12 Days Till Closing

I'm excited that the time is near. I am so blessed to be able to build my first home to my liking of mostly every details. Here are the pictures I took along the journey.





First time homeowner, with no co-signer may I add, at age 22, what an accomplishment. I bought my first car at age 20 with no co-signer also! *Pat on back*

I'm buying a house!

Welcome to 2011 everyone! I am very excited this year because I am purchasing my first home. I will update my blogs with every step of the journey (or at least try). So far I am still very early in the process. I just signed the contract and am waiting for permits to be approved so that construction can begin on my house.


Before buying a house though here are a few tips I can give. These tips will not only prepare you in buying a home but it will prepare you for anything in the future as you will learn that credit is very important in life. I would say these tips are most useful for young adults who just graduated high school as that is when I started to build my credit.

• Open an account at a credit union

Growing up I always get a statement monthly from my credit union because my dad opened a savings account for me there. I remember feeling so "grown up" to get mail let alone a bank statement! Credit unions aren't out there to make money off of you like banks are. Credit union are owned and controlled by its members. They provide very competitive rates on loans and credit cards. I love my credit union credit card because the interest rate is the same for both purchases and cash advances without any annual fees or fees for cash advances. It is also one of the lowest interest rate cards I have. When I bought my first car at the age of 20, my credit union approved me instantly when I applied online. Mind you, I applied for a $35,000 loan for my first car and I didn't have to put anything down.

• Always always pay your bills on time

I can not stress this enough because it is so important. In life you will make several big purchases that you will not be able to pay cash for. Instances being a house or a car. Heck you may even discover one day your fridge broke and you suddenly need a new one with pay day not coming close enough so you have to charge the fridge. Lenders and banks will be looking at your credit report to see if you have been paying your bills on time because this shows you can manage debt and money.

• Start off with only one or two credit card

I have more than 2 now but when I turned 18 I had one and I used it very wisely making sure to NEVER go over my credit limit and only charging what I know I can pay. My family is not well off so I worked alot in high school to buy myself anything that I wanted or needed. I know alot of young adults did use credit cards wisely and end up regretting it later.

Here comes the bride...

My cousin got married this past Saturday during the Memorial Day Weekend. Heres a couple pics to hold down a post while I wait for more pictures to come. I am not very photogenic on my camera but other's people's camera, yea. Wierd. Plus I dont like to bust out my camera.

At the church

Look! We're matching! (His idea) Well, you cant tell but his shirt is light green and his tie is navy and black.

Me and my cousin Willy, he was the ring boy. So handsome!

The bride's sister Jennifer and I

Vicky and Tony now Mr. and Mrs!

Father, daughter dance

My mom and I, before she got wasted (yes my bf had to carry her out bc she got crunk)


Family picture with EVERYONE for once! Yea my brother hates to dress up.


He's matching me again! His tie has magenta and silver because my shoes were silver.

Onto FOOD OF THE DAY (FOTD)!

Salsbury steak, garlic mash, and tomatoes&okra yummmm-O! Don't be fooled by the box, its not to-go thats just how I pack his lunch for him.

Mission: Pain Relief for Feet, FOTD, Smokey Brown Look

I start my new job on Monday yay. For the 3 days that I did a work-in interview I was on my feet ALL day 8+ hours and OMG it hurt, no I take that back it BURNED. It was so painful that I had to sometimes relieve the weight on my feet my standing on the side of my feet. So I was on a quest this whole week to find some comfortable shoes. I went to Village Shoe Shop to check out some Birkenstocks. Come to find out I'm flat feet! (I know, all this time I did not realize it) UGH! Didnt have my size in stock so she suggested some Birkenstock orthotic but I didnt bring my tennis shoes so I couldnt try them on. I swear I spent every night this week researching comfortable shoes. After that I went to the The Walking Company to try on some shoes etc, and they have these custom orthotic for flat feet and they were a whopping $80 bucks! I bought them to try with my tennis shoes so hopefully they work out. They cost as much as a new pair of shoes!!!


Although my dr. provides his staff with their scrubs, since I'm still in the 90 probation period I have to provide my own. I bought these cute scrubs:
Got one in black and blue. Most scrubs are so plain but I thought this was cute. I am so excited to be wearin scrubs and tennis shoes believe it or not because its just so darn comfortable. Wearing tennis shoes to work wasnt all that great because of my burning foot pain but it should be better next week with the orthotics. Its such a different experience than working behind a desk on a computer all day, which is what I used to be doing.
This is the scrubs the girls in the office voted for this year so after my training period this is what I will be wearing but in grey with pink piping.


Here is my look I wore today. I used my MAC Fascinating Ruby Smokey Eye palette I got for Christmas (I used the brown side), MAC Slimshine in Scant, Smashbox lipgloss in Pop, Skin N Nature BB cream, MSF in Medium Plus, MSF in Redhead topped with Beauty Powder in Pretty Baby. Everything else is not important. =P


Onto the FOTD!
My Deliziosa Chicken Parmegiana, one of the best dishes I've made.

New Job, FOTD

Ive been a housewife for a couple months and as fun as it was and as much as I enjoyed it, I soooooooooooo had to get back to work. Ive always been an independent kinda gal and always enjoyed making and spending my own money. So I finally got a new job. I'm now a dental assistant at a very prestigious endodontics office here in Houston. My doctor is so nice and so are my coworkers. Its a small office so I enjoy that. Overall, I'm glad to be part of the team. They hired me with no experience so I'm learning from scratch and my doctor is so patient and a very good teacher. Just wanted to share the good news. Maybe I can shop again? =x I hope I dont because I need to replenish my savings. =P Oh yea, I love wearing scrubs they are so comfortable. BUT I need to find comfortable shoes because I am ON my feet ALL day and my Nike Shox hurts. I refuse to wear Crocs because they are SOOOOOO uglyyyyyy. Ok on a quest to find something I can be on my feet in all day.

Onto my FOTD

Little did you know, FOTD means food of the day right? This was a delicious blackened fish sandwich with avacado cilantro mayo and slaw my boyfriend made. YUM right? (Yea its not THAT blackened as you can see)

Tabasco and Ketchup? Gumbo?

Another non-makeup related post. Has anyone ever tried this:

I love Tabasco sauce but I hate ketchup. Somehow when these two marry, I really really like it! I kinda wish there was more Tabasco tho. =P I first saw this when I ate with my boyfriend Cuong at http://www.littlebittyburgerbarn.com/. They had a whole collection of hot sauce! But I was super duper hungry and didnt wanna fiddle with all that, it was also my first time there and I tore it uppppp. Anyways if you love Tabasco you should really try this. Did you know it takes a little over 4 years to make a bottle of Tabasco from start to finish?! I went to the factory a while back.

More food porn, I made gumbo yesterday but its sitting in the fridge. I'm letting it sit because I swear it taste soooo much better reheated. So I'm thinking we'll eat it for dinner Friday. We dont have dirty rice but we are asian so we have white rice and thats what we're eating it with. Honestly, it taste the same to me. =P As you all know I dont like to measure when I cook because I believe it should be to taste.

Here are the lists of ingredients I used so that you can replicate if you so choose to: Celery (which I HATEEEEE but the flavor washed out kinda when you cook it), green bell pepper (I feel the same way about these as celery), white onion, frozen okra, garlic, jalapeno smoked sausage (sliced on an angle), chicken (cubed), canned tomatoes, butter, and flour. Spices I used include cumin (a very very very tiny bit or else it will be over powering), garlic POWDER (not garlic salt), onion powder, cayenne, paprika, salt, and pepper.

First I drizzled my pot with a little EVOO and a pat of butter. Browned up the sausage, remove, then brown up the chicken and remove. Put in the bell pepper, onion, and celery (also known as the holy trinity in cajun cooking). When they are all tender, add the garlic and cook for another minute. In another pot make a roux by combining equal part butter and flour. I used about 4 or 5 tablespoon. Mix it so that there are no clumps , the roux will be a blonde color, and let it sit on medium low heat until its a dark brown color and remove from heat to cool. Go back to the original pot and add a couple of cups of chicken stock (I have a recipe I used in my previous entries). While the chicken stock is heating up, scrap the brown bits off the pan because thats your flavor. Add your can of tomatoes with juice, mashing it with your fingers as you add it. Add frozen okra. Add the brown roux in and mix. Let it simmer for about half an hour. Season accordingly and let simmer for another hour. Serve with rice or cool and refridgerate to serve a couple days later so that the flavors can marry in the fridge.
Wow that was kinda long. I didnt take that many pictures as I cooked but here are a few.

Blogger rotated my picture but this is all my veggies chopped up, minus the okra. The celery leaves were from the top of the stalk that I chopped up. I added it in after I added the roux.

Brown sausage and chicken in here, then add veggies in here.

Let simmer until the blonde roux turns into a dark brown color, the color you would think a gumbo is.

Yay, does it look good or what!

Spinach and Cheese Mini Cups

I dont measure when I cook because it should be to taste but you get the jist of it.

small muffin pan
one pack of phyllo doughn (thawed)
1 pack of frozen chopped spinach
1 block of cream cheese (room temperature)
3/4 cup of mayonaise
2 1/2 tablespoon of sour cream
1 1/2 cup of your favorite good mealting cheese (I used meunster cheese)
***I love goat cheese so I put like 3/4 tablespoon this is optional as I know goat cheese is hard to love for some =P

Preheat oven to 375. I started by putting the spinach in the microwave for about 4 minutes (time may very depnding on your microwave). When I take it out its not too hot where I can't work with it but its not COLD. I take it and squeeze as much water out as I can by dividing it in half or quarters and squeeze each as much as I can. You can put it into a couple layers of strong napkins or a tea towel and squeeze the water out. I use frozen spinach because its such a bargain and easy to work with instead having to buy them fresh, wash it, cook it, strain it, put it in an ice bath blah blah.

In a bowl I mix all the other ingredients. I separate the spinach as I add it into the mixture and mix it in.

You must work with the phyllo dough pretty fast because it and dry out and crumble on you so keep it under a wet clean towel to retain moisture. Take the sheets and cut into squares to fit into the muffin pans. Butter the muffin pan before putting the phyllo dough in. Bake until the dough begin to turn color but not yet golden. Remove from the oven and fill each with the spinach mixture and bake for 4 or until warm through. Turn your broiler on low and place on top rack. Remove after 2 minutes and let cool.

Voila! Adjust recipe to your oven and serving size. Great for parties as hors d'eouvres! You could also add artichoke!

You know what is so f'ed up? I was working out religiously all of March and my weight stayed the same and then I stopped for like a month + and I lost 10 lbs. Pretty retarded if you ask me.