiving is next week, which means that christmas is just around the corner. where did the fall go?

by the way - did anyone catch extreme makeover: home edition last night? that's a big part of my job. relay for life. fyi.


[ nanaba | 5:33 PM | | ]



Wednesday, November 01, 2006  
i wish i had a camera. i have sparkly confetti on my desk. streamers strewn over my head with foil spirals and stars hanging from my ceiling. i have a window. a window! and living flowers. those might not last, but it's the thought that counts. i also have a really cute pumpkin basket with healthy treats from my new boss.

ahhh....i love it here!


[ nanaba | 4:52 PM | | ]



Tuesday, October 31, 2006  
i am...exhausted.

leaving a job is hard work. i can finally exhale without having this dark linger cloud of report-writing stress hanging over me.

can i just say that my manager didn't know today was my last day?

goodbye consulting! hello acs!


[ nanaba | 10:57 PM | | ]



Thursday, October 19, 2006  
i like that starbucks will give you a coupon for a free drink if they think you've waited too long. "too long" is pretty subjective, but in my experience, i've found "too long" to be more than 3 minutes. i would like all food service establishments to adopt this practice. today, i just want einsteins bagels to adopt it. or at least give me a sincere apology when you've just made me wait 10 minutes in an empty store for a simple bagel and cream cheese. whatever happened to good customer service?


[ nanaba | 10:14 AM | | ]



Wednesday, October 18, 2006  
that's it. i'm doing it. switching careers. no longer an engineer.

can you believe it?

i have wanted to be an engineer for as long as i can remember knowing what that an engineer had to be good at math and science. math? check. LOVED math (still do). science? check. okay, i kind of sucked at physics, but i think that was because i didn't apply myself. and then i graduated from umich, armed with my chemE degree...only to find out that i didnt' want to be a chemE. so i decided to try consulting. the environmental kind. i liked that for a little bit and then realized where that path was leading...right to the pit of unhappy where i would wake up every morning asking myself if i should call in "not feeling well."

so here i am. 12:05am, busting my ass for the last time for this company that has employed me for the last (almost) five years. it's so sweet to be writing these reports for the last time. that's probably what's keeping me going at this hour...the LAST time. wheee!!

the timing seems right. my manager recently quit to go to another consulting firm. i really liked working for her. had she not quit, i would have had a slightly harder time leaving the company. i really wouldn't want to work for anyone else in my office. aaand...whaddyaknow. right before i take a job with a non-profit, eric gets a raise and a promotion - something that has been absent in his career for the last few years. pretty lucky *wink wink*.

thanks for all your prayers. God is so faithful. He really just lined everything up for me. all i had to do was follow.


[ nanaba | 12:00 AM | | ]



Saturday, October 14, 2006  
this is pretty funny to me.

i seriously considered buying it. isaiah and ethan like to fall asleep in the crook of your arm. sometimes they snuggle right up into your armpit. one time ethan spent the night with his forehead in eric's armpit. i was pretty grossed out when i picked up ethan the next morning and gave him a big kiss on his armpit-smelling forehead. blech!


[ nanaba | 3:18 PM | | ]



Friday, October 13, 2006  
*twiddle twiddle twiddle*

last interview down. now all i have to do is wait.

*twiddle twiddle twiddle*


[ nanaba | 6:20 PM | | ]



Monday, October 09, 2006  
three interviews down. one more to go...


[ nanaba | 10:42 AM | | ]



Thursday, October 05, 2006  
i went to starbucks three times yesterday. i think i'm still running on the caffeine.

malan is creepy creepy creepy. that laugh...*shudder*
vincent is also creepy creepy creepy.
holy cow, lane is pregnant!


[ nanaba | 11:19 AM | | ]



Monday, September 25, 2006  
my office is participating in ymca's america on the move week program. with my low-tech pedometer, i have already logged almost 400 steps in just a half hour! it takes 34 steps just to get to the printer from my desk. it's fun to walk around the office when you have a means of tracking your progress. now onto getting some progress with the pile of work on my desk...

p.s. third interview happens this week. woohoo! i have to give a presentation that's basically like running a mass meeting at umich. sweet.


[ nanaba | 11:06 AM | | ]



Monday, September 18, 2006  
confession: i cheated and looked online at the photos from the project runway show at olympus fashion week. eric will probably be mad at me for skipping to the end, so to speak. my impatience got the best of me. in my defense, they make it so that you can't tell who the final three are. i'm pulling for michael. he's cool. uli is cool, too, but her dresses all look the same. i used the think that laura and jeffrey were just biatches, but both have turned out to be surprisingly endearing. anyway...back to work...


[ nanaba | 10:58 AM | | ]



Monday, September 11, 2006  
my last full week of maternity leave is over. i go back to work on thursday. i get to spend my first day back in vehicle safety training. my office manager made it a point to tell my manager that i should take that training. =\ i hope it's because i spend a lot of time traveling for my job and not because he thinks i'm a bad driver for putting a dent in the company truck (oops).


[ nanaba | 12:01 AM | | ]



Friday, September 01, 2006  
september 1. where did the summer go? i officially go back to work on the 14th. boo. =( i wish we had the same maternity leave policy as the canadians. i would love a year of paid time off after i had a baby. i'm not ready to leave ethan for a whole day yet. the longest so far has been 4 hours while eric and i went to a movie and then dinner. that was quite long enough. with isaiah, i hated leaving him with someone else all day. i didn't want to miss any "first" with him. the thought of missing a first word or a first step made me so sad (and jealous of whoever got to witness it). but what can you do? in the end, i'm just happy that isaiah is excited to see me when i pick him up/come home.

new topic.

i scored non-stop first class tickets to orlando for new years for $277. this is super exciting considering that it was impossible to find a non-stop flight for less than $400 a week ago. this is super exciting considering we'll be flying with two kids.

i also scored a face-to-face interview for a new job after passing the unexpected phone interview. can people do that? just call you out of the blue with no warning and interview you? i guess i answered my own question. anyway...yay! for second interview!


[ nanaba | 7:02 PM | | ]



Wednesday, August 16, 2006  
so i'm not planning on returning to my job after maternity leave. no one at work knows this, although my manager might be expecting it. the plan is to get a new job while on maternity leave just in time to give them my two weeks without having to actually go back to work. i've decided that my career is steering itself down the event planning path. it took a while to come to this realization, and now that i have, i can really start job searching. i have prospects with a couple non-profits, and i'm pretty excited about them. please pray for me!


[ nanaba | 10:04 AM | | ]



Friday, August 11, 2006  
there are times when i look at ethan and think i'm looking at an infant isaiah. he's sleeping right now - whew. he was crying before - fighting sleep and from isaiah knocking him on the head (accidentally) with his sippy cup. isaiah was crying at the same time - wanting to drive his blue car outside mixed with hunger and over-tiredness. he's playing in the basement with kimmie right now - whew.

it's a helpless feeling when you're outnumbered 2 on 1 and the 2 are crying their eyes out at the same time. sigh. thank God for kimmie. she rocks.

we're gonna make a trip out to dodge park to cheer j on as he takes on the breast cancer 3-day for the second year in a row. go j, go!!

the "t" key is sticking right now, which is incredibly annoying. more later...


[ nanaba | 12:40 PM | | ]



Sunday, July 30, 2006  
update: 9 days postpartum. tired, but happy. recovering well. i think i'm functioning on adrenaline. relieved to no longer be pregnant.

i was supposed to be induced last thursday (7/20). i started having contractions at about 3:30am and went into the hospital at 7:00am to be induced. i was worried that because i seemed to be going into labor on my own they would send me home and tell me to wait until the contractions got closer together. fortunately, they just admitted me and got me ready to be induced. it turned out that my doctor really wanted to deliver ethan, but he had patients to see in the office all morning. long story short, i didn't get induced, they broke my water around 2:00pm, and ethan was born at 7:24pm.

let me talk about labor. if you're a female and suffer from menstrual cramps, labor is like that. except when labor really starts to kick in, it's like having your worse menstrual cramps ever multiplied by 10 and occurring every few minutes for a minute at a time. if you're a male, there is simply no way for you to know what it would be like to have menstrual cramps, so just be satisfied knowing that women are built with a much higher pain threshold than you.* i was strapped to a monitor that measured the intensity of my contractions from 0 to 100. i asked for an epidural almost immediately after a felt them getting really bad. the intensity of those contractions was 50. by the time i was fully dilated, the contractions were measuring off the charts at 120 and were right on top of each other. i don't say this to scare anyone from having children. i say this to confirm how GREAT and effective epidurals can be. so many women are afraid of the pain of childbirth. um, can you say "no pain" with the epidural? i think i would have been blinded by the pain of those last contractions. i have no idea how women do this without drugs. anyway, after a relatively easy labor (thanks to a fabulous epidural) and 10 minutes of pushing, our second baby boy was born healthy with a full head of hair. 7lb. 8oz. 20" long. ethan looks a lot like isaiah as a newborn:


it's much easier taking care of a newborn the second time around. after having to run around after isaiah all the time, taking care of a baby that just sleeps and eats and soils his diaper from time to time is a piece of cake. the feeding schedule kind of kills us on sleep, but it's not so bad since i can nap during the day (isaiah-willing!). eric and i are definitely more relaxed since we're not jumping up every time ethan makes a little noise to make sure he's okay. anyway, thanks for all the thoughts and prayers! they definitely worked, seeing how everything went and continues to go smoothly.


*when we took childbirth classes a couple years ago, the instructor suggested a means to simulate the pain of contractions to help us practice our breathing during labor: take an ice cube and squeeze it in your hand for a minute to a minute and a half. personally, i don't think it comes near the pain of what a serious contraction feels like, but it does hurt. eric - the dear sweet loving husband that he is - grabbed some ice chips at the hospital while i was in labor so he could empathize with my labor pains. 10 seconds later: "all i can think about is the pain!"


[ nanaba | 1:51 AM | | ]



Tuesday, July 18, 2006  
update: 41 weeks. STILL pregnant.

if it doesn't happen tonight or tomorrow, it's happening on thursday for sure. prayers and thoughts are much appreciated!!


[ nanaba | 9:43 PM | | ]



Monday, July 17, 2006  
update: still pregnant. still. 40 weeks plus 5 days.

i've run every errand and organized and cleaned everything i have the strength to organize or clean. eric just put up new shelves for me to organize my stamping stuff. i could do that, except i just made a big mess of it making little disney puppets for isaiah. at first, i just made little einstein puppets. those were quickly shredded after just one hour of play. i have learned my lesson and have laminated the new puppets to make them tear-resistant. yup. laminated 10 little puppets on popsicle sticks with packing tape because i have that kind of time. sigh.

if anything, this is a test of patience. so i will wait patiently. i'm constantly having contractions, but nothing regular and definitely not labor. did you know there are three stages of labor, and the first stage averages 8 to 12 hours for a first-time mom?


[ nanaba | 12:19 AM | | ]



Friday, July 14, 2006  
update: still pregnant. 40 weeks plus 3 days.

ethan, don't you want to meet us?


[ nanaba | 10:17 AM | | ]



Wednesday, July 12, 2006  
update: still pregnant. 40 weeks plus one day.


[ nanaba | 10:26 PM | | ]



Saturday, July 08, 2006  
t minus four days until ethan is due. eric thought he would have been here by now. me, i think he's going to be late just like his brother. regardless, i've been a little apprehensive about going somewhere by myself and having to drive while in labor. my doctor keeps telling me that this one is going to go really fast. i don't know what "really fast" means to him, but to me, it sounds like a few hours (which is not a lot of time for what needs to happen in those few hours). i've been running errands, all within a 5-mile radius of my house. that way, if i do end up going into labor, at least i won't have to drive far. eric and i spent thursday afternoon in detroit. i met up with lunch buddy while eric got his gambling fix at motor city casino. we took his car even though the air conditioning doesn't work. my reasoning: 1) my gas tank has been on E for the last week, and 2) i felt chrissy would have been more comfortable not driving stick in the event that labor did happen.

i have to go grocery shopping in the morning. it's probably time to get gas. i've been kind of waiting for the prices to go down a bit. it's depressing to drive by the gas stations and see that regular gas is $3.05. i'm sure it's like $4 for regular in california, but you're talking to a girl that still reminisces of the days when $0.89 for regular was expensive. ahhh...to fill up the tank on less than ten bucks!

eric goes back to work on monday. =( it's been nice being home with him all last week. we were definitely productive (he, more so than i). so next week, it'll be me and isaiah waiting around for ethan's arrival...


[ nanaba | 12:52 AM | | ]



Wednesday, July 05, 2006  
i just found my nkotb "hanging tough" tape. whoa.

i also found a bunch of mix tapes from college. was college so long ago that i still made mix tapes instead of cds?


[ nanaba | 2:34 PM | | ]



Friday, June 30, 2006  
did i mention that i saw wicked for the second time a couple weeks ago?

i LOVE wicked. i loved it from when i first heard "the wizard and i" on launchcast. i loved it even more when eric got me the cd. and when i finally got to see it in chicago on mother's day last year, it was everything i wanted it to be and more. even after reading a detailed synopsis and knowing the cd cold, the musical still had some surprises for me.

when eric and i heard that the wicked tour was going to include a stop in detroit in june 2006, we decided that we were getting the best tickets that we could get, even if it would cost a ton of money. thanks to a heads up from a dinner buddy about pre-sale tickets, 3 hours of diligent online searching, and the most accomodating ticket master employee EVER, we scored three awesome tickets for the very last detroit show for a mere $80/ticket. the catch: we weren't sitting together. the tickets were somewhere in the middle in the 3rd, 4th, and 6th rows. whatever, it was in the middle and in the front, and everyone that would be sitting around us would have paid three times what we paid. suckers. plus, the only point of sitting next to people you know is to talk to them, and why would you be talking during the show? exactly.

fast forward to us entering masonic temple to see the show. eric and kimmie went ahead of me since i had to use the bathroom. i get to my seat 10 minutes later. eric is sitting directly behind me, two rows back. i am sitting directly behind kimmie. kimmie is sitting directly behind the orchestra pit. PEOPLE! (as eric would say.) can you say 1st, 2nd and 4th row, dead center for wicked? kimmie actually dropped her ticket and it fell into the pit. the piano dude had to pick it up for her. cool. we could see the actors sweat and spit. we could see that their microphones were affixed to their foreheads. we could see that the tape holding down the microphone for the tall chorus girl on stage right was coming off near her ear. we could see all the fun percussion instruments being used. heck, we could read the orchestra's music. it was awesome. and since we caught the last show in detroit, i believe that the actors gave us an extra effort in their performance. i loved it. all of it. wicked rocks.


[ nanaba | 1:12 PM | | ]



Tuesday, June 27, 2006  
bye bye work!! see you in september.


[ nanaba | 12:39 PM | | ]



Thursday, June 22, 2006  
-2 station. 50% effacement.

i'm off on maternity leave starting june 28. sweet!! i can't wait. eric will be off at least the first week of july for gm shut down, so it will be nice to have time off of work together at home. we're both totally nesting...cleaning everything in sight, finally getting the laundry out of the way, putting up a new tv in the kitchen so i won't be all alone on the main floor while i'm cooking, ripping up the deck...i still feel like there's so much to do before ethan arrives. we still have to pack our hospital bag. :\

the new season of project runway airs on july 12 - ethan's due date. perfect! eric and i will also both be home to watch the world cup wrap up. too bad the u.s. went out to ghana today. from the matchtracker, it didn't look like they played great anyway. argghh.


[ nanaba | 1:40 PM | | ]



Wednesday, June 14, 2006  
9 more days of work until i'm off until september.


[ nanaba | 9:46 AM | | ]



Thursday, June 08, 2006  
currently listening: natural vibe live, gypsy cafe, 4.16.00.

this is by far my favorite vibe performance ever. it wasn't their last, but it might as well have been. they weren't perfect, but the joy that came from singing and jamming with good friends exuded. it was a gorgeous sunny sunday, close friends and fans crammed into the back of a coffee shop in kerry town. it was intimate and fun. there was the added bonus of having matrix media on the cameras, ryan on the sound board, j on the drums, dave fessler on the bass, and rexy on the guitar/keys. plus guest appearances by chris lum, lynn chen, and steve kang. that's some talent. we were all so much cooler for knowing natural vibe. man...that was another lifetime ago...


[ nanaba | 9:58 AM | | ]



Monday, June 05, 2006  
they are fixing the roof of my office building, and it sounds like there is an airplane constantly flying overhead. it makes it kind of difficult to get any work done. (it's also a little difficult to get any work done when you don't really have any work to do.) regardless, the noise from the roofers is pretty annoying.

friday night was pretty disappointing. i hate the heat. i hope the mavs demolish them. i'm still proud of my pistons. that's all i'm going to say about that.

we spent the rest of the weekend outside at relay for life (it's a 24-hour event that raises money for the american cancer society). the weather was weird...bouts of gorgeous sunshine and 80 degree weather, episodes (sometimes really long episodes) of torrential downpour in the cold, some hail, etc...we got it all. poor kimmie was doing her laps in the torrential downpour when the weather dropped to 50 degrees at 4am. despite some nasty weather, it was a fun time. my cousins are so fun to hang out with. they're so silly and immature sometimes that it's hard to believe that they're all parents and a whole decade (give or take a few years) older. it's really nice to be able to participate in an event like this with family...it's been almost 9 years since my dad passed away and more than 6 years since my aunt passed away. doing relay for life was a nice way to remember them and honor their lives and their struggle.

ethan has dropped a little. this is good because it means that his arrival is soon. this is bad because the extra pressure from having 20 extra pounds pushing more on your bladder makes you have to go to the bathroom every time you walk more than 20 feet.


[ nanaba | 1:59 PM | | ]



Wednesday, May 31, 2006  
phew! a crazy weekend came and went just like that. two wedding rehearsals, two weddings, out of town guests, bbq, foosball, x3, no sleep, tons of fun, lots of dancing, lots of eating....

...and now i'm back at work. yuck. thank God everyone loves isaiah (and that isaiah loves them right back). it would have been infinitely harder to take care of him during the weekend festivities if we didn't have like 10 other people watching out for him, too. (thanks, guys!) i'm still exhausted, but it was well worth it. i wish (as usual) that there had been more time to just sit and chit chat with everyone from out of town. visits and vacations are getting harder and harder to plan with the family growing, so we need to take advantage of everyone we get!

congrats, paolo and mandy! congrats, connie and pat!!


[ nanaba | 12:30 PM | | ]



Monday, May 22, 2006  
i just scored a bag of gardettos with tons of rye chips. yesss.

i've been staring blankly at word and excel documents all day while listening to the da vinci code audio book. it's impossible to get any work done while listening to this story...


[ nanaba | 3:23 PM | | ]



Tuesday, May 16, 2006  
tomorrow. 7pm ET. assume game time positions.


[ nanaba | 11:43 AM | | ]



Tuesday, May 09, 2006  
you know that work is slow when you've just spent a good part of your morning deleting almost 800 messages from your inbox and sent mail folder.

i have the best message on my work voicemail. it's isaiah saying "hi mama" and "love you" and "later!"

i had pizza house chicken tenders and fries for lunch. it's okay to be jealous.

nba playoffs, round 2, game 2 tonight: GO PISTONS!!


[ nanaba | 1:27 PM | | ]



Thursday, May 04, 2006  
.
just in time for my materinity leave.


[ nanaba | 10:51 AM | | ]



Wednesday, April 26, 2006  
i was on my way to work this morning when i realize that i left my computer and all of the paper work i would need for the day at home. after a quick call to my manager, i turned my car around and headed home to "work" for the day. i actually need to get a lot of stuff done, but i'm not very motivated. therefore, i blog.

eric just finished 8 weeks of hard core work hell that ended yesterday. he stopped by the dunkin donuts on 12 and dequindre to buy donuts for all the people that helped him over the last couple months. (aww, so nice, right?) it just so happened that i was passing by the dunkin donuts just as he was getting into his car. ring ring! "look out your window and wave to your wife!" he waved. yay! seeing people you know while driving is fun. he had to turn left into a lot of traffic, my light was about to turn green, and i was in a perfect position to let him in. so i did. cool!! (well, i thought so.)

random: on my way home yesterday there was a car in front of me with a license plate that read "tea tee." i laughed like the immature filipino girl that i am.


[ nanaba | 10:39 AM | | ]



Thursday, April 20, 2006  
is it not the best when work buys you ice cream because it's a nice day?

(of course, not as nice as giving us the afternoon off...but it'll do.)


[ nanaba | 4:42 PM | | ]



Monday, April 17, 2006  
what a great weekend. not really wanting to go into work tomorrow (as if that's different from most days).

had a great weekend hanging out with family. definitely ate too much saturday, yesterday, and today. with ethan growing so fast in addition to eating too much, my stomach feels like it's going to explode. i'm definitely a waddling pregnant lady right now. i can't believe that i was barely showing a month ago.

we took isaiah to his first pistons game. isaiah is the coolest. he's definitely our kid, because he loves the pistons. he spent the first half on his feet shouting "yeah!" and "go!" and "pistons!" his cousins taught him how to shake his butt on saturday, so he was shaking away whenever music played at the palace. we played the knicks minus larry brown, steve francis, and jalen rose...so one would think that the game would not be so great. but it was because 1) the pistons won; 2) the tickets were free (compliments of my work); 3) it was the 64th win of the season setting a franchise record; and 4) it was the first game that eric and i got to go to together this season. oh, and we got there super early, so we sat near the floor during warm ups and got to gawk and ooh and ahh at all the nba players close up. even got autographs from flip saunders and george blaha. it would have been better to get the starting five to sign our hard hat, but whatever. it was cool! go pistons!!


[ nanaba | 10:15 PM | | ]



Wednesday, April 12, 2006  
it's amazing. two weeks ago i was in over my head with work work work. the kind of work where you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. and now here i am.

with. nothing. to. do.

this is a rare occasion that must be remembered. we get friday off. i'm taking monday off. i have no pressing deadlines. this is great! now what to do, what to do....


[ nanaba | 3:14 PM | | ]



Wednesday, April 05, 2006  
this might only be funny to me:

setting - dinner time, monday night

me: babe, can you go get isaiah some milk?
eric: yeah, yeah. sure.

(eric gets up and goes to the kitchen. sits back down at the table a minute later eating a brownie. i stare at him. eric has no idea why i would stare at him in that way.)

me: i'll go get isaiah some milk.
eric: did you just ask me to get isaiah milk and i came back with a brownie and no milk?


[ nanaba | 10:37 AM | | ]

 
maurice evans is really nice. he didn't have to chit chat with us after he signed my pistons hard hat and after he took a picture with us. but he did. and he now has the agustins cheering for him every game he plays. yeah!

(thanks, benda, for letting us into your poker tournament so we could meet mo. you're the man.)


[ nanaba | 10:16 AM | | ]



Friday, March 31, 2006  
i'm tired.

kimmie and i spent 3+ hours last night cleaning up a half-gallon of red latex paint off the carpet.

thank God for kimmie and eHow.com and lowe's being open until 10pm.

note to self: never leave half-full paint cans at the top of the stairs (even if you think you've closed them securely). isaiah will surely find it and throw it down the stairs for fun.


[ nanaba | 10:34 AM | | ]



Thursday, March 30, 2006  
yesterday at 11:15am, i got a call from one of our more "demanding" clients:

client: i have some questions regarding so and so project for your manager.
me: is it something i can help you with? she's out all today and won't be back until tomorrow.
client: no. i need to speak with your manager. i know she's at a funeral today, but do you expect her to call in today to check in on things?
me (in total disbelief): no i do not expect her to call to check in while she's at a funeral.
client: do you know if she's checking her email?
me: (??!!!!) i have no idea. i wouldn't expect her to be checking her email since she's at a funeral.
client: could you just shoot her an email and let her know that i need to speak with her as soon as possible?

who does this guy think he is??? i mean, i know there's an approaching deadline (which we would have hit already if he would make up his mind about some irrelevant language - he's a lawyer*)..but how can someone be SO inconsiderate?? i found out this morning that my manager spent nearly FOUR hours talking to him on the phone while she was attending the funeral. he kept calling her! it got to the point where she had to interrupt him to say, "i am at the cemetery, i will have to call you back." i don't know how she kept her composure with him.

sheesh. i had to vent. the other guy in my group and i kept getting more and more steamed the more our manager kept talking about it. it's unbelievable how selfish and cold-hearted that client was/is and how he could expect her to put her work above a family tragedy (in the midst of the funeral, no less). people like that make me so sad.

*disclaimer: nothing against you who are lawyers. (hi, steen! hi, amit!) i love you guys.


[ nanaba | 10:22 AM | | ]



Tuesday, March 28, 2006  
we painted our living room and our dining room. it feels like we have a new house. finally, our house has color! i love that we have a big window in our living room looking out into the park. it's like a big picture that changes with the weather...kind of like the ceiling at hogwarts, except that it's not magical. one of the best parts about the window is this barely noticeable digital thermometer between the window glass and the window screen that eric installed. it's nice to know the temperature outside when you look out the window. you can say stuff like "how is it snowing when it's 45 degrees outiside?" and "it's deceptively beautiful outside with the sun shining and blue sky, but it's 15 degrees, so i'll stay inside/bundle up when i go outside."

it's important to remember when painting that if the previous homeowners did a sucky job at putting in the baseboards that you should just rip them out and put in new ones. it will save you the agony of painstakingly taping them off only to not get a nice clean line. this will also spare you two hours of laying on the floor doing touch-ups trying to get that nice clean line (but to no avail). also, semi-gloss shows every imperfection in the wall, but is necessary if you plan on having little kids running around getting everything from crayon and pen to peanut butter and jelly on the wall. it'll save you from having to re-paint every time you clean off a mess.


[ nanaba | 10:15 AM | | ]



Tuesday, March 14, 2006  
lesson of the day: myanmar is the largest country in mainland southeast asia. it sits west of thailand and was formerly known as burma.


[ nanaba | 11:33 AM | | ]



Monday, March 13, 2006  
i have a non-stop soundtrack of the wiggles songs running through my head. i wish it would stop. it makes me think of isaiah dancing to those ridiculous songs, so at least it makes me smile.


[ nanaba | 9:17 AM | | ]



Wednesday, March 08, 2006  
eric and i have totally been getting our asses kicked at work. i had to go to sacramento for work for a day, so eric had to take care of isaiah all by himself. that means picking up and dropping him off at my cousin's house for two days. picking up isaiah limits your whole schedule - especially if work is being exceptionally grueling. you have to leave earlier to get to work (or in my case, get to work later) or leave work earlier to pick him up in time. our house is a mess. there are dirty dishes in the sink and on the table. there are loads and loads of laundry to be done. we're both exhausted. it's going to be crazy when ethan comes along.

yesterday marked the 11th year that eric and i have been together. we were supposed to go on a date, but opted to postpone it since i had just been gone for two days and being apart from isaiah for any longer would have been hard. (plus, isaiah had a rough day. his cousin accidentally knocked him over on the ice, and now isaiah's left cheek is all scratched up. it looks much worse than it is.)

11 years. only four more years, and i'll have been with eric for half my life. time goes by so fast! it reminds me that quality time is so valuable. with all the housework and work work that needs to get done, i'll choose quality time over those things any day. i felt like i spent hardly any time with isaiah last week because of work. taking work home absolutely sucks. kimmie would tell me all the new things isaiah would do, and i would just feel bad because i could have witnessed those things instead of working so much. to me, housework and work can always wait. isaiah growing up waits for nobody. i don't want to wake up one day only to realize that i missed hundreds of important little moments in isaiah's life because i had to work late or i was too busy keeping the house clean. i can't wait to find a job closer to home.


[ nanaba | 10:14 AM | | ]



Friday, March 03, 2006  
there's too much to do. =( i just want to crawl under the covers and go to sleep.


[ nanaba | 1:29 PM | | ]



Monday, February 27, 2006  
take your pick:
  • prime rib: grilled to perfection served with mushrooms and a marsala wine glaze.
  • chicken northern woods: breaded boneless breast of chicken stuffed with wild rice, dried michigan cherries, pecans, and chevre cheese, topped with a raspberry demiglace.
this saturday is my office's annual formal party. for the last three years, i have been charged with the responsibility of planning it. it should be fun. i've hired a casino company to come in and set up, well, a casino. complete with tiffany lamps, dealers, craps, poker, blackjack, etc. they even bring in a dj.

but the food. oh the food. i always get nervous when it comes to the food choices. well, the beef option wasn't really that difficult. i love prime rib, therefore, the choice is prime rib. but chicken...man. so many chicken dishes to choose from. you can't get chicken with proscuitto, because that would disappoint the people that chose chicken solely for the purpose of avoiding red meat. and then there are nut allergies, aversions to mushrooms, cheese likes and dislikes. sigh. and it's not like you can choose chicken picatta or chicken dijon, which will look so plain and sad next to a huge piece of prime rib. so chicken northern woods it is. i've consulted with a few select co-workers, and that is the consensus. i think that the chicken dish will generally go over well. i'm just afraid of the people that it will disappoint, because i sure don't want to be on the receiving end of their *opinion* (to put it nicely).


[ nanaba | 4:00 PM | | ]



Thursday, February 23, 2006  
it scares the crap out of me when i'm walking down a city street, and this person that has been walking two feet in front of me, in the same direction as me, for over a block suddenly turns to me and asks for money. dude. if you're going to ask me for money, at least approach me. don't turn around and be all unexpected like that.

i never know what to do when people on the street ask me for money. they say they're asking for money for food, but what if you just gave them money to feed their drug addiction? that would do them no good. if i had food on me, i would totally give it to them. i must have been asked at least 5 times for money on the 2-block walk to my car from city hall, and every time, i said no or ignored them. but then i think of Matthew 24: 37-40 and wonder if i just passed Jesus and left him hanging...


[ nanaba | 9:57 AM | | ]



Tuesday, February 21, 2006  
i dont' know how people live the "go go go" kind of work life. always super busy, always barely making deadlines, people always wanting stuff from you. when work gets that crazy, i go to sleep thinking about work, have nightmares about work, wake up and immediately think about work...i can only take so much of it before i feel my head falling off. i guess that's what you're supposed to do when you're young? work your ass off while you can before you have a priority other than yourself? i feel that my office manager expects us younger engineers to have that mentality. i don't think i'll ever buy into it. there are way too many things more important than advancing my place in a stupid company. maybe i just have small ambitions. all i want to do is go home to hang out with eric and isaiah. anyway...if you want to check out the latest on everything isaiah, you can.


[ nanaba | 12:50 PM | | ]



Monday, February 13, 2006  
the drive into work was more excruciating than usual this morning. it took me nearly an hour and a half. but all has been made right with the delivery of...girl scout cookies! thin mints anyone?

p.s. on a completely different note: how sad is it that michelle kwan has withdrawn from the olympics?


[ nanaba | 10:24 AM | | ]



Tuesday, February 07, 2006  
watch out, world. a second baby agustin boy is on the way. ethan and isaiah are going to be causing all kinds of trouble, i know it. i hope they are great pals. it makes me happy that isaiah loves little babies right now. he's always trying to kiss them. i hope he doesn't grow out of it before july.

by the way, if you ever get pregnant, don't listen to what anyone tells you about what they think the sex of your baby is gonna be. it's all crap. all of it!! i was SO SURE that this one was gonna be a girl. there was a general consensus. there were confirmatory dreams from more than one source. even when the ultrasound tech was scanning me and commenting on how well behaved the baby was being during the scan, i was POSITIVE that it was my well-mannered little girl. *surprise!* there was no mistaking that the baby in my belly was a boy. eric spared the "it's huge!" this time....instead left his mouth gaping open. i think mine was too. i was so surprised. i shouldn't have been. this is exactly what happened when we found out isaiah was a boy. i must say that i am very relieved that the baby is doing well. right now he's about 19cm long and about 6oz. ultrasounds are so cool.

well, baby ethan. we love you so much already! can't wait to see you in july!


[ nanaba | 3:56 PM | | ]



Monday, February 06, 2006  
i am trying my darndest to drink 40 oz. of fluid before my ultrasound. not an easy task to accomplish in one hour. i basically just chugged a 20 oz. of gatorade. drinking large amounts of liquid makes me want to throw up.

will it be a gracie or an ethan? anyone? i hope (s)he cooperates with the ultrasound!


[ nanaba | 12:01 PM | | ]



Thursday, February 02, 2006  
habitat for humanity superBUILD.

40 house frames constructed in 5 days. 100 volunteers a day. 8 hour days.

we volunteered on the kick-off day. i love the energy at huge volunteer projects like this. it's a rare opportunity to be immersed in a warehouse full of positive people. i think that volunteering is so good for the soul. people just want to feel special. i think that you feel special just knowing that you've done something that will tell a complete stranger, "hey, i think that you're worth something. in fact, you're worth my rare free saturday and the sore muscles i got from the ridiculous amount of manual labor i gave." and of course the recipient totally thinks that *you* are special for giving up your saturday to build them a house, so it's a joyous circle.

i'm always overwhelmed by human kindness on projects like these. SO many people making life better for someone else who needs it. plus it keeps us grounded. it reminds us that we don't *need* much. and, wow, we have a LOT. anyway, it was a great experience and something i'm really glad that a bunch of us could do together (even if i did have to volunteer in the non-building sector of the project). deck 1 punched out two house frames more than two hours ahead of schedule. good job, guys! i'll leave you with a picture from the build...


[ nanaba | 12:35 PM | | ]



Tuesday, January 31, 2006  
just set off the security alarm at my office. that was fun. (not.) i'm definitely awake now.


[ nanaba | 6:58 AM | | ]



Thursday, January 26, 2006  
f/ot: pistons 106, bucks 102.
  • i love chauncey billups. you go, mr. big shot!
  • tj ford is really small. only 5'10"
  • sitting in the first row on the upper level allows you to shout directly down to the floor. i feel the players can really hear me.
  • being on your feet and cheering your brains out is essential to helping your team to victory.


[ nanaba | 11:30 AM | | ]



Wednesday, January 25, 2006  
my head hurts, but it only hurts this bad after i've been working. it doesn't take much work for my head to start hurting. i think my body is trying to tell me something. "stop working" perhaps? i mean, when your body is telling you something in the form of pain, it might be good to listen to it, right?

i once told eric that i wanted to ask bill gates (or any equally rich gazillionaire) for a million dollars. that's like $20 to any of us regular joe schmoes. then i wouldn't have to work where i work. of course i would share it. it would be quite selfish of me to keep the whole million to myself. wouldn't that be nice? then it wouldn't be so scary to open up, say...A Bun In The Oven with mads. that makes me giggle. it's pure genius (and all madeleine, i might add). a bakery in the front with an ob office in the back. "enjoy a cinnamon roll and de-caf coffee while you wait!" if only...


[ nanaba | 5:44 PM | | ]



Tuesday, January 17, 2006  
we're back from sd.

*exhale*

our flight coming into detroit was delayed a half hour and then our luggage didn't get transferred, so we didnt' get home until 3am. i'm still on pacific coast time, so it's amazing that i'm up and functioning right now. i did however, choose the "work from home" option because 1) i dont' have a car and 2) i would probably die on the way to work because i fell asleep at the wheel.

congrats gene and helen! the wedding was really nice and gene looked really really happy. the reception was in the nicest tent i've ever seen. (when i heard that the reception was going to be in a "tent" i was thinking more of a canopy with open sides on some grass behind the hotel, not a permanent structure complete with doors and carpet.) isaiah danced the night away. he couldn't stop himself if he tried. the music played, therefore he danced. he charmed the pants off of everyone. there were so many random people coming up to see isaiah. i met way more people than i should have.

got to catch up a little with everyone, although i wish i could have caught up more. watched tv with chris lum and passed on out the couch just like the good old days at lake village. played trivial pusuit pop culture edition at the hotel. trivial pursuit a la gauntlet style did not quite work out in jon yang's favor. isaiah counted the stars with me and tita lynn while the boys attempted to catch lobster in la jolla. saw galvez for the first time since his surgery. he's making such an awesome recovery. i can only imagine how frustrating it is for him to be limited physically, especially after all the tris, races, surfing, etc. he's been doing. i feel that it must be very humbling and hard to endure this kind of recovery. you have to be so strong (mentally and physically), and galvez is. i have no doubt he'll be up and walking without any aids in no time. he's strong and determined. he's the man. galvez, you're my hero. (*tangent: when galvez got in the car, i was like "isaiah, say hi to tito galvez!" tito galvez?? sounded funny, especially since mrs. galvez was right there.)

thanks, hongk, for playing host and letting us take over your bedroom for the weekend. isaiah left you a pink bottle of baby magic lotion in case you ever wanted to smell like a filipino lola. =P i don't think he'd be offended if you threw it away. can't wait to see those of you cali folk coming into michigan soon (or you know, in four months). miss you already.


[ nanaba | 9:12 AM | | ]



Thursday, January 12, 2006  
what a crappy day. people that are rude, impatient, and bitchy can really ruin your day. they frustrate you to the point that you can't thoroughly enjoy the gorgeous sunny 50 degree weather outside. definitely looking forward to hanging out in sd for a few days....far far away from the office!


[ nanaba | 12:55 PM | | ]



Tuesday, January 03, 2006  
i forgot to mention in yesterday's post that eric's blog has moved back to blogspot. so those of you that haven't changed your link to his blog in years and years, that link should work now.


[ nanaba | 9:09 AM | | ]



Monday, January 02, 2006  
i'm sick. i hate being sick. i've been sick for a month, and it just won't go away. i finally caved and took robitussin dm. since i'm pregnant, i try to not take medicine if i can tough it out. but i'm too miserable to tough it out. i'm sure people at work are expecting me to respond to their emails even though i'm sick. i can't believe that i work for a company like that. please pray for me...i'm gonna start looking for a new job and i have no idea what i want to do. i'm getting out of this field once baby #2 is born. i'm nervous but excited. any suggestions??


[ nanaba | 4:24 PM | | ]



Sunday, January 01, 2006  
hello 2006!
i had so much fun on new years. it has been a while since i was so excited to go to a party. when i was little, we'd go to my cousins' house every year and party it up in their disco-carpeted basement. one of the cousins recently bought the house from his dad and re-did everything but the basement. so we brought the new years eve party back to the old house and partied like it was the 1980s. while we were getting ready, we drew inspiration from berry gordy's "the last dragon." i had crimped hair and wore obnoxious bright blue eyeshadow. eric wore legwarmers. my little niece ran around in her leotard and tights as flashdance. my cousin wore a poofy strapless pink prom dress with layers and layers of lace. j used half a bottle of polo cologne that night. my cousin was lamar from revenge of the nerds. spence wore stone-washed guess? jeans and a members only jacket. we karaoke'd to "we are the world" and whitney houston. good times. great way to bring in the new year.


[ nanaba | 1:44 PM | | ]



Saturday, December 17, 2005  
woohoo!! go alvin! go jenny! congratulations! it's your birthday (jenny)!!


[ nanaba | 9:22 PM | | ]



Wednesday, December 14, 2005  
we we had our first ultrasound yesterday. i was so anxious...by the time i was laying down on the exam table, i had concluded that i was going to cry whether a baby was there or not. thank you God, there was our baby...a little peanut about the size of my thumb! we could see her (okay, or his) arms wiggling and heart beating.

thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!!


[ nanaba | 8:18 AM | | ]



Tuesday, December 06, 2005  
*lucky*

it's rare when we have a free weekend to spend with g and mads. luckily bible study was postponed a week, giving us a completely free weekend. so we headed up to lansing to spend some time with g, mads, and luci. yay! turned out they were moving back into their old house on saturday. lucky for gary, eric could offer an extra body to move all of their heavy furniture. they finished late, and by then it was snowing too hard to drive all the way back to sterling heights. lucky us, we get to spend another night with the guevaras!

we woke up the next morning, and first thing g tells us is that they're getting ready to go to the hospital. madeleine had some contractions and she just wants to get checked out. note that her scheduled c-section is not for two more weeks. madeleine is taking a shower, because who would want to be dirty when you go in for an examination like that? she comes out of the shower exclaiming that her water just broke. holy cow, she's having a baby today!!!! all of their stuff was packed in the other house, there's no hospital bag ready to go, no one has clean clothes. it got a little crazy. g and mads take off for the hospital...i don't even think they told luci they were leaving. i guess it was lucky that we were there to babysit.

elijah was born by c-section shortly before noon on sunday, december 4, 2005. 6 lbs. 6oz. and 19.5 inches long. he's precious with curly hair! he has gary's eyes and madeleine's nose. mom, dad, new baby, and big sister are fantastic.


[ nanaba | 12:18 PM | | ]



Wednesday, November 30, 2005  
fresca is a good thing. why mess with a good thing? sparkling peach citrus fresca...sounds like a good thing, right?

peach - mmmm.
fresca - mmmmm.

or NOT. it tasted like soap to me. so either, i'm right and it tastes really bad or my pregnancy hormones are totally messing with my taste buds. either way, i'm never drinking it again. yechhh.


[ nanaba | 1:16 PM | | ]



Tuesday, November 15, 2005  
hello? is anyone out there?

raise your hand if you called in sick today.


[ nanaba | 9:53 AM | | ]



Wednesday, November 09, 2005  
thoughts on flying:

  • if you didn't get the window seat, and the person sitting in the window seat is not your significant other, family member, or close friend, do NOT stare over them and out the window. it is quite rude.
  • if the middle seat is free, split it down the middle with the person on the other side. don't monopolize the extra space with your ugly floral print blazer.
  • flying first class is a different world.
  • when they offer you a snack in coach, they mean four pretzels in an aluminum bag and 1/3 of a can of soda.
  • when they offer you a snack in first class, they mean an antipasto platter and wine. and real plates and glasses. none of this disposable stuff.
  • getting home two hours earlier to see your family is waaaaay better than flying first class!


[ nanaba | 2:53 PM | | ]



Wednesday, November 02, 2005  
my breakfast:

a mini hershey bar
a mini nestle crunch
a mini twizzlers pull & peel
a cookie with orange frosting
water

mmm...healthy! did you have a happy halloween?


[ nanaba | 9:11 AM | | ]



Tuesday, October 25, 2005  
welcome to the world, isaiah mathew!! 7lb. 3oz. and 19 in. long. congrats, jomy and michelle!!


[ nanaba | 4:04 PM | | ]



Thursday, October 13, 2005  

by request:

luci feeding isaiah an oreo.



isaiah after eating an oreo.


luci cleaning the oreo off of isaiah's face.

isaiah after a luci cleaning.



[ nanaba | 11:25 AM | | ]



Wednesday, October 12, 2005  

i never posted images on my blog because i was too lazy to code it. but now, i don't have to! thanks, blogger for the add image feature. (and thanks, conehead, for making me aware of it.)

isaiah and luci at the beach. august 2005.



[ nanaba | 12:38 PM | | ]

 
i can't believe our vacation is over. did 3 weeks really just go by? it's good to be home and to not live out of a suitcase. more details to come...probably on eric's blog. =P


[ nanaba | 3:14 AM | | ]



Tuesday, September 20, 2005  
i went to starbucks on saturday all ready to order my extra hot caramel macchiato with extra foam when i noticed on the menu... could it be? was it a tease? dare i ask if they really had...pumpkin spice latte???!

they did! although i think it's too early to sell the autumn flavors (after all, summer isn't officially over until thursday), i was not going to deny myself a great coffee drink. they have it, i get it. it's ridiculous. my joy quickly dissipated after realizing that i was dealing with the slowest. barrista. EVER. ever ever ever! did you know that cpk times their pizza makers? you can't be a pizza maker unless you can make pizzas in the required time. they should have that for barristas. barristas are dealing with very volatile people at times. people that require coffee to function. people that need their caffeine fix. people that are used to getting their coffee quickly. people that are very excited about getting their favorite coffee drink and are having to wait more than 10 minutes to get it. even the super busy airport starbucks were not this slow. what drove me nuts was that there was one dude just watching the barrista make coffee...um, hello? HELP HIM. this is way too long to be talking about starbucks, so i'm stopping.

we're leaving for the philippines tomorrow and will be in LA on the 9th. i hope isaiah is a good boy on the flight. he's generally a good boy, but last week he was insane. he was the cutest insane baby i've ever seen. anyway, see you when we get back!


[ nanaba | 10:05 AM | | ]



Sunday, September 11, 2005  
we're going to the philippines next week. i absolutely cannot wait to not work.


[ nanaba | 8:21 PM | | ]



Wednesday, August 17, 2005  
i don't have my phone with me. i'm so lost without it. the display on my car dash that shows the time, radio station, cd track, etc. is broken. the only way for me to know what time it is in the car is my phone. so i didn't know what time it was when i drove to work this morning. actually, that's not true. i can kind of figure out what time it is by listening to news radio because of their rigid schedule. traffic and weather together on the 8s. sports at 15 and 45 after the hour. we check your money at 25 and 55 after the hour. cbs news update at the hour and half hour.

i dropped isaiah off at my cousin's house a little after 10 this morning. i was hungry, so i went to mcdonalds because a sausage mcmuffin sounded really good, and i hadn't had one in a long time. as i pulled into mcdonalds, i caught the end of the money report...it had to have been 10:26am because the money report is usually short. i pull up to order my sausage mcmuffin sandwich and the lady tells me that breakfast is over! =( i hadn't even heard cbs news OR the traffic report. i was so disappointed. lesson learned: never let your husband accidentally take your phone to work. and get that display fixed.


[ nanaba | 11:20 AM | | ]



Friday, July 29, 2005  
i've been thinking a lot lately. (which is not really something i actively do. =P i leave that to eric...he thinks enough for the whole family.) in a nutshell, it comes down to: i believe in God, and i believe that He works everything out to work in your favor. whether working it out in your favor means now or later, in the end, it's for your own good. good, not bad.

eric and i found out on june 4 that isaiah was going to be a big brother. whoa. !! semi-planned...we kind of wanted to wait until after our trip to the philippines, but whatever, it didn't really matter to us. this is exciting! isaiah, a big brother! he doesn't know anything except how to blow spit and he's gonna be a big brother! this was definitely different than finding out about being pregnant the first time. with isaiah, we were both freaked out, a little scared (at least i was), and not quite ready (but, you know, were ready since we had to be). initially, i had to dig beneath the fear and anxiety to uncover my happiness. (don't get me wrong, i was happy.) anyways...this time, it's a whole new ball game. we're ready. we are seasoned pros having done this before. AND this coincides with madeleine and gary's baby boy to come...instant best buddies! so much to look forward to...

the obstetrician makes you wait until you're at least 8 weeks along before your first appointment. my first appointment was on july 8. all the nurses were like "you're here again, ALREADY?!" whatever. they love us. they were happy to see us. i find out that i get to have an early ultrasound. yess!! we get to see the baby (normally you have to wait until your 20th week). so we go on july 14. i was 11 weeks.

*side note: i wanted to wait to tell people about this baby. partly because i wanted our new situation to really settle in my mind and i also wanted to put some good thought into adjusting my immediate future plans to include pregnancy and a new baby, and partly because i quite honestly didn't want to deal with the "already?!", "are you ready for another so soon?", "that was really fast!", and those annoying looks of amused skepticsm from people as if to say "do you think you can handle it?" (which, thankfully, are not too common.)

you never really know how excited you are about something or how much you are looking forward to something until it's taken away from you. i wasn't quite sure what was going on until the tech stopped the ultrasound and told me to follow up with my o.b. later that day.

"is everything okay?" i ask.
"well, i'm not seeing a baby," she said.
what?!

she was so matter-of-fact. almost cold. so cold that i felt stupid and questioned whether or not i really was pregnant (which i had been). but then, is there really a good way to tell a mother and a father that they lost their baby? it was early, and it happens more often than anyone even knows...but, wow, i never thought it would happen to me. what's almost worse than losing the baby is knowing that i'd have to go through the physical symptoms of miscarriage, and the pregnancy symptoms don't go away right away either. every pain in my abdomen, every wave of nausea, every dizzy spell, and every time i don't have an appetite is a reminder of our baby. i came home from the ultrasound and hugged and hugged isaiah. it gets controversial when you think about life before birth. but this is what i know: there was life in me, and it died, and i grieve the loss of our baby the same way i grieved the loss of my dad.

but like i said before...God works everything out for the good. this is one of those things that He gives to us because He knows we can handle it and because He knows it will make us stronger. in His great plan for my life, it will have been a good thing that i've gone through this. [and there are so many things that we'll be able to do because of it (e.g., not missing a third snowboarding season in a row, an easier trip to the philippines, gene's wedding)]


[ nanaba | 11:35 AM | | ]



Monday, July 11, 2005  
last week i was in pennsylvania. out in the sticks. in the middle of nowhere. i couldn't even mapquest or google map or yahoo map the places i visited because these places were that far out in the middle of nowhere. i couldn't even get crossroads for these places from the people that *worked* there. anyway, i go to my first site, and the guy i'm supposed to meet is tied up, so could i wait for him in the lobby? sure. no problem, i'll just select one of the fine magazines you've left here for such an occasion. my choices: confederate veteran volume I. confederate veteran volume II. confederate veteran volume III. i take a glance outside: pick up truck, pick up truck with the confederate flag where the front license plate goes, pick up truck, another pick up truck with a confederate flag, and so on.

um, i'm in the north, right? i can't remember the last time i was worried that people were going to be really mean to me beause i'm asian. but i was worried. i was actually nervous. all that worry was for nothing, though. everyone was really nice in the sticks of PA...well except for this old lady at the mall near my hotel. she treated me like i was some weirdo. ah, the joys of business travel...


[ nanaba | 1:28 PM | | ]



Friday, July 08, 2005  
nba summer league is at the cox pavillion at unlv all until the end of next week. word on the street, you'll even get to see darko play. all of you going to vegas should check it out...


[ nanaba | 9:13 AM | | ]



Thursday, June 30, 2005  
there are people in my office that go years (?!!) without taking a vacation. they'll accrue like 3 months of vacation. can you imagine? most people get 2 weeks of vacation a year. that's SIX YEARS without taking time off. i don't know how they do it. *i'm* dying because i can't take a vacation until september when we go to the philippines. i need a break now. i need to not work or think about work for at least a week. i was sick last week, so i called in. ended up working 10 hours at home anyway. isn't that messed up?

anway...eric gets the next two weeks off of work. i'm excited for him. i wish my company would make me take two weeks off. that would be the bomb.


[ nanaba | 10:38 AM | | ]



Wednesday, June 15, 2005  
..aand they're back! the pistons have emerged from whatever rock they've been playing under the past two games and took it to san antonio. yesss!! *arm pump*

you know, it's not just up to the pistons. it's up to all of us. yes, it matters that eric and i watch the away games in alvin's living room with chrissy, alvin, j, and chris. and it matters where we sit. and it matters if we wear our jerseys. apparently it also matters that if the jersey has not been washed since the beginning of playoffs, it will remain unwashed until we win the championship. i think for these big games, it's important that i fall asleep at halftime. i know! it's crazy that i can even sleep through any of the game. but lately, i canNOT keep my eyes open. i've been so tired. but it works, so should i really complain? you gotta do what you gotta do to win....

by the way, i'm jealous that you guys got to see stevie wonder perform live.


[ nanaba | 9:37 AM | | ]



Tuesday, June 07, 2005  
WOOHOOO!!!

GOOOOO PISTONS!!!!


[ nanaba | 2:36 PM | | ]



Friday, June 03, 2005  
apparently, that "are you in?" guy has never been inside a meijers. we switched to verizon partly because eric gets a discount through gm and partly because it's supposed to have great service everywhere. um, mr. areyouin?, not in meijers. i'm going to lowe's right now, another place notorious for bad cell phone service. we will see if verizon passes the test. although, i will admit that i can't count down to the exact second where my phone will cut out on 696 in southfield anymore, so one point for the verizon team.

does anyone know how to change the voicemail settings so your callers don't have to hear instructions on how to leave a voicemail? i hate that.

happy friday!!!


[ nanaba | 3:18 PM | | ]



Tuesday, May 24, 2005  
dear lola,

thanks for feeding me ramen soup when i was sick and for making us pancakes when we slept over. thanks for teaching me the right way to fold my clothes and for your big smile whenever we saw each other. thanks for slipping me money and always giving me wrigley's doublemint gum. most of all, thank you for all your love and for showing me what it is to be strong despite being in a frail body. i miss you very much, and i hope that you are happy in Heaven. i'm sure you have already found my dad and tita alice. don't forget to stand up straight!

all my love,
your dearest annalisa


[ nanaba | 1:42 PM | | ]



Tuesday, May 10, 2005  
wicked! was only okay. totally not what i expected. i was pretty disappointed in the actors. definitely not to par with the originals. of course, i wasn't expecting elphaba and g(a)linda to be as good as idina and kristen (that's right, we're on a first-name basis)...but i expected them to be good at least.



...NOT!


ohmygosh,itwassoooamazing!!!--but i won't get too excited here because i don't want to overhype it. ugh. i LOOOVE wicked!


[ nanaba | 6:10 PM | | ]



Wednesday, May 04, 2005  
wicked! in four days and counting...


[ nanaba | 2:31 PM | | ]



Tuesday, April 26, 2005  
i was so excited to get coffee before the game today that i forgot to unbuckle my seatbelt before trying to exit the car.

goooo pistons!!!!


[ nanaba | 11:44 PM | | ]



Monday, April 18, 2005  
i've come to the conclusion that the only way i won't feel dumb wearing a polo shirt or an oxford button-up is if 1) it's part of a uniform or 2) it has my work's logo on it and i'm wearing it at work.

i've recently discovered that you can order your coffee extra hot. i feel gypped* when i get a semi-warm cup of coffee because the person making my latte was too lazy to wait the extra five seconds it takes to make the milk hot. i'm also going to take this time to vent that if you're not going to have pumpkin spice latte available, then take it off the menu. don't tease me. this has only happened to me a bajillion times.

*also spelled "gipped" for those who care.

i've been feeling creative lately:

ode to shin splints
shin splints shin splints go away
come again never ever again.

happy monday!


[ nanaba | 11:14 AM | | ]



Thursday, April 14, 2005  
some people only like to do things that they know they do well. i am not one of those people. for instance: i hate to do laundry despite the fact that i am fabulous at doing it.


[ nanaba | 3:56 PM | | ]



Monday, April 11, 2005  
we've been so busy lately that i'm actually looking forward to when i get the chance to do yardwork and give the house a good cleaning. the warm temperatures and sunshine must trigger something that makes us want to do those things.

i've had some serious a.d.d. tendencies lately. no focus at all...


[ nanaba | 11:17 AM | | ]



Thursday, April 07, 2005  
hi, it's 5:00 and i'm going home withOUT my computer for the first time in a month. yay!!!


[ nanaba | 5:05 PM | | ]



Tuesday, March 29, 2005  
isaiah is crawling. everywhere. this means you can't leave him unsupervised in the house because it hasn't been baby-proofed yet. who knew a coffee table could be so dangerous? it's currently surrounded by all the couch pillows. we've caught isaiah falling head first off of the couch, the bed, the other couch....i mean we literally caught him, not just caught him as in watched him. whew. isaiah learned to roll over (from his back to his tummy), creep, and crawl in the span of a week. they crawl backwards first...bet ya didn't know that. he's growing too fast!! someone make it slow down!


[ nanaba | 11:47 PM | | ]



Thursday, March 17, 2005  
when i was in first grade, my teacher told me not to eat next to the computer because i could break it. i was eating a lollipop at the time. the end.


[ nanaba | 9:44 AM | | ]



Saturday, March 12, 2005  
sd. everytime i go it feels like i haven't been away for a year.

[*tangent* eric wants me to blog about him. he is sitting with isaiah watching 'i robot' wearing his cuddle buddy bracelet. he just got back from the first jedi game of the season. i think he has a sweet jumper.]

anyway..i feel we were able to make the most of my overnight stay. i mean...sushi deli, a coffee shop where the waiters and waitresses (i'm not sure how well they spoke english) wanted to give us cup after cup of coffee, and some lounge with good music. i wish detroit had places where you could dance to good music. i am a bit sad that i missed in cahoots, and consequently hoots squared...maybe next time. (hi, lilly!) you'll have to tell me how that goes. it was tough being away from eric and isaiah...but the amount that i missed them was made up in quality time with friends. =D


[ nanaba | 5:22 PM | | ]



Tuesday, March 08, 2005  
they just opened up a drive thru starbucks near my house. you take for granted just being able to run into a store to grab something like coffee before you have carry the baby around in the car seat. (i don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing..might limit my spontaneous purchases.)

going to cali tomorrow. see you guys there!


[ nanaba | 4:43 PM | | ]



Monday, February 21, 2005  
wicked. i can't get enough of it. got the cd and the music book for valentines day. love 'em! i can listen to it in the car and then come in and plunk out the songs on the piano. i am once again inspired to play the piano well. and i want to play the guitar again. ooh...i can't wait til i can really play the songs.....

*you must realize that i am rarely this excited or inspired about anything these days. i used to live that way, passionate about everything i did, wanting to do soo good at everything i did...class, piano, plays, dance, etc....to have this feeling again is very refreshing.


[ nanaba | 10:24 AM | | ]



Tuesday, February 15, 2005  
do you know how much more work you get done when you're not working in front of the tv? it's amazing.


[ nanaba | 1:44 PM | | ]



Monday, February 07, 2005  
hi. i've been walking around with my fly open all day.


[ nanaba | 3:31 PM | | ]



Thursday, February 03, 2005  
i just ate diet cinnamon toast crunch. 75% less sugar and made with whole grain. now the whole grain, i don't mind at all. but isn't the point of eating cinnamon toast crunch the sugary-cinnamony goodness coating every bit of cereal in every bite? and they just removed 75% of it! so for all you cinnamon toast crunch lovers out there...just stay away from the new version...i wouldn't want you to be disappointed.


[ nanaba | 9:17 AM | | ]



Friday, January 28, 2005  
i'm rather enjoying working in a group right now. there are other people to bond with over the struggle of this enormous project. the best part is that i'm just helping out...i don't have to submit the final product. i just write little paragraphs here and there about what i see in drawings and that gets added into the report. "whatever you guys don't finish today, i'm just going to finish this weekend." ahh...wonderful words when not spoken by me. =D

i got to work at 7:30am today. is it gross that i'm still drinking the same cafe mocha i picked up on my way in?


[ nanaba | 3:21 PM | | ]



Wednesday, January 26, 2005  
almost midnight. why am i up? i should be sleeping. isaiah is such a cuddle-head when he sleeps. if he's not cuddling with a warm body, he's cuddling up to a bunch of pillows we've smushed up against him to simulate a warm body. ha. baby's take up a lot more room in a bed than you would think.

i wonder if connie and eric won the detroit sports bowl with their gm team. they would win superbowl tickets, you know. that would be sweet, although...would they really go if they only got one ticket? and if they could sell the ticket for $2,000 would they still go? would you?

by the way...if you ever need advice on how to get through a 100-foot inflatable obstacle course...chrissy and i are your experts.

embarrassing moment at the detroit sports bowl. while talking to one of the personal trainers from the basketball workshop...

me: so what is the basketball workshop?

basketball workshop guy: oh, we're personal trainers. you know, for high school, middle school, college, and some pro.

me: oh cool, so do you work with any of the lions*?

chrissy: (whispering) basketball! basketball!!

me: (enter sinking feeling of utter stupidity) doh. i mean the pistons.

*in my defense, we were in ford field (where the lions play). regardless...i'm so dumb!


[ nanaba | 11:58 PM | | ]



Tuesday, January 18, 2005  
isaiah just turned all by himself in his little play saucer!! usually you have to turn him if he wants to play with different things on the play saucer thing. he keeps looking back at me with a big goofy smile as i type this.

i love him!


[ nanaba | 4:03 PM | | ]



Friday, January 14, 2005  
phlegm.

if i didn't know that word and i had to sound it out, i would be totally wrong. puhalegum. i just thought it looked funny. it might be the funniest-looking word i know. btw...there is no alternate spelling. can't spell it 'flem'. (in case you were wondering.)


[ nanaba | 2:47 PM | | ]



Thursday, January 06, 2005  
i'm *home and sick. semi-working. don't really want to. it was very nice to sleep all day yesterday (i was home and sick as well). i just found three of my old roommates on friendster and requested that they officially become my friends. already a productive day!

*can't say "i'm home sick" because people will think you're homesick. of course you can't be homesick if you're at home. bleh. the more i type "homesick" the funnier it looks.


[ nanaba | 1:13 PM | | ]



Monday, January 03, 2005  
helloooo 2005!

happy new year!!

i have been rusty at boggle. must re-install text twist to my pda for practice. =P btw: tet = vietnamese new year. it's a word that's a real word! does it count?


[ nanaba | 11:56 PM | | ]



Tuesday, December 21, 2004  
saw an old man shopping for lettuce in the grocery store.

i think he forgot his pants. all i could see were boxers. at least he had that going for him.

someone should tell him that it's snowing outside.

it has been a strange day.


[ nanaba | 10:06 PM | | ]

 
someone is cutting their nails. in the office.

is it just me, or is that a little weird?


[ nanaba | 9:07 AM | | ]



Monday, December 13, 2004  
let's just take a minute to revel in the genius of cookie exchanges.

...

great. we had a cookie exchange at work today and i had committed to making the butterscotch toffee cookies. how great is it that by making a couple batches of one kind of cookie, you will get 18 other kinds of cookies???


[ nanaba | 4:04 PM | | ]



Tuesday, November 23, 2004  
i am a zombie. no thoughts at all in my head. i need to be inspired...i'm afraid that i am in a boring lull. (boring lull as in i am boring, not so much that i am bored. if that makes sense.) sorry for the boring posts...

maybe i will be recharged after overeating this weekend. i actually heard a meijer ad on the radio today: "just because there's a lot of food at a low price, doesn't mean that you have to eat it all." basically, meijer is telling us to not be big fat piggies at thanksgiving. nice.


[ nanaba | 5:17 PM | | ]



Monday, November 15, 2004  
all the managers are sitting in the conference room discussing our raises. you know what that means? i'm going home! yay!

thanksgiving is next week already. that was quick.

i had another random thought to blog...but i forget....


[ nanaba | 4:54 PM | | ]



Thursday, November 04, 2004  
once upon a time there was a baby boy...

...who got swallowed by a baby chicken...

the baby boy cried and cried. he cried so much that he turned into a pumpkin!

fortunately, this was not a permanent state. at midnight *poof* the pumpkin turned back into a baby boy, and the baby boy went home to play with his puppy.

the end.


[ nanaba | 10:09 AM | | ]



Tuesday, November 02, 2004  
big day today.

did you vote?

nba opening day. gooooo pistons!!!!


[ nanaba | 11:30 AM | | ]



Monday, October 25, 2004  
the baby chicken costume didn't work out. he cried and cried. so he was a jack-o-lantern instead. still cute. despite the crying and crying there are pictures of isaiah in the baby chicken costume. cute! i just don't know how to post them....help?


[ nanaba | 11:33 PM | | ]



Friday, October 22, 2004  
last saturday, playing madden 2k5:

me: you guys are making yourselves [players]?

guys: yeah! and you're a kicker.

me: i'm a kicker?! cool!...hey, you can see 'A. Agustin'on the back of the jersey. why did you guys make my mom a player??

guys: that's LORIE.


hahahahaha...


[ nanaba | 9:05 AM | | ]



Monday, October 18, 2004  
ran half a mile yesterday...first time running in 10 months. yikes. it hurt. still hurts. that was only half a mile. i'm scared to play soccer. i foresee barfing during my first game back. don't know if that will be on thursday...we will see.


[ nanaba | 3:45 PM | | ]



Thursday, October 14, 2004  
unlimited skips while listening to launch is essential when streaming all day. commercial free is key as well. loooove launchast plus.

i get to work from home tomorrow. actually, i get to work from home on fridays until further notice....isaiah will get to hang out with me while i work. =D i miss hanging out with him all day. ten weeks went by so fast...going back to work and leaving him for the whole day for the first time was so hard (i cried and cried on my way to work). you would think that it would be a relief to get out of the house and escape the constant diaper changing/feeding/soothing the baby. i guess it is, but i hate that i will inevitably miss the first time he does something cool, like crawl or roll over or speak...ugh. i would be so sad if his first word isn't in front of me and eric. anway...next to isaiah..i miss sleeping the most. it amazes me that millions of people do this all the time. it's so hard to stay awake and energized....

...zzzzz........


[ nanaba | 4:15 PM | | ]



Wednesday, October 13, 2004  
yesterday, i heard a story on the radio about michigan's attorney general cox. his first name is mike. they kept saying his name over and over. mike cox.

i thought that was funny.
(hi, i'm twelve years old.)


[ nanaba | 9:38 AM | | ]



Tuesday, October 05, 2004  
it's nice when all you have to do is sleep and eat all day.

i will miss it when i go back to work. only a few more days left...


[ nanaba | 1:45 PM | | ]



Friday, October 01, 2004  
they lied. your pictures aren't up yet. boo.


[ nanaba | 4:14 PM | | ]



Thursday, September 30, 2004  
got peed on today. it's been a while, so i guess it was due.

oh, well. gives me an excuse to change the little man into a new overalls outfit. baby clothes are so cute.

there is potential for a cider mill trip this saturday. what fun! it's that time of year where we get to go to cider mills!!


[ nanaba | 2:18 PM | | ]



Saturday, September 25, 2004  
it's my first time on a computer in a week. i haven't been away from a computer for this long since we went to hawaii last year. isaiah is growing and growing...can't believe he's almost ten pounds. i think he's super cute, even when he cries. so sometimes i just let him cry because he's so cute (but not for too long).

a couple weeks ago, eric and i rediscovered the greatness of $1.00 movies. i mean, how many movies would you go see if it only cost $1.00? you might even get me to see garfield for $1.00 if you catch me in the midst of utter boredom. aaand if you go to the first matinee, it's only $0.50. two quarters!! you can't even get candy bars at regular price for that cheap.

i have to go back to work in two weeks. =( i don't wanna go.


[ nanaba | 1:52 AM | | ]



Sunday, September 19, 2004  
happy two-two birthday, bunso!!!


[ nanaba | 1:35 AM | | ]



Tuesday, September 14, 2004  
i'm so scared of bugs. i totally just ran away from a HUGE creepy crawly really fast moving bug. i totally fell in the process. hahahahahaha. i can't believe i fell.

my phone is broken. the screens are blank, and i have no idea who is calling me...no more caller id, no more voicemail notification, no more missed call notification. i'm basically taking a chance when i blindly use the search function in my address book...unless of course i've memorized your speed dial number. if you're super special, i actually have your phone number memorized. so look out for a mass email from me requesting your phone number....


[ nanaba | 10:28 PM | | ]



Friday, September 10, 2004  
...it's been awhile....or maybe it just seems like that because i've been spending my days indoors?

ryan and lorie are married...finally! woohoo!! what a great day. i love them so much. they're wedding was so gorgeous. i was doing so well, totally ready to not cry at all...happy day, no reason to cry, happy day, i'm not gonna cry. then there's my stupid brother. seeing any member of my immediate family cry will instantly send me into tears. so since i saw his tears right before kris and i walked down the aisle, i ended up crying all the way down the aisle. dangit. lorie did better...she made it all the way past the vows before she partially messed up her makeup. i was totally prepared to not cry during my speech, too...who am i kidding? i'm such a baby. i totally cried...lorie went down with me. our theory that getting our makeup professionally done by suzanne (who will make you look like a STAR, btw...) was shot down that night. oh well. it's just what happens when you're so happy for people you love so much. they're in fiji right now, which i think is pretty cool, since they are the first people i know that have been to fiji.

saw babbs today. i wish i knew how to post pictures, cuz then i would post the picture of him holding isaiah. such a big guy holding such a little dude. it's cute. i can't believe how fast isaiah is growing. he's starting to be chubby! chubbers...hehehe.

the aches and pains of giving birth are starting to go away. i totally want to start exercising, but i'm on restricted physical activities until october. booo. i can't even vacuum or climb the stairs a lot. i'm not even supposed to lift anything heavier than isaiah. you would think that the tremendous amount of physical pain of giving birth would put an end to all the discomforts that come with a pregnancy....nope! it kind of gets worse before it gets better. and it kind of sucks that the belly doesn't go away right away....at least when you're pregnant there's something in there making your belly big. i'm totally waiting for someone to ask me when i'm due. i will cry when that happens. when people say that you forget the pain of labor and delivery after you have your baby...it's totally true. i mean, you don't forget that it definitely sucked to go through...but it's not like you re-live it and suffer through it over and over. you have all the new hurts to go through anyway. but we won't go into detail...i wouldn't want to gross anyone out....=P

and i definitely just babbled.


[ nanaba | 10:59 PM | | ]



Monday, August 30, 2004  
i'm so sad the olympics are over. i looooove the olympics. i love that the games were on 7 channels so you could watch them all the time. i love even more that i was home the whole time so i could watch all the games i wanted and all the soccer games were broadcasted commercial free in their entirety. i only missed one u.s. women's soccer game and i think it was because i was in labor. a couple comments:

the u.s. women's soccer team is so awesome. i think they are so great that i totally want to be friends with them.

in general, the u.s. women's teams were awesome. chicks rule. i'm kind of glad the u.s. men's basketball team didn't get gold.

i don't understand the modern pentathlon. why is it called "modern"? last time i checked, fencing and riding horses wasn't all that common...

i've been spelling "triathlon" wrong my whole life. all those multi-discipline events...decathlon, pentathlon, triathlon....none of them have a second "a" after the "th"....so i guess that means i've been adding an extra syllable to all those words, too?

okay, i'm done. time to feed the baby.


[ nanaba | 9:49 PM | | ]



Monday, August 23, 2004  
i am in love all over again.


[ nanaba | 11:47 PM | | ]



Wednesday, August 18, 2004  
seven years and one night ago, my sister and i sat at my dad's bedside really late at night, unknowingly watching my dad fight through his last breaths. it was scary. we were crying and crying and didn't know what to do. i didn't consider God to be a great ally at the time, but all we could think of to do was to pray. so we did. "Our Father, who art in heaven...." it's amazing how comforting prayer is, no matter how small your faith.

i remember being woken up before 7am the next morning by my mom. "you guys? ryan?...come down. i think...he's not breathing..." he was gone. our relatives came. i was numb. i was supposed to go to the smokin' grooves concert that night. the first thing i did was wake up my friend up at 7:30am to tell him i couldn't go anymore. i don't know why that was the first thing i thought of. people came and took my daddy away. it was 11 days before my 18th birthday.

the thing that strikes me most about the memory of that day is that my mom specifically called for my brother. see....he's getting married in a couple weeks, and he's gonna be an uncle very soon here...and over the last seven years he's been a rock for my mom and me and my sister. he's dependable. if something goes wrong, i can call him, he'll show up, and i'll feel better. 'ryan's coming, everything will be okay.' he has been strength in our family that goes without saying...and no doubt it has been hard for him, and yet he does it. he so quickly took over the things my daddy would do that we didn't even notice that he did it. again, he's a rock. and it's time for him to put us second. he'll be a rock for lorie in their marriage. she's a lucky lady to have found the someone who will love her and support her forever in my brother. God has blessed them with that love for each other, and i'm thankful that He brought them together. that's really what that comes down to...

seven years after that night my sister and i cried and prayed together, i cried with my brother. i can't remember the last time i cried with him. it's like we never saw any tears because he was being strong for us. but we can be strong for you, ny. we'll be strong together. you're the best big brother and i love you.


[ nanaba | 11:54 AM | | ]



Monday, August 16, 2004  
due date: august 16, 2004.

status: still pregnant.

updates: to come...


[ nanaba | 2:58 PM | | ]



Friday, August 13, 2004  
bleh. i just erased a whole entry because it's that uninteresting. i think i've reached my limit of idleness. two weeks is about all i can take before i need to be useful again. there is only so much sleeping and tv watching and running errands that i can do without anything else to fill in the time.


[ nanaba | 2:46 PM | | ]



Tuesday, August 10, 2004  
hmm...not much to blog about. household chores can really fill up your day. it's amazing that it's normal for both parents to work these days.

i've discovered that i like watching 'revealed with jules asner'. i don't know why. but it's on every morning on e!...just in time for me to enjoy my breakfast.


[ nanaba | 3:48 PM | | ]



Thursday, August 05, 2004  
pretty cards ALL over my living room. i love it!!!!

it's amazing what plastic sleeves and plastic boxes do for presentation.


[ nanaba | 11:08 AM | | ]



Friday, July 30, 2004  
oh, i'm kind of sad. this morning, it felt like the day before summer vacation (except for not really, right, suj?)...pretty exciting. still pretty exciting that i don't have to come into work on monday. but everyone here is so nice, and i didn't even think i would really miss them much. not that i'll miss them a ton, but there will be some missing going on....so many people stopping by...making sure they see me before i take off for a couple months...making sure i'm gonna come back after a couple months (hehe)... it just surprises me, i guess, that people care as much as they do.

don't get me wrong. i'm totally not working for the next 10 weeks. yeah!!


[ nanaba | 4:12 PM | | ]



Thursday, July 29, 2004  
last night on the world poker tour, the winner donated all his profits to charity.  he won close to $1.3 million.

i thought that was nice.

it makes me happy to see that kind of generosity, particularly in the realm of poker.  fill in the blank:  if i made $1 million in a poker tournament, i would _______.


[ nanaba | 1:54 PM | | ]



Tuesday, July 27, 2004  
whenever i go out for breakfast i always struggle with getting eggs and bacon or pancakes or waffles.  pancakes and waffles don't come with anything else, so i never feel like it's a complete breakfast.  therefore, i hardly ever order them....BUT!  there's this restaurant that eric and i think is so great because when you order eggs and bacon they ask "do you want a side of toast or a side of pancakes?"  pancakes?!!!  how GREAT!  of course i'll have the pancakes!  (i think they might do this at ihop, but ihop is not so good.)  i only bring this up because i'm working at home (please note the lack of quotation marks) and i'm debating whether or not to make pancakes for breakfast....


[ nanaba | 9:53 AM | | ]



Thursday, July 22, 2004  
my hands smell like garlic.  i forgot to get the smell off with stainless steel after i cooked last night.  not having a stainless steel sink sucks.  our kitchen sink right now is porcelain.  it's like having a bathroom sink in your kitchen, but bigger.  i can't wait til we get a stainless steel sink.


[ nanaba | 4:40 PM | | ]



Wednesday, July 21, 2004  
to fit an 11"x17" page in a 8.5"x11" bound report you...
 
1. fold 11"x17" page in half lengthwise, with the right side of the page on top.
2. fold the right side of the page in half in the opposite direction of the initial fold.
 
voila...the page gets folded to fit in a bound report without having to reduce the page to itty bitty print.  the great part is that it allows you to peek at the title block conveniently located on the bottom right hand corner.  they even have machines that do this kind of thing.  now for almost all of you, you probably don't care.  i, however, am dealing with inadequate folding.  can someone pleeaase tell me how hard it is to fold a piece of paper in half and then half of the half in half again?????  i wish i wasn't so anal.


[ nanaba | 2:28 PM | | ]



Monday, July 19, 2004  
neat-o.  user friendly formating.
 
whenever i finish a task at work, i like to reward myself with a break--check a blog, check my email, etc... when i finish a big task (or when i just don't feel like working), i check everything.  all my email accounts, all the blogs.  i even check my gmail account...(which i might get yelled at for having one because i think some people may have tried to get me to start one when they were first available).  regardless...i have a gmail account and i check it even though no one has the email address.  isn't that silly?
 
happy monday everyone.  begin two week count down of when i will be off of work for 10 weeks.


[ nanaba | 1:25 PM | | ]



Wednesday, July 14, 2004  
i found a michigan quarter! i had one when it first came out, but i lost it...and i almost just spent this one in the vending machine. phew!! i haven't been very good about keeping up with the new quarters. it's hard to collect them when you don't use cash. i hate it when you give the cashier change so you'll get quarters back, and they give you your change in nickels and dimes. argh. i want the quarters!!


[ nanaba | 11:07 AM | | ]



Monday, July 12, 2004  
this kid can't grow any bigger. there's no more room in my belly!!!! i thought it was crazy before when i could see little bumps here and there. but now...we're talking full on tummy distortion.

and i'm gonna stop talking about the baby. i sometimes feel like i talk about the subject too much, and i don't want people to think that i don't wonder about them. =( it's just so out there (literally), so i guess it's easy conversation, but really...what's going on with YOU? how are YOU doing? tell me about YOUR life because i really really want to know. so if you catch me babbling baby baby baby, feel free to stop me and change the subject. =)

people need to blog more. (perhaps this will make me more productive?) and my heights girls need to come back. we have no girls to play soccer with. and my random banter buddy is gone for soooo long. come back!!! (again, more productivity?) oh, and we need to stamp. august 7 is not so far away...


[ nanaba | 4:14 PM | | ]



Friday, July 09, 2004  
the doctor is pretty sure the baby's postitioned head-down right now (yay! we don't want a breeched baby - pray that he stays this way!) which got me thinking....i wonder what it's like to be upside-down all day. i'm thinking that it's not as uncomfortable for isaiah in my tummy as it would be outside of my tummy. anyway, now that i know how isaiah is positioned, i can name the movements: 'oh, that was his foot. that must have been his elbow. dude, his knee is protruding from my stomach.' you get the idea.

i am convinced that ice cream is one of the best ways to cheer people up. what is it about ice cream that makes us so happy? we went to my church's ice cream social last night and people were literally skipping in the parking lot. skipping like they were five year old girls. tangent: we got graded on skipping in kindergarten. how does that have any bearing on our ability to learn?


[ nanaba | 9:56 AM | | ]



Tuesday, July 06, 2004  
i just spent the last 10 minutes of my work day trying to figure out how to change the clock on my radio. i always forget how to change the clock. last time it took me a half hour to figure it out. i think i'm getting better.

i have a crate underneath my desk to prop my feet on while i work. my feet are looking like pillows with toes. i really need to get different sandals. the ones that i can fit my pillow feet into are brown, which doesn't really match a lot of my clothes. i wish a certain bunso hadn't broken all my black sandals. or stolen them. =P i used to have so many shoes. i tend to find them on my sister's feet months after i stop looking for them.

blah blah blah.

pointless blog.

i'm gonna go home now.


[ nanaba | 5:20 PM | | ]



Friday, July 02, 2004  
this is the song that i can't get out of my head:

down by the station early in the morning
see the little puffer bellies all in a row
see the engine driver pull the little handle
puff puff toot toot!
off they go


[ nanaba | 3:41 PM | | ]



Thursday, July 01, 2004  
i am partial to gala apples. however, not all gala apples have the same texture or taste. why? perhaps the little sticker on the apples are not the rignt ones?

one a different note: don't you hate when people give you crappy work and then get pissed when you keep giving the work back to them with corrections? ugh.


[ nanaba | 4:14 PM | | ]



Wednesday, June 30, 2004  
i'm such a pack rat. i found my new kids on the block 'hanging tough' tape amongst my junk the other night. why why why do i still have it? and why why why did i not throw it away? hehe...anyone want an nkotb tape?

...and for some reason i can't bring myself to throw away the programs from all of the shows and musicals i've seen.


[ nanaba | 12:47 PM | | ]



Tuesday, June 29, 2004  
to take off the whole two weeks or not to take off the whole two weeks before the baby is born??

i kind of want to. why am i even struggling with this? i should take advantage of it, yes? they'd even pay me for it as part of my "short term disability". (that's what they consider maternity leave, btw..) and my manager doesn't care...

me: my doctor said i can work up until the baby is born.
mgr: oh, don't do that.
me: but he usually recommends that his patients take off the two weeks before the baby is born.
mgr: oh just do that. just work to the end of july.

how cool is she? such a blessing that she doesn't want me to work too hard. but two weeks by myself? will i be bored? i might. i don't want to sleep *all* the time. but i would be able to sleep. mmmm..sleeeeeep. i love sleep. especially now. do you know how annoying it is to wake up in the middle of the night/very early morning because you have to pee? it ruins a good night's sleep.

who am i kidding? i'm totally taking those two weeks off. you know what that means? i only have to work for another month!


[ nanaba | 1:45 PM | | ]



Monday, June 21, 2004  
let's talk about the pregnant maternal "glow" and how it's not so much a "glow" as it is the reflection of the light off of the excessive amounts of oil oozing from the pores making one break out as if she were 12 years old.


[ nanaba | 5:05 PM | | ]

 
i forgot my lunch at home.

=(

this is potentially upsetting to someone with only two dollars in her wallet. there is always the option of charging...but when you have to charge a meal at say, wendy's, don't you feel somewhat inclined to buy more to justify the fact that you have to charge less than five bucks? or you end up going somewhere where you end up spending much more than you would want. and i know there are dollar menus...but my lunch was WAY better than the dollar menu options.

*ten minutes later..

good news: vendors are coming in to give us a presentation on tanks or something.
better news: they're providing us with pizza and pop! yesssss!!


[ nanaba | 10:38 AM | | ]



Wednesday, June 16, 2004  
WOOO
HOOO!!!!!


[ nanaba | 1:10 PM | | ]



Monday, June 14, 2004  
i can't remember the last time i felt well rested. i finally finished up these reports that have been looming over me for the past three weeks. *exhale* i can finally clean up my desk. i want to clean my desk and then go home and sleep.

the baby's moving a ton these days. it's really funny because you can see my tummy move when he does. i guess it's not that funny...but i'm pretty easily amused these days (more so than usual, haha). i think it's the hormones. (although it's probably because i'm a big dork.) eight more weeks til isaiah's e.t.a. eric thinks he'll be early. eight weeks!!! that's nothing! think of how fast the year has gone by already...memorial day feels like ages ago, and the first session of outdoor is already over. (i got sunburned again, btw...not doing so well for the non-tanline look i'm going for for ny and lorie's wedding.) i hope the rest of life doesn't go by this fast. i do like time better when it slows down....


[ nanaba | 12:22 PM | | ]



Tuesday, June 08, 2004  
argghhhh!!!

note to self: save often.


[ nanaba | 10:52 AM | | ]



Friday, June 04, 2004  
what am i doing??? i have so much work to do and yet...i'm sitting here checking blogs. ahhh!! i'm so stupid!! i'm a bit overwhelmed. all. i want. to do. is. sleep. i'm not about staying late for work on gorgeous fridays. i'm really not about being at work on most days. i feel a little stress. something i haven't felt very much while working. i don't really stress...least of all about work....yet looking at these huge piles of papers and binders on my desk makes me want to crawl into bed and disappear under the covers for a while.

i think i want some bubble tea.


[ nanaba | 4:27 PM | | ]



Thursday, June 03, 2004  
is it supposed to rain?

my leg hurts.


[ nanaba | 5:04 PM | | ]



Wednesday, June 02, 2004  
i feel old. it's 9:30pm and i want to go to bed. must say i'm relieved the pistons made it to the finals in six. that's one more night this week that i don't have to go to bed late because of the game. it begins again on sunday. beat l.a.!!!


[ nanaba | 9:26 PM | | ]



Thursday, May 27, 2004  
-my jaw hurts. i hope i'm not getting extra wisdom teeth.

-i value number pads. there isn't one on my laptop.

-how do people just dive into work and focus focus focus? i wish i could do that right now.

-it's dumb that we don't get tomorrow off and other people do.

-i don't understand why they say this last season of american idol was the best one yet. i thought it was awful. i would be so happy to never hear or see fantasia perform ever. the finals should have been between jennifer and latoya.

-GO PISTONS!!! they sure aren't getting love from anywhere else but detroit.

-we went to a baptism class last night. i wish the people that were teaching the class made a bigger deal out of the fact that all these little babies were going to be reborn in Christ. it's a big deal! it's a really good thing and a happy event! it kind of seemed like this is just something we did. i mean, they showed us what *i* thought was a good video, but i have a feeling that not everyone watching it thought it was a good video. bleh.


[ nanaba | 10:54 AM | | ]



Wednesday, May 26, 2004  
pringles were on sale at meijers for 88 cents. i bought some. they are addicting. i should not leave the can of pringles next to my computer or i will eat them all.

can i go home yet?


[ nanaba | 11:40 AM | | ]



Monday, May 24, 2004  
weekends are too short.


[ nanaba | 12:58 AM | | ]



Wednesday, May 19, 2004  
isn't it great when you think something is due very very soon (and you are nowhere close to being finished) and you find out you have two more weeks to finish it?

*exhale*

the kings just got sent home. i'm not sure how i feel about that. i wonder if chris webber was thinking of that time out/technical foul after he missed that three pointer and put his head on the court. i wonder if he thinks that whenever he fails to make the big play. "oh man...i did it again." =P


[ nanaba | 11:35 PM | | ]



Thursday, May 13, 2004  
ahhh...much better. i don't know why my blog kept showing january's entries.

so i went to my doctor for my monthly appointment today and he asked: "so what are your strange cravings?" (figures. why is this the first question people ask pregnant people??? why???) so i oblige and give him the story about me loving ice cream even though i didn't before....and whaddya know?! they just happen to have a selection of ice cream at the doctor's office. first of all, what doctor's office keeps a stock of ice cream? not yours, i bet. and what doctor offers you ice cream upon departure?? MINE! my opinion of my doctor's office just jumped up 5,000 notches. i got a vanilla fudge drumstick and left the doctor's office happy. =) WAAAYY better than one of those sugar free suckers any day.


[ nanaba | 5:43 PM | | ]



Monday, May 10, 2004  
this is one of those weeks where it is so busy that you just want to stay in bed under the covers. i hate that i the first thought in my head when i woke up this morning was about work. yuck. it should never be like that. ever ever ever.


[ nanaba | 1:32 PM | | ]



Monday, May 03, 2004  
so my little niece (my cousin's daughter, not my brother's or my sister's) looooves the cat in the hat. she just got the dvd. one of the bonus features is this dance that the cat in the hat teaches to all these little kids.

sidenote: it is really cute to see a little four year old and her one-and-a-half-year-old brother bounce around "dancing".

anyway...so there's this awesome asian kid that is infinitely better than all the other kids dancing on this dvd...and i think it's that little kid from formality. (remember, jon? we wanted to kidnap him at the culture shock show last year?) cute kid. crazy style.

that's all.

oh! and we moved into our house over the weekend. we have a house! it's so great. and it's not at all sad that we're leaving the condo because our house is that great. if it weren't for loving friends, we definitely would not have been able to move in over the weekend. it would have taken months and lots of trips. you guys rock. well, i should say eric would not have been able to move in over the weekend since i was basically useless because i can't lift anything heavy, which stinks.....i'm soooooo thankful to everyone for helping. we still have cake, guys! come on over!! it's so yummy. and we should have electricity today, so we won't even have to eat it in the dark. =P


[ nanaba | 12:25 PM | | ]



Tuesday, April 27, 2004  
if i didn't remind you already, and if i you didn't see conehead's blog...

today is definitely free ice cream day.

there's another free ice cream day tomorrow, too, if you forget to go today.

there's something about the promise of free ice cream that makes the day so much better. ice cream in itself is great...especially when it is served to you. and FREE! free is GREAT.

it's really funny because i'm not really that big on ice cream (um, unless it's on a warm brownie or chocolate chip cookie and then you've found my weakness)...at least not before the baby. and NOW...oh my gosh...ice cream, milkshakes...for like 2 months i ate so much ice cream. i gained soooo much weight in 6 weeks....enough to evoke a "whoa! you gained a lot since the last appointment!" from the doctor. wow...that was a little humbling. it's funny that people think that you can eat whatever you want when you're pregnant....so not true. i mean, you definitely eat a little more and more often...but more healthy stuff (fruit, veggies, lots of water) is definitely encouraged. they even have a pregnancy diet so that you get all the nutrients that the baby needs. it's like a list that a dietician would give you if you were to go on a diet to lose weight...and in case anyone cared, the target weight gain for the average pregnancy is between 25 and 35 pounds.

i just realized that my last few posts have been about food. *sigh*


[ nanaba | 2:29 PM | | ]



Thursday, April 22, 2004  
more on m&ms...(gold star to anyone who can guess my current craving =P)

is it just me, or does it seem like they are phasing out the brown m&ms? there are so few in my medium bag.

oh wait.

on the back of the bag it reads: "chocolate is better in color".

nevermind.

hahahahhaha. i'm so dumb.


[ nanaba | 2:03 PM | | ]



Monday, April 19, 2004  
i think i ate myself stupid with m&ms.

it's true. you can get a stomach ache from eating too much candy.


[ nanaba | 11:47 PM | | ]

 
ahhhh! it is too beautiful outside to be working. everyone go home! or just leave work! go play outside! yeah!


[ nanaba | 5:07 PM | | ]



Friday, April 16, 2004  
whew...

(or phew...as amit would say).

...it's friday. at last. we like fridays.

*exhale*


[ nanaba | 11:58 AM | | ]



Monday, April 12, 2004  
my throat is really sore. i wanted to stay home from work today, but we have our house inspection tomorrow morning and i'd have to miss half a day for that...and then there's the pistons game tonight with chrissy...i couldn't really miss out on that, could i? i haven't been to a pistons game in forever. so i'm sticking it out at the office so i won't feel bad if i go to the game. yeah! i'll just make sure i bring some work home in case i have to *work from home* tomorrow.


[ nanaba | 5:51 PM | | ]



Thursday, April 08, 2004  
i was wrong!! i totally thought it was going to be a girl!!

it's an isaiah instead. =D

isaiah like the prophet, not the former Bad Boy.

what a relief...no more "it". just beautiful isaiah that we can refer to as "he". the ultrasound even shows us his face. isn't that amazing???


[ nanaba | 1:05 PM | | ]



Wednesday, April 07, 2004  
they weren't lying when they (whoever "they" are) named charleston the friendliest/nicest city in the u.s. people are SO nice there. what is it with southern hospitality? why does all the hospitality have to be in the south? maybe it's something in the water....

today is ultrasound day. boy or girl? any bets? hehe...


[ nanaba | 12:13 PM | | ]



Tuesday, March 30, 2004  
i feel that there are so many big changes going on.

i had such a great time in new york. so much love. so much quality time (for once!). so much good food. so. much. fun.

thinking about last weekend makes me smile.

=D


[ nanaba | 1:02 PM | | ]



Wednesday, March 24, 2004  
unbelievable.

alvin calls me to tell me that my way home from work is a parking lot for like 10 miles because of an accident. (what a good friend. thanks, man!) okay. so i wait it out. i'm about to leave and i hear that there is "breaking news" on eastbound 696.

the freeway is closed right smack dab in the middle of my commute.

i hate that there is no other good way home. yuck. i hate traffic.

i should not complain. it's practically friday. we will be in nyc at this time tomorrow. =D


[ nanaba | 6:11 PM | | ]



Saturday, March 20, 2004  
an event for the books:

Jedi 43
Pearl 35
Final

that's right. jedi rocked today. woohoo!!! go jedi!


[ nanaba | 7:37 PM | | ]



Wednesday, March 17, 2004  
don't you hate when you stop on a bad movie on tv and you just can't stop watching it? horrible acting and all.

people at my work make a big deal about st. patrick's day. people even took vacation days today. they aren't even irish. is it really such a great day to celebrate by drinking beer and eating corned beef all day long? i don't get it.


[ nanaba | 7:47 PM | | ]



Monday, March 15, 2004  
two things i learned this weekend:

1. paolo is really smart. i actually already knew this. it was just re-affirmed by his extensive knowledge of everything from body fat to whatever question was on the red cranium cards.

2. it is possible to laugh so hard that you are close to throwing up. perhaps this only happens when there is a lot of food that has been consumed. regardless, it is possible.


feel free to leave your favorite catchphrase clues in the comment box. =)


[ nanaba | 5:43 PM | | ]



Wednesday, March 10, 2004  
i just noticed that the blogger ad at the top of my page corresponds to the day's post. like for my last post...there were ads about swimming with dolphins and personlized pregnancy calendars. creepy.

i'm picking up lorie from the airport tomorrow. that will be my 6th time in two weeks that i've been there. that's a lot.

i just got back from mississippi. memphis, actually. i was barely in mississippi. but i feel i was in mississippi long enough to mark it off on my "states i've visited map". my hotel was really close to graceland, but i didn't go. i did eat fried pickles and a bbq sandwich and a mississippi mud pie. i felt it was appropriate, being in the south and all. fried pickles are interesting. think blooming onion (including the sauce) but pickle instead of onion. like i said: interesting. who would ever think to fry a pickle?

i think about food a lot these days. i'm gonna have to buy new pants soon.


[ nanaba | 11:34 PM | | ]



Friday, March 05, 2004  
i totally got nothing done today.

this is an unsettling feeling.

i hate having unsettling feelings. it means you know that you did something wrong or didnt' do something you know you should have done. ugh.

at least it's friday. tgif.


[ nanaba | 5:02 PM | | ]

 
it was a year ago around this time that eric proposed.
six months later we were married.
and now i'm 17 weeks pregnant.

that is really weird to see written out.

after 3 more weeks we'll be able to find out if it's a boy or girl, and "legolas", "yahyah", "ice", and "it" will no longer be necessary (although affectionate) when referring to the baby. it is still so crazy to me. good crazy. mind blowing that there's another person in my tummy. lorie once told me that they don't really like for pregnant women to be in the water when a group is swimming with the dolphins at discovery cove. apparently, the dolphins can hear the baby's heartbeat and are drawn to it, therefore playing favorites with the pregnant woman. anyways, tangent.

we're gonna go watch the passion tonight. i really wish i got to see it in sd...


[ nanaba | 11:05 AM | | ]



Wednesday, March 03, 2004  
who knew monkeys and apes and orangutangs and gorillas were really that much fun to watch? last friday i realized just how much eric is entertained by primates. it is instant laughs when it's the real thing and not puppets. we're talking tears, people. who knew? i thought it was a guy thing...but after a sombering conversation with these old lady volunteers about saving the sun bears, visiting monkeys sounded like a good idea to get cheered up.

i miss my san diego buddies. good trip. made buttons. lots of buttons. dumb ones and dave's son ones. (it was probably a good thing that hong's computer broke or else i feel many many more dumb buttons would have been made.) one of the very good things was that i finally got to watch gene perform. yay! watching friends doing what they love makes me happy. and playing soccer with friends is a very good thing. watching jon attempt a header when the ball was on the ground was a bonus. the "don't hurt the pregnant lady" rule made it infinitely easier to bring the ball up from the back. hehe. =P

i'm gonna go eat subway now in honor of hongk and him letting us crash at the hotel this weekend.


[ nanaba | 1:26 PM | | ]



Friday, February 27, 2004  
hi.

i'm about to go to the san diego zoo with eric, galvez, and james.

happy friday!


[ nanaba | 12:30 PM | | ]



Monday, February 23, 2004  
feet still hurt from standing for 3 hours in high heels on saturday night. yuck. glad i can wear sneakers to the office.

the trailer that eric and ny and joel put together for the emagine theater contest won first place. woohoo! all i want to say is how great it is to have your very own medium popcorn and medium drink for FREE at the movies. (thanks, guys!) although....it may not have been so wise to actually FINISH the entire medium popcorn we each had to ourselves. especially if you asked for extra butter. hehe. i can still feel the butter in my throat. ewwwww. but at the same time...yummy!

and guess what? i'm hungry! heehee. time for lunch. =D


[ nanaba | 11:58 AM | | ]



Wednesday, February 18, 2004  
do you think they (whoever "they" are) tell us to drink eight 8-oz. glasses of water a day because we really need that much water a day or because they know we won't drink that much a day, and any feeble attempt to drink that much water in a day would be sufficient water intake for the day? *exhale* i'm just saying that it's really hard to do. they should keep a supply of lemon wedges next to the water cooler at work. and why does restaurant water taste so much better than the water at home?


[ nanaba | 3:17 PM | | ]

 
i sneeze violently. i'm pretty sure i've talked about this before. but it's the kind where you have to relax when you're done because it was so intense. definitely not very lady-like. i think i scare my co-workers when i sneeze. and i've been sneezing so much that they've stopped saying "bless you" after. =/

people in this part of the office don't steal my box of kleenex like they did when i sat in the back. i like that.


[ nanaba | 11:36 AM | | ]



Thursday, February 12, 2004  
i'm totally eating a girl scout cookies right now. i know you're jealous. (well not you, ameer.)


[ nanaba | 10:59 AM | | ]



Monday, February 09, 2004  
don't you hate it when your boss comes up to you and says, "hey, you got a minute?" and then gestures for you to follow her (or him) to her (or his) office and closes the door.

yikes. =/

in my head i'm thinking "wow, this is either very serious business or very serious gossip." turned out to be a little bit of both.

i have a lot to think about. (which i guess is a nice change from the non-thinking that usually goes on in my head.) it's all very strange. i'll have to talk more about it later....


[ nanaba | 4:50 PM | | ]



Thursday, February 05, 2004  
i'm definitely hypersensitive to my clothes smelling like food. i ALWAYS think my clothes smell like food, and i get paranoid that other people will be offended by me because i smell like food. apparently, i'm crazy.

people in my office keep talking about the atkins diet/low or no carb diet. i think it's strange that people would just want to eat meat and fat all day long just to lose weight. why would you put yourself through that? i think there's something to be said about a well-balanced diet, aka eating regular food with a few fruits and vegetable thrown in every day and drinking water (think the food pyramid). there must be a reason that doctors keep telling us to do it, right? it couldn't be because it actually works?? =P AND you get to eat all the food groups. not just the cows and pigs and fish and chickens and their fat. it's so crazy how widespread this diet has become...so much that restaurants and fast food chains have added it to their menus? i think that people also tend to forget that part of the deal with a lot of diets is that you have to also exercise. *gasp*

remember when we could eat and eat and eat whatever we wanted and never have to worry about it? that was nice.


[ nanaba | 2:33 PM | | ]



Tuesday, February 03, 2004  
i feel like i should blog because i seriously have nothing to do here at work. i can't check blogs anymore because it's no fun to read the same entries from forever ago. hint, hint. i have resorted to checking the grocery store ads to see what stuff i need to buy because it's on sale. so sad.

did you know that h&m has a maternity section? what a relief. you can get cute pants (and ajustable!) for super cheap. i don't understand why so much of the maternity stuff you see in the regular stores assume that pregnant people will want to wear piping and floral patterns in pastels. or just ugly clothes. hello. these are the same people that were shopping a few months ago in the next section over with nice clothes for normal belly-sized people.

hong is funny today.

and my blog is done.


[ nanaba | 3:46 PM | | ]



Friday, January 30, 2004  
i hate that blogout is down. i can't comment on any of your blogs that use it. =(

random: which would you prefer? ny strip steak or prime rib? and what do you think about chicken wellington? i was never really fan of meat wrapped in puff pastry....

aaaannnd.....

happy birthday lorie!!


[ nanaba | 9:30 AM | | ]



Thursday, January 29, 2004  
sooooooOOOOOOOOoooooOOOOOOOO bored. how does one become productive with nothing to do?


[ nanaba | 3:00 PM | | ]



Wednesday, January 28, 2004  
my computer is set to lock out after 20 minutes of sitting idle. i set that like two years ago, and now i can't figure out how i did it. i keep getting back to my computer after 19 minutes and 58 seconds of idle-ness pass. it's just annoying. i have to wait for the computer to lock, and then i have to log back in. help? anyone? and it's a network lock-out, not a screen saver one. i tried to get in through the network properties. nope. no good. this is the excitement of the work day. woo. hoo.


[ nanaba | 2:49 PM | | ]



Wednesday, January 21, 2004  
cold business.

it's cold here.
it's cold in the south. (north carolina is the south, right?)
i have a cold.

i actually stayed home sick today. staying home sick when you're actually sick is not so fun.

however: despite the cold, i might never exchange four seasons for one long summer (sorry, cali people). at least not anytime soon. =D


[ nanaba | 10:36 AM | | ]



Wednesday, January 14, 2004  
it is snowing. and it keeps snowing...

...and snowing...

...and snowing...

...and snowing...

...and snowing...

...and snowing...

....

it hasn't stopped since this morning.

the end.


[ nanaba | 2:51 PM | | ]



Tuesday, January 13, 2004  
i'm really bad at eating apples. i'm definitely an apple slices girl...but here's the thing: if you cut your apple before you go to work, the slices are gonna turn brown by the time you want to eat them. thumbs down on brown apple slices. i mean, you could rub them with lemon to keep them from oxidizing, but who wants to take time to do that? thus, the apple stays whole and is difficult to eat. it gets stuck in your teeth and apple juice is flying everywhere. why is it that fruit tastes so much better when chilled? mmm.

wow. the guy in the next cube just left. he's always here really late, making me feel guilty for leaving early (early in my office = before 6pm). i heard my manager leave, too. hmmm....do i stay or do i go? ahhhh! i must say that i was actually productive today. i learned stuff, too. it's kind of exciting to learn new stuff. i might actually be smart in my conference call on thursday. i hate being the junior engineer that just sits there not being able to contribute. although...it's scary to say anything conclusive in front of a client...they're gonna spend money based on what you just said, and wow, it would suck if you were wrong and cost them 50 grand.

decision: i'm going home.



[ nanaba | 5:25 PM | | ]



Monday, January 12, 2004  
so

sleeeeppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


[ nanaba | 2:22 PM | | ]



Friday, January 09, 2004  
happy friday!

finally.

this is me leaving early. woohoo! have a good weekend!!


[ nanaba | 2:07 PM | | ]



Wednesday, January 07, 2004  
i feel really bad. i sent a report to one of the project managers that always gives me work...and he called back: "is there something wrong? usually your reports are impeccable and i'm sending you a lot of comments." dangit. first of all, i didn't think that he thought my work was impeccable...especially since i felt he was pretty hard on me when i first started doing work for him. and second, i hate disappointing people. he thought i was suffering from a concussion or something. well i'm suffering from being constantly nauseated and crazy hormone changes, but i haven't told my manager yet and i didn't think he should be the first to know. bleh. work stuff. i'll get over it. and just to add to my day...i finally get my butt out of bed early enough that i'll be on time for work and it takes me two hours to get here. *sigh*


[ nanaba | 11:48 AM | | ]



Tuesday, January 06, 2004  
my mom is the cutest ever. this is an email she sent to my uncles and cousins:

-----

Subject: Good news!

I'm a future grandma. I'm so excited! rah rah rah

-----

who says rah rah rah? so cute. i love her to death.


[ nanaba | 12:28 PM | | ]



Wednesday, December 31, 2003  
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

hellooooo 2004!


[ nanaba | 2:40 PM | | ]



Tuesday, December 30, 2003  
it's so sad that all my email consists of mortgage lenders and store promotions. can we please start emailing each other again?


[ nanaba | 11:57 AM | | ]



Monday, December 29, 2003  
so this is really hard to be sitting here with the other two people in the office. my manager just took off because she doesn't want to be here. nice. i think i slept too much over the weekend...got too used to it. i've been fighting sleep all day. blah blah blah. christmas was good. good times, good family, good food. lots of food. why don't i have more leftovers? they replayed the 1999 women's world cup final last night. what a sweet game. the u.s. women's soccer team rocks. they're just so endearing. i have no point to this blog.

aaaand...i'm done babbling.


[ nanaba | 2:40 PM | | ]



Monday, December 22, 2003  
what a busy weekend. eventful. crazy. fun. and that's all i have to say about that.

it's not even 10:00am and i'm already at my desk. =O!! it's like the first time in two weeks that i actaully started working at 8:00am. wow. i'm a bad employee. so here i am blogging because i'm avoiding doing my timesheet because..well, i really didn't do much work last week. i hate that. well whatever. things are slow. i think i'm over that one for now.

is it just me, or does it not feel like christmas time?


[ nanaba | 9:30 AM | | ]



Thursday, December 18, 2003  
on my way to work this morning, the radio people announced that the nba was going to start a "basketblog". doc rivers and some other dude were going to be the first ones to start. are people really gonna read this???


[ nanaba | 11:37 AM | | ]



Tuesday, December 16, 2003  
it seriously would not have mattered if i came into work yesterday. or even today. i'm completely not busy. if only i didn't have a commitment on tuesday nights...i would be boarding right now. ahhh..boarding. =) there's nothing like the feeling of sitting at the top of a run and then standing up to take the first run...and then the sinking feeling that you might suck cuz it's been almost a year since the last time you've done this. hehe. there's also nothing like psyching yourself out on the way up the chair lift that you're gonna bite it while trying dismount. *note to self: need to shorten leash.

remember when we were in tahoe and hong laughed at every single one of us falling off the chair lift, the whole time not knowing he had a gash in his shin that went down to the bone?

i miss our big boarding trips. BUT! i'm glad we can have these mini boarding trips to our cute michigan "mountains".


[ nanaba | 11:23 AM | | ]



Thursday, December 11, 2003  
punctuation lesson of the day:

is it...

a) The drum was labeled "empty."

or

b) The drum was labeled "empty".

??????????????????????????????


[ nanaba | 12:06 PM | | ]



Wednesday, December 10, 2003  
it's that time of year when doorknobs get dangerous..

you know what i'm talking about: you approach the doorknob. you hesitate. *will i get shocked this time?* you reach to open the doo--bzzt!! of course you'll get shocked! it's december and it's cold and you've been dragging your feet along the carpet. i like how i tap the doorknob first with the back of my hand because of course it won't hurt as much if i use the back of my hand. =P it's really cool when you actually see the voltage. but then it's not so cool because that probably means that it hurt a lot.

i wonder if there are any preventative measures that can be taken to avoid shocks...


[ nanaba | 2:21 PM | | ]



Monday, December 08, 2003  
you guys remember edsel?

he makes it look so easy.

the camera-ing and editing is not so bad either. you'll need quicktime to view.


[ nanaba | 5:22 PM | | ]



Tuesday, December 02, 2003  
my throat hurts. it feels like i'm gonna get really sick. the last time this happened to me was when i was 13 and it was like the only day i ever stayed home sick in junior high.

in other news: we're having our quarterly office bbq today. (yay! free lunch!) every quarterly office bbq our office manager spends a good portion of the morning cooking (or man-cooking, aka grilling) for the entire office. i think that's so nice. cooking for someone says a lot. totally changes my perspective on him. huh.

in less thrilling news: ever since i've moved cubes, no one has stolen my box of tissues....*pause*... should i have just said that out loud?


[ nanaba | 11:55 AM | | ]



Friday, November 21, 2003  
it is nice when a stranger smiles at you.

here's a story for the day:

there was this girl who lived in the same dorm as me my freshman year. always saw her around....always exchanged friendly smiles. she was one of those people that gave you a genuine smile which made you think she'd be really nice. she was also pretty. after a while we ended up running into each other all over campus and having these five minute conversations...which turned into ten minute conversations...etc...

except i never knew her name.

so everytime i talked to her, i'd be wondering what the heck her name was (fairly certain that she didn't know my name either). i mean, once you get into the frequent 5 minute conversations, you're way past the introductory phase where it would be okay to not know her name. *sigh* so for four years i had all these random conversations with a stranger.

the end.


[ nanaba | 2:15 PM | | ]



Wednesday, November 19, 2003  
i've had to talk to quite a few strangers over the last couple days for extended periods of time. i have the following conclusions:

.people are either really nice or really abrasive. i find most people to be very friendly and many of the abrasive ones to be normally friendly people with bad days or pms.

.the normally abrasive people suck to deal with. they make you appreciate the normally friendly people. a lot. i wonder what makes them so harsh. bitterness? perpetual bad attitude? too cynical? too self-centered? social moron?

.there is not much you can do to change a normally abrasive person. just gotta grin and bear it, i guess.

.i am very thankful most people are normally friendly. i don't understand people who aren't. the remorse and guilt that follow meanness would be too much for me to bear...not only that, but isn't it nice to make people smile?


[ nanaba | 11:41 AM | | ]



Wednesday, November 12, 2003  
i heard a song on the radio this morning that i could not, no matter how hard i concentrated, figure out some of the words. this is a pretty frequent occurence, and i've been caught way too many times singing the wrong words, so i wanted to look up the words online. i sang the words i knew over and over in my head (filling in the words i didn't know with a mumbled made up word that sounds kinda right) so i wouldn't forget it. and now that i've remembered to look up the song lyrics, i can't remember what the song was or what it was about or even one single part or word in it. darnit. oh, what was that song???


[ nanaba | 3:03 PM | | ]



Tuesday, November 11, 2003  
my group is getting slow. you know what this means. we're gonna have tons and tons of work right when we don't want it. oh well. thus is work.

i moved cubes. it's smaller and in an uncool location in the office (read: next to the office nazi and in the same area as the really loud annoying guy.) but whatever, we all got moved around, so it's lonely everywhere now. the plus: my cube is now across from the co-worker that went to the pistons game where they were giving out free tayshaun prince bobble heads to the first 10,000 fans. tayshaun prince is great. and guess who got the co-worker's free bobble head? ME!! yeah! (he didnt' want it, calm down.) it doesn't look like him though. i don't think any of the bobble heads look like the player they are supposed to be. do you bobble your head when you say bobble head? hehehehe....


[ nanaba | 1:29 PM | | ]



Monday, November 10, 2003  
i ate my chicken shawarma sandwich at my desk, and apparently made my entire section smell like garlic. i can't smell a darn thing, so who knows how bad my breath is kicking at the moment. listerine sheets would be useful right now. i had to settle for shocktarts. tangent. anyway....you know how rubbing your hands on stainless steel under cold water gets the the garlicky and onion-y smell off your hands after you've handled garlic and onions? i wonder if the same would work on your mouth. like if i were to eat with a stainless steel spoon, would the garlic smell go away? i guess it would be faster to suck on a stainless steel spoon, but that's just weird.

the office nazi got kicked out of her office and now has a secretary cube. can you say bitter? she's being nasty today. i hope it goes away.


[ nanaba | 2:19 PM | | ]



Friday, November 07, 2003  
note to self: next time there's a free kick and you're in the wall, do not connect face with the ball being kicked from five feet away.

apparently the bruises are practically invisible. kimmy says it's just cuz i'm so tan. good thing i went to hawaii.


[ nanaba | 8:59 PM | | ]



Wednesday, November 05, 2003  
ahhh...i can see my desk. all of them. this saturday is our office cleanup day (yeah,yeah..working on a saturday. it gets us an extra day off at christmastime.) i'm getting a head start...just so i won't have to work the whole day on saturday. i've removed several pounds of paper off my desk to the filing cart. i know my secretary must love me. ahhahahahahahaha. i must remember to have dusting supplies this weekend. it's too bad my desk has been buried, otherwise i think the cleaning lady might wipe it down every onece in a while. and should we discuss how dirty the phone gets? hmm. i think maybe not? (as i wipe down the earpiece..) eww.....


[ nanaba | 4:42 PM | | ]



Tuesday, November 04, 2003  
my manager brought in all her leftover halloween candy*.

*let me first note that her husband bought all kinds of candy -- really good candy -- from bit o' honeys to those huge chewy sweetarts to the inside out reese's peanut butter cups to sprees...you get the point. AND he got LOTS of candy. few trick-or-treaters + lots of candy = lots of leftovers.

i'm not huge on sweets, but when all kinds of candy from my childhood are readily available, i just want to eat it all. (oh, and i'm a girl. 'nuff said.) now the dilemma: my manager sits on the other side of the office (the 'boring' side, if you will) and has placed the candy on the secretary's desk. and i really have no business going over to the boring side of the office near the candy without looking like a complete cow. therefore, i must devise several plans to discuss work-related material with my manager, therefore putting the candy conveniently on my way in or out of her office.


[ nanaba | 11:32 AM | | ]



Monday, November 03, 2003  
i don't know why someone keeps stealing my box of tissues. =(

it's like someone not replacing the roll of toilet paper.


[ nanaba | 12:17 PM | | ]



Friday, October 31, 2003  
it's like third grade in my office.

there's a parade --

a BIG clown just walked by complete with the honking red nose. (why do they make their noses honk? is it really that funny?) and there went a headless horsewoman and her pumpkin head...and a doctor...and cruella deville complete with dalmations jacked from a fellow coworker's daughter....and a french maid with purple hair and man legs (that belong to a man)....and a hunter (that's our office manager. he has a sign that says 'A/R hunter' cuz the project managers are really bad at getting invoices out.)...and a genie...and a cowgirl...and a biker chick. man, people went all out. i am highly entertained.

--and we even get a pizza party for lunch!

i just wore all black and brought in kit kats. i have my fairy wings hanging in my cube. i could be like the dark evil fairy.

hmmm.

or not.

anyway...happy halloween!


[ nanaba | 11:34 AM | | ]



Thursday, October 30, 2003  
boredom has taken over.

my manager is gone and i seriously have NOTHING to do. it often seems that i have nothing to do based on my im activities, but really....i'm usually busy. (i'm just an excellent multitasker ;D.) today, nothing. thanks to fung, i have resolved to googling your home phone number (if i have it) to see if your address will pop up in the results.


[ nanaba | 11:58 AM | | ]



Monday, October 27, 2003  
the office nazi is "orientating" the new employee in the cube kitty corner from mine. it's amazing how sickeningly sweet and nice she is being. little does the new employee know that she is conversing with a horrible little troll that will be the worse secretary ever and most condescending person in the office....


[ nanaba | 10:43 AM | | ]



Friday, October 24, 2003  
a list:

- chaos soccer rules
- cold corn tortillas: not so good
- i need to buy eggs
- it's really nice out and yesterday it was in the 30s
- i did not barf yesterday, though i was close
- i love gift certificates
- 30-minute meals is a great great thing
- you have to wash a lot of dishes when you cook every day

that's all.


[ nanaba | 2:30 PM | | ]



Thursday, October 23, 2003  
speaking of barfing....i've been dizzy for the last week. i can't quite shake it (..sha-shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture). lorie thinks i might be pregnant. i say no way. alvin's been dizzy all week, too. he, on the other hand, might be pregnant. can i just say how weird it is that if i were to get pregnant right now, that it would be okay?


[ nanaba | 10:59 AM | | ]

 
i might barf* today. we start indoor tonight....fives plus the goalie, 2 girls on the field at all times. i fear that because i haven't run since before the wedding...i just might barf after two minutes on the field. we lost our star girl player this session. boo. so right now there's three girls...and since fung and i don't play offense...sorry, conehead. it's all you. ;D just kidding. you have a sub. just one. =) this is exciting. physical activity. i'm not quite conveying the excitement. let me just give a WOOHOO!!! there we go.

*the funniest word lorie knows is "barf". i think it's the funny because she says it like she's barfing.


[ nanaba | 10:47 AM | | ]



Tuesday, October 21, 2003  
why do you think we store our pens/pencils in our pen/pencil cups with the caps up? all my markers and bic pens are sitting in cap-side up. one would think that we would store them the other way to promote the flow of ink easily through the ball point. i know this. i believe it. yet i don't change. when i pick up a pen to write with, i want to be able to write immediately instead of scribbling on a scrap piece of paper to get the ink flowing. and let's be honest...do we always have a scrap piece of paper to scribble on?


[ nanaba | 11:04 AM | | ]



Monday, October 20, 2003  
i am sitting here waiting to deliver a report. i was supposed to deliver it to the client by 2pm. i'm still waiting for the text from another office.

basically, i'm bored.

i hate that i'm bored. i hate that i have so much stuff to do but i can't do it because at any minute i'll have to leave...and it will most likely be right smack dab in the middle of an intense train of thought. er...did i say can't? i meant "don't want to". hehe.

i'm a bit light headed. i don't know if it's from all the campfire smoke (lots and LOTS) from the weekend or from not showering or changing my clothes for three days or from being sick for hanging out outside when it's 35 degrees....or maybe it's just a sign that i should go home and sleep. sleeeeeep. yeah! i didn't sleep too well last night. i woke up at 5am for no reason. no reason! perhaps i am coming down with something. maybe....laziness?? i feel that i am the least motivated of all my friends.

....aaannd i gotta go deliver the report. ha. i knew it!!! thank goodness for blogging and e-ddt to make the time go by....

more later.


[ nanaba | 2:45 PM | | ]



Friday, October 17, 2003  
T.G.I.F.


[ nanaba | 3:19 PM | | ]



Tuesday, October 14, 2003  
i suck.

my week is officially not going well.


[ nanaba | 2:57 PM | | ]



Monday, October 13, 2003  
went to chicago today.

i went to chicago like i go to ann arbor for the day. in a car. but much farther.

let's never do this again.

i was a complete dumbhead today on many levels. but we're over it.

on top of that, my leg is telling me that it will rain soon.


[ nanaba | 11:21 PM | | ]



Sunday, October 12, 2003  
my tummy hurts. ate too much good food for chrissy's bday dinner at bucas. went to coldstone after. it's overratted and i was full, yet i ate. ughhhh....

anyway.

this weekend i was finally emerged back into "the swing of things"...actually hung out with someone that wasn't eric. (and i think i'm finally over my jet lag.) i'm still reeling from the wedding. i'm about as good as this one is at vocabulary, and to say that it was the most unbelievable time would be like saying God is smart.


.i'm so touched that a million peope who we love dearly came from so far away to be with us on that day.

.i loved that wherever i looked in the church and in the reception hall i saw a face of someone that i was so incredibly happy to see.

.i loved that i could jump from one end of the dance floor to the other and jam with every single person on the way from point A to point B.

.i loved that we all sang and jumped and danced our brains out to songs that some people would be ashamed of knowing every word to...(ahem..."ooh baby do you know what that's worth").

.i loved that not one of us hesitated when eric demanded that we all do the running man like our lives depended on it.

.i loved that vibe had a mini jam session in the entry way just like the good old days.

.i loved that love was just ridiculously oozing out of every person there. if i didn't kiss you and tell you i loved you at the reception, i must have missed you and i owe you a kiss and this is me telling you that i love you. =)

.i loved that 50 of you organized from all over the country to bring back old old old skool to brand brand new dances just for us to remember and celebrate what brought us together as a family.

.i love all the pictures and posts and emails and e-ddt going on. *high five for the internet* (two times...)


eric and i were sitting in the airport the day after the wedding going "i can't believe that just happened to us." seriously...i have never felt so much emotion and love and joy than on that day. the whole day. i'm sure there were things that went wrong...and i'm sure that the best wedding party ever to be a wedding party kept all that secret from us...but i was floating. i still am. i might never come down.

what really amazes me is that with all the love we felt that day and still feel today, that that is not even a glimpse of what God has for us. and it really is He who made that day so amazing. it would not have been anything close to what it was if not for Him. the biggest group hug in the world...my heart was overflowing and overflowing at the point. ("i can only imagine....")

*sigh*

i love you guys so much. =)


[ nanaba | 10:15 PM | | ]



Wednesday, October 08, 2003  
HAPPY
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY,
DINNER
BUDDY!!!!!


[ nanaba | 8:39 PM | | ]



Tuesday, October 07, 2003  
aaaannd...

we're back.

did these past two weeks really just happen?

...more to come.


[ nanaba | 12:09 AM | | ]



Monday, September 22, 2003  
t minus 5 days 23 hours and 59 minutes til the big day...

i wonder why they say "t minus".

when i did plays in high school we called the week of the show "hell week", which is kind of what this kind of reminds me of....scrambling to get everything together so it's just so, but not so much hell...maybe we should rename it "carrrraaaazzzy week". ha. that was dumb.

i've cried a lot...mostly because i'm gonna miss my family sooo soo much. but, really, i'm not gonna miss them like i'm moving to alaska or something (because i'm moving a mile away)...deep down i know it's because they mean more to me than they know. well...they know now. it's very strange to think that when i wake up on christmas, my brother won't be jumping on my bed yelling "time to open the presents!!!" and my mom yelling at us every sunday morning before church "are you up?" and then hauling ass so we won't hear the dreaded car horn. anyway...the important thing is to get all that crying stuff out of the way so i can focus on marrying the man i love so much.

usually the times when i'm crying, i'm not really crying for me. my mom always tells me that i get too emotionally invested in other people's feelings. i'll cry for you and with you if you're sad. i'll be truly angry and upset with you if you're angry and upset. i'll even hunt whoever got you that mad down and beat them up. i will jump up and down and smile with you when you're happy. basically, i'm super empathetic. but you know what? i can't help it. i just love everyone too much!


[ nanaba | 12:03 AM | | ]



Friday, September 19, 2003  
okay, i should have posted this yesterday, but i "stayed home sick" so i didn't really jump on a computer yesterday for longer than 5 minutes..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUNSO!!!!

watch out, everyone...she's fully legal. she's buying alcohol and everything with her very own i.d. and for the record, eric met her when she was 12. ahahahahahahahaahaha....


[ nanaba | 9:43 AM | | ]



Monday, September 15, 2003  
i have been spoiled.

you really can't beat front row courtside tickets to any game, much less the wnba finals. it's all about cheering and screaming and the players and refs and them actually hearing you. so. much. fun.


[ nanaba | 11:35 AM | | ]



Friday, September 12, 2003  
too much stuff is going on in my head. i'm starting to get that overwhelming feeling of having too much to do. i thrived in that feeling all through college (and high school and middle school). i have since learned to relax and take time to just hang out with people. i think what i like most about not being super busy is not having to mentally check things off in my head and think about what's next and what do i have to do to be ready for the next thing...and instead i get to focus on my family or my friends and what's going on with them and if they're happy or sad or in between.

in a nutshell...these last few months have made me really evaluate where i am with my family and God and myself....and i've been preparing myself to leave my extremely wonderful family to start a life with an equally (if not more) wonderful man. and a part of doing that is really cherishing the moments that i am at home and i can spend time with my family....it gets hard when i'm always thinking about that phone call i forgot to make and the thing i was supposed to do a week ago and when i was gonna find time to pack or do laundry. so i guess i'm really thankful that i didn't schedule myself to death after graduation the way i did in college. eric used to ask me what i wanted to do with myself after graduation....what am i passionate about? what do you want to do that's not work? and all i could answer was that i really felt God calling me to spend time with my family, spend time with my friends..really be there for them the way a good friend should. it felt silly at the time, because being that not busy felt lazy to me. who knew that He was getting me ready for the big change that will happen in two weeks.

TWO WEEKS!!!!

i am very excited. wheeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


[ nanaba | 1:11 PM | | ]



Friday, September 05, 2003  
this is kind of unbelievable, so it must be recorded.

it's 6:55am and i've been at work for 15 minutes.

i opened my email to see this message (regarding idaho):

did you already order the historical/database stuff for this and get your plane ticket?

don't ask yet why i'm asking. it will just piss you off.

needless to say, i will not be very upset if i don't have to go.

i went to einstein's this morning and saw that they had pumpkin spice muffins out already. ?!!?!! it's a seasonal item, they say. i hate it when marketing forces the seasons to change when they most definitely have not. people! just take a look at the calendars. on september 23rd it clearly states "autumn begins". can we please stop and bask in summer before we get all grumpy when the weather turns gray? and will launch please please put summertime sounds back on the station list?


[ nanaba | 7:08 AM | | ]



Wednesday, September 03, 2003  
so i'm off to idaho. not just yet..on monday. it's very strange to say that i am going to idaho.

i am going to idaho.

eric asked me yesterday to name two cities in idaho. "uhh..boise....and...." *nothing* (we came up with another ridiculous name, but it's too ridiculous to put in writing because it's THAT fake.)

so now i know two more cities. the one i'm flying into and the one i'm visiting. ha.

i kind of wish that it was december and my snowboarding buddies could come with...cuz i'm going to the corner of idaho that touches wyoming, colorado and utah. i almost flew into utah to get a cheaper flight. but who wants to drive three hours once you get off a 5 hour flight? well...i guess i would if it meant that work was paying for me to fly and stay and eat out there with a car and my site inspection just so happened to land on a thursday and i couldn't get a flight out til sunday and my snowboarding gear just happened to end up in my luggage. =P tangent. my whole morning has been wasted finding flights to pocattello airport. must eat.

happy wednesday! (it feels like a monday. how cool is that?)


[ nanaba | 1:10 PM | | ]



Thursday, August 28, 2003  
for the record, the summertime sounds station on launch is the best. if you want to bob your head as you im me (ahem, "work"), you should take a listen....


[ nanaba | 4:56 PM | | ]



Monday, August 25, 2003  
have you ever tried dusting off your phone and your stapler and your tape dispenser with tape? it's highly effective.

yes. work is that interesting today.


[ nanaba | 4:31 PM | | ]



Friday, August 22, 2003  
i rolled into my office parking lot 20 minutes ago...and i totally fell asleep for 20 minutes before i got out of the car. i've been really sleepy on my way to work lately. it's time to consider a closer place of work.


[ nanaba | 8:55 AM | | ]



Wednesday, August 20, 2003  
i ate too much.

don't you hate when you eat yourself stupid? i think i'm still full from yesterday....

[at the movies]: wanna get concessions? i have $5 off. "okay."
[after the movie]: wanna go to b-dubs? it's 30 cent tuesday. "okay."
[after dinner]: wanna go to coldstone and get super awesome ice cream? *pause* "okay."

i'm so stupid! although there isn't a single item that i can eat myself stupid with. (well except for oreos, but that's only because when you dunk the oreo in milk you have to put the whole thing in your mouth or else the cookie will fall apart. thank goodness for the orDIPeo.) my brother eats a lot of ice cream. A LOT. he can eat more ice cream than anyone i know. it's actually pretty gross. hehe. (love you ny!) eric will eat dessert no matter what (especially if cookies are involved). in fact, if given the opportunity, he would probably eat dessert first and last. kimmie is a fan of dip-type foods. crackers and spinach dip, apples and caramel dip, chips and salsa....i think she would like pita bread and hummus if she ever tried it.

do you think that if i drink a lot of water i'll feel better? (the logic lies in the dilution factor. hmm...)


[ nanaba | 1:39 PM | | ]



Monday, August 18, 2003  
"see? this is what happens when you always wait until the last minute to get gas."

most memorable quote of the 'BLACKOUT OF 2003' by my mom. mmm. thanks, mom. really. can you please pick a worse time to begin a mini lecture?. gridlock. 90 degrees and humid. no gas, therefore no a/c. i'm just trying to get home! it was amazing that i even got through on the phone. but that's my mom. super practical and conservative with the gas tank. she's one of those that thinks she has no gas when the needle dips below the 1/2-full mark. 1/2 tank?!! that's like to ann arbor and back with gas to spare! anyway...i can laugh about it with her now. i know those mini lectures come from her wanting us to learn from our mistakes...and if we learn from that mistake then we can save her the worry next time. i love her to death.

i wonder what it must be like for her to have to bear the sole parental burden of worrying about us three kids for these last 6 years. today marks my dad's 6 year death anniversary. i remember when he got sick and when he got better and then sick again and then God finally took his pain away forever and left me sad and angry and confused. and then there was healing. and now it's today. six years later. i hardly mention him partly because it's weird to have people not know what to say besides "i'm sorry" (when there really isn't anything to say) and also because if you get me at a fragile moment, i'll probably start crying. i used to have to leave the room during the father/daughter dance at weddings because i would get so so sad knowing that my daddy wouldn't be at my wedding to dance with me. but no tears! daddy's in a Better Place (or on his way there, i'm still praying) and i have the most wonderful family ever. plus my mom rocks on the dance floor. i'll dance with her instead. =D


[ nanaba | 1:11 PM | | ]



Thursday, August 14, 2003  
conclusion of the morning: more trucks on the freeway = more traffic. much more.


[ nanaba | 10:29 AM | | ]



Monday, August 11, 2003  
woohoo!! gary and mads have the most precious baby girl. happy birthday lucia!

we're sooo spoiling that little girl.


[ nanaba | 10:59 AM | | ]



Friday, August 08, 2003  
i am wearing new pants. =D

i haven't gotten new clothes for fun in a long time. it's actually kind of nice to not really really need (actual meaning: want) to have the latest and greatest in clothes...or to constantly buy new clothes (constantly=once a month or more frequently). it's nice to have that desire to be replaced by "i could either get these really cool shoes that i may or may not wear a lot or have a nice dinner with eric" or "i could get this awesome bag or not get it so we have money to go to mammoth in december". life's so different when your money isn't just your money. there's really no room for unbudgeted selfishness. the only thing that's a little funny is that since you share money, when you get each other gifts...the gift is technically from the other person, but then is it really because you kind of half paid for it? and if you're spending one person's income and saving the other person's, then you didnt' even half pay for it if you're the one whose money is being saved. heehee.

so back to my new pants...i love them. that's it. i'm basically excited about new clothes and wanted to share. that stuff about sharing money was just a tangent.


[ nanaba | 1:11 PM | | ]



Wednesday, August 06, 2003  
so not to keep talking about this site....the wooded one...i know you're probably all hating it as much as me....so the woods. four weeks going on five. it's been hot. i have a weird tan line. i've been soaked in bug spray. it has sucked. today was the last day of it, and lo and behold on our way back to the site after lunch we get a phone call:

"um, when you guys get this message you need to come back to the office because the job has been cancelled."

WTH?!!!! i'm not really mad (although the last few weeks have been pretty torturous)....because despite the woods and stuff it has been a really good site. some really good stories...lots of deaths and suicides and psychos...cool stuff like electroshock bathtubs and labotomy observation rooms....met some interesting characters and learned a lot of stuff for work. i suppose the best part is that i don't have to write up the monster report. although it might suck when the developer calls us in two months saying the project is back on and can you get us that report and remember all that stuff from 3 months ago? but we won't worry about that right now.

i'm a little bit giddy. this news has created a buzz around the company, and i've also just consumed a very large caramel frappaccino. i should work. i've been completely useless today. (hmm..that must be the coffee talking.....)


[ nanaba | 3:58 PM | | ]



Monday, August 04, 2003  
it has gotten to the point that when i drive and i see wooded areas i think "wow, that would be really crappy to walk through." it's bad when i close my eyes and i see thickets and branches and vines and prickers. and the thought "they don't pay me enough to do this" goes through my head. a few realizations:

a) the project manage and developer officially suck for making us walk 5 hours a day through the bush for the last 4 weeks.
b) walking 5 hours a day through the bush for 4 weeks causes my leg to ache and ache and ache, thus making me miss our last soccer game (arghh...)
c) bone injuries ache more when it's going to rain or is raining
d) off! with deet is great bug spray
e) although d)=true, there is nothing that will keep icky deer flies from attacking you constantly.

but no worries! the light is visible at the end of the tunnel.....one more day to endure, and hopefully i will never have to return. =D

p.s. 54 days and counting...




[ nanaba | 8:42 PM | | ]



Friday, August 01, 2003  
hahahaahahah...working from home! la la la la la!

apparently my last entry made me sound like i was in a deep upsetting state. not so. there wasn't really much of a need to feel better as there was a need to eat chocolate. hehe. i'm not sure that made sense. but it's good to shed a couple tears now and then, no? i mean, if you never cried just because people don't usually cry, what would happen when you finally did cry? all emotions and pent up "tough guy/girl" tears will just all cascade into an avalanche of deep hiccuping sobs, a stuffy nose, and an inability to speak until said hicupping sobs subside. it's kind of nice to be able to cry with someone. not that both people will be crying....but that you can freely shed tears and the other person will just understand that it's necessary to cry and won't fall all over the place trying to comfort you because it's not really needed. (that was a really bad run-on sentence. i seem to speak in those quite often.)


[ nanaba | 10:39 AM | | ]



Monday, July 28, 2003  
(what's with this template changing all the time???)

it's an emotional day. the last time it was this bad, i cried during space camp when they made it back to earth. don't laugh. it's can cause a tear or two. (or not...i'm sure you're laughing anyway.) i'm not sure guys quite appreciate the absence of moodiness caused by hormonal imbalance. it's a real thing. on a somewhat related sidenote....i remember g once putting menstrual cramps into perspective for guys: it's like someone kicking you in the nuts as hard as possible at any given time of any given day once a month. although i don't think the pain is quite the same, a guy could definitely relate.


[ nanaba | 11:46 PM | | ]



Friday, July 25, 2003  
oh, to not have the scent of bug spray mixed with sweat and the outside exuding from me....


[ nanaba | 12:11 PM | | ]



Friday, July 18, 2003  
i cannot stress enough how much i despise walking through woods.


[ nanaba | 8:22 AM | | ]

 
YO.

check this out.

HOTNESS.

so cute i might puke. and is that my brother blogging?.....watch out.


[ nanaba | 12:24 AM | | ]



Tuesday, July 15, 2003  
people might say this all the time, but i think it's really true when i say that i have the greatest greatest friends in all the world. eric and i have the most beatiful and fun and caring and helpful bridal party EVER. ever ever ever ever ever. 10 weeks and counting....


[ nanaba | 9:07 PM | | ]



Friday, July 11, 2003  
my feet hurt. i feel like i did dance marathon...without the 30 hours of non-sleep.


[ nanaba | 7:57 AM | | ]



Monday, July 07, 2003  
there are a lot of words that i don't know. like when some of you blog, i have to look up a lot of words. my sister once used fortuitous in a blog. i don't think i could ever know the definition of that word cold enough to even use it in a sentence. perhaps i should start reading more than harry potter.....i thought i was in a book club.......


[ nanaba | 12:21 PM | | ]



Tuesday, July 01, 2003  
who's a star in their car?

you know what i'm talking about: singing your brains out with full out emotion at the top of your voice...and as far as you're concerned you ARE the STAR of the road/city/whatever you're in. why don't we all have karaoke cd's in our cars? (remember when cassette singles always had an instrumental version on side B?)


[ nanaba | 2:57 PM | | ]



Monday, June 30, 2003  
finished harry potter this weekend....stayed up til 6:30am on saturday to do it. man..i just got so emotionally invested in thse books that i needed to keep reading so that i wouldn't be upset the next day. whew. but all done. =D what a good book...and it's about time, too....i had that book on hold at the waldenbooks in briarwood since my senior year at umich...


[ nanaba | 11:47 AM | | ]



Friday, June 27, 2003  
AT LAST.

it's friday.

when i worked at pd we used to work longer on monday-thursday so we could leave at 11 on friday mornings. i thought that was nice...cuz it was only an extra hour that we had to work the rest of the week, and can i see hands from all those who work that extra hour anyway? i don't know why i'm talking about this, being that i am writing this from my dining room table. telecommuting is a wonderful thing. i want to thank the email and internet inventors for making this possible. although i don't think i could work from home everyday. i think i would go crazy with no other faces around...i'm not exactly close friends with people from work, but it's nice to have outside human interaction on a semi-intellectual/professional level. it adds layers to life. breaks up the monotony. why is it that we need variety? i'll leave it at that cuz i feel ramblings surging....


[ nanaba | 11:16 AM | | ]



Wednesday, June 25, 2003  
funny-looking word of the day:

laughter

laughter laughter laughter laughter. it starts to look wrong when you keep typing it.

will people PLEASE blog? i'm getting bored at work....


[ nanaba | 12:59 PM | | ]



Monday, June 23, 2003  
there's a bruise on my wrist (surprise surprise)...right where my wrist rests to type. i got it while trying to kill this moth that had found it's way into my house. i'm not gonna front...i HATE bugs. HATE. ants, i can handle if they aren't by the hundreds....flies, i'm not so scared of, they're just annoying. almost everything else...YUCK. ew. scary. yes, scary. i know there's probably nothing to be scared of, but EW. basically, i'm a bug killer...but not a very good one. and my oh so loving fiance just likes to watch me react (or freak out). had he just killed the moth FOR me (and for the record, he was closer), i would not be bruised. let's start a list -- reason #1 why winter gets two thumbs up: no bugs.


[ nanaba | 2:24 PM | | ]



Thursday, June 19, 2003  
can we talk about how i got to work 40 minutes later than i should have because gawkers caused an 8 mile back up on 3 freeways today?

...and we have, so i'm done.


[ nanaba | 10:01 AM | | ]



Thursday, June 12, 2003  
they really do melt in your mouth, m&ms. it's the first time i really noticed as i eat a bag of m&ms contemplating what would happen if i saved all my purple m&ms from many bags so that i'd have enough to make a whole bag of purple m&ms, thus winning 100 million yen. but alas...too easy. they numbered the bags. they'd know if i was a fraud. i do enjoy the purple color, though. fun food. i'm glad it's just food coloring cuz how gross would grape chocolate be?


[ nanaba | 4:30 PM | | ]



Tuesday, June 10, 2003  
the closest i've ever come to a cow was at a petting farm. but they're isolated and in a fence, so i know they won't hurt me. so today i was doing a site inspection (or field mission as jon would say) at this farm. the owner only used about an acre of this 50-acre property. the rest was grass. but as a responsible professional, it was my duty to walk the ENTIRE site. uck. at least it's nice out, although i don't appreciate the odor of cow dung.

how far to the edge of the property line? i ask..
see the cows? there's a fence there. do you see it? the owner says..
yes, i see the fence between me and the cows, keeping the cows on the other side. that's it?
yes. that far. you good? i go.

the owner only used about an acre of the site, which was fenced off and had chained gates. so i'm walking around all this vacant grassy land by myself and i notice the cows are moving...not just moving...moving towards where i am....i wonder how they hopped the fence and realized that the fenceposts were there, not so much the fence itself. CRAP. the cows are now RUNNING to where i am. mild panic. i don't like cows. they smell. and can they trample me? and i'm outside the safety fence (i had to climb over the fence). dammit. flash to me one minute later calling eric on my cell phone because i just totally ran from some cows and hopped a fence to safety.

i called the owner a couple hours later and asked if the cows were his. 'just beware of the bull, that's the only one you need to worry about.' gee, thanks. you'd think i'd get some kind of advanced notice. at least pay me more if i'm gonna have to run from stinky cows. needless to say, i didn't finish and i'm going back tomorrow with a truck.


[ nanaba | 3:47 PM | | ]



Monday, June 09, 2003  
pay attention. not all the time. but for the bigger stuff. when you remember the basic gist of things...people feel important. when you remember the details...whoa...people feel super important. it drives me NUTS when people that SHOULD know things don't because they weren't listening when your mouth was moving. the pm for my new project just walked in saying "i see you got in touch with your site contact." did i not go up to you exactly 6 days ago to tell you that 1) i HAD touched base with the site contact and 2) i had set up the site inspections and told you the dates????? bah..i'm just complaining because he's not much of a pm (that's putting it nicely) and never ever ever knows what's going on with his projects. silly me, what was i expecting? and by now i'm over it and realize that this blog is a little bit stupid. but it's monday. not that it being monday should be an excuse. but it's a good excuse for a lot of things, no?


[ nanaba | 12:35 PM | | ]



Friday, June 06, 2003  
whew. blogger scared me for a minute. it's baaacckk!!!! =D


[ nanaba | 4:20 PM | | ]



Thursday, June 05, 2003  
this sucks. i just lost all my entries. WTH!!!


[ nanaba | 4:46 PM | | ]

 
whoa. new template. thought i was in the wrong place for a minute.

the new intern just called one of the project managers mr. reed. it's just funny to hear someone address a superior by "mr." after high school.....we didn't even address our professors that way....


[ nanaba | 2:09 PM | | ]



Wednesday, June 04, 2003  
so i'm clumsy. just a little. i tend to spill stuff and trip on stuff...i bruise easily so there's plenty of evidence. i only bring this up because i managed to spill water on my lap today at my lunch meeting. opening a bottle of water...and wouldn't ya know? all of a sudden it's all over my lap. dangit. i used to deny that i was clumsy. i think used to equate it with carelessness. i'm definitely not careless. i'm definitely clumsy. this is me embracing it. perhaps putting it out there will end this streak of clumsiness...


[ nanaba | 12:50 PM | | ]



Monday, June 02, 2003  
how did it get to be june so fast?

happy birthday, chrislum!!


[ nanaba | 3:09 PM | | ]



Wednesday, May 28, 2003  
so my last blog was a lie. it obviously worked because....tada!! my initial intention was to audio blog the song that g, eric, and nate were singing at michelle's wedding. i completely forgot in the middle of the wedding, so karaoke it is! enjoy even if you can't understand a word....

Powered by audblogaudblog audio post


[ nanaba | 3:40 AM | | ]



Tuesday, May 27, 2003  
my audio blog didn't work.

boo.

let's take a moment to remember the fun time at which the audio blog took place. $25 all you can drink/all you can sing. yes. take a long moment....



[ nanaba | 9:55 AM | | ]



Tuesday, May 20, 2003  
whoa. manager not in today. seriously thinking about my presence at this desk.

new york in two days. people getting married in four.

let the madness begin...


[ nanaba | 10:26 AM | | ]



Monday, May 19, 2003  
they forgot the dressing on my greek salad. and i didn't even order a greek salad, i ordered the classic cafe salad. two thumbs down. it's interesting, eating a salad with no dressing on it. in fact, i can't even think of it as a salad.

hi, i'm eating lettuce and red onions and feta cheese garnished with tomato wedeges and a pepper.

it's a rare day where i have nothing to do, which ends up working out beautifully since i can't access my computer or my email on any other computer and the i/s group is in canada, which happens to be on holiday today. oh. and someone stole my mouse. who does that? i'm not really complaining since i can't use my computer anyway. (i'm on my old suuuuppper sloooooooow pc.) it's definitely a blah day. pistons didn't win. boo. no work to do. boo? yay? i can't decide. i'm gonna go back to eating my lettuce.


[ nanaba | 1:27 PM | | ]



Monday, May 12, 2003  
so i'm looking through my planner....checking due dates for reports and available dates for florist visiting and bridal registering days and i see next week....michelle's getting married NEXT WEEK!!! (not to mention i'll be seeing a bunch of you crazy cats all in one place for the first time in a while.) NEXT WEEK!!!! where did the time go??? alvin received a bit of my freaked-outedness, so i'm a bit subdued now. so much to do. need to practice. must make lists. and tables. everything makes more sense in tables. i can't wait to see everyone!!! weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!


[ nanaba | 1:48 PM | | ]



Wednesday, May 07, 2003  
two things:

1) the pistons are GREAT.

2) thundersticks are GREAT and pure genius (rhymes with....).


[ nanaba | 1:44 PM | | ]



Monday, May 05, 2003  
working til death...not about it....

all about going to the pistons game tomorrow....there's a light at the end of the tunnel....


[ nanaba | 7:06 PM | | ]



Tuesday, April 29, 2003  
are there people that you're just straight up not nice to? man...there's this guy at work who i can't seem to tolerate because he tends to always complain and push work off on other people (e.g. ME). i also happen to think that he's an idiot for how much so-called experience he has. did i mention the whiny voice and the brown nosing? ugh. i'm really just not nice to him at all. i need help. i'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation for his behavior. i just need believe that there is.


[ nanaba | 3:49 PM | | ]

 
there is something about having hair covering my eye or part of my eye that keeps me from being able to concentrate. it's like everything is blurry because hair is touching the vicinity of my eye. push it away and *poof* immediate clarity. but this piece of hair keeps annoyingly falling in front of my right eye. that combined with the sun shining outside gives me a.d.d. or is it a.d.h.d.? i think they recently added the h. or maybe not so recently. tangent. anyway. the bottom line is that my manager is going to miami for the rest of the week (and wouldn't ya know...she's staying at the roney) and i can't concentrate. what to do what to do....


[ nanaba | 1:58 PM | | ]



Monday, April 28, 2003  
word of the day: ne·far·i·ous

infamous by way of being extremely wicked.

*someone actually used this in a sentence to me today. watch out.


[ nanaba | 11:38 AM | | ]



Thursday, April 17, 2003  
i'm sooo outta here.

happy Easter!!!!


[ nanaba | 4:34 PM | | ]



Tuesday, April 15, 2003  
my computer is turned so that whoever's passing by can't see my screen...and when they see me intently typing or reading blogs, it'll look like i'm working really hard and they won't bug me. the worst is when someone comes into the cube to talk......and then all your im's that you minimized (cuz no one's responded for the last half hour) all of a sudden start blinking like crazy...like they're trying to give you away! i wonder if they even know what those blinking lights mean on the bottom of my screen...

this is the stuff i think about. nothing heavy. nothing super philosophical (or philosophical period). i wonder why people insist on making their headlights that annoying bright white when scientists and engineers that have spent years doing ergonomic studies have deemed yellow-white to be the most driver-friendly headlight color. i wonder about the people at my work who seem to only have a good time drinking beer and if they have some deeper side that fulfills them on a mental level. i wonder when my doctor will call me back to tell me if my leg is fractured. i think about the best way to get to bible study by using my car as little as possible. do i go home and get a ride with eric? do i drive to ann arbor and get a ride with someone there? i read the bottom of my snapple caps and wonder why only male turkeys gobble and why elephants don't jump. maybe this is why my vocabulary is so limited. i don't think about super complex things and therefore don't require large words with more than two syllables to express my thoughts.

anyway...back to work.


[ nanaba | 11:40 AM | | ]



Monday, April 14, 2003  
i'm getting a headache from not working. i can only hope for new blog entries for so long. why won't anyone blog for me?


[ nanaba | 4:06 PM | | ]

 
i would also like to add that exactly one week ago there was half a foot of snow on the ground and today there is a high of 74. thank you.


[ nanaba | 3:07 PM | | ]

 
fun fact of the day:

only male turkeys can gobble.


[ nanaba | 1:48 PM | | ]



Thursday, April 10, 2003  
for the amount of work that i'm getting done today, i think it would have been better if i had stayed home.


[ nanaba | 12:31 PM | | ]



Wednesday, April 09, 2003  
i just want to say that the sun is out.

SMILES FOR EVERYONE!!

* =) * =) * =) * =) * =) * =) *=) * =) *


[ nanaba | 3:26 PM | | ]



Monday, April 07, 2003