July 9, 2010

Daily Seattle Life in July

Minh, my sister, and I went to QFC (Quality Food Center) last night to pick up some groceries. We went to the one on Broadway in Seattle. It's the closet one to our place. Broadway Street is definitely eccentric. You see all walks of life, and pretty much all the colors of the rainbow since the area is known for it's proud display gay pride. It's definitely trendy hip, and proud area in our city. Rainbow flags & decorations are draped & celebrated all over the area. The ambiance is just down right friendly. I can't tell you how much I enjoy a warm summer evening out and about in Capitol Hill.

One interesting/crazy/freaky guy came into the grocery store with random colored hair extensions, and a skull mask. lol That was freaky! He had knee length socks, gloves, and an ipod. We kept running into him as we were doing our shopping. It was almost like running into a monster/ghost since his face was a skull & his hair all in dreads and colorful extensions. Yeah..that was just interesting lol. Later we saw a police officer walking around looking for him. Everyone in the store was kind of freaked out by his mask. What else did I see...hmm a lot of tattoos! It was a hot evening so there were a bunch of biker like dudes with their shirt off. Seriously..anything goes in this area! Then there was this guy dressed as a woman looking at the deserts in the display next to us, and he was freaking out over bread pudding. He was being so dramatic about! Raising both his hands and saying sweet things to the bread pudding on the other side of the glass OUT LOUD.

I just love the culture & lifestyle at that QFC. Seattle is really growing on me. Living in the heart of the city is really helping me grow. I love the fact that everything I could ever want is walking distance. I live on Westlake, and literally diagonal from a Sephora, Lush, Nordstrom, Barney, and Tiffany's to name a fun few stores. Bank of America & Chase are both across the street. That's probably the best. We always walk a block to the AMC or Regal movie theaters! ^_^
I'm still getting used to it. I just stay home most of the time so when I do go out...I'm just in wow of how fast I got somewhere. BUT STILL, I'm destined to be a CALIFORNIA GIRL. I've planned it since I was a freshman in college, and that prophecy will come true. My family & I have always planned on me moving my life to Southern Cali to be closer to both sides of my family. Plus, nothing comes close to the golden coast right, Katy Perry? : )

My sister is still here in Seattle with me. She flies back to Michigan July 13th. Then she'll be off to Boston to study at Harvard. I always call her Harvard now, that's her new official nickname. We keep talking about how her life is going to change. She's somewhat excited and not excited about meeting her future "Harvard" friends. She's under the assumption that everyone is going to be coming from wealthy, important families. I'm sure nobody will pick on her for coming from a blue collar family. If anything, it will be more fun for her to learn & experience the Cambridge/East Coast lifestyle. I always tell her not to worry about it. : )

To Pike's Place!
Julia with her favorite parrot in all of Seattle
Julia eating food at Wholefoods

I recently got in contact with one of my favorite cousins of all time. To be honest, I love almost all of my cousins. Anyhow, I want to fly him out to Seattle at the end of this month. I want to teach him my trade, the in's and out's of how to manage a business first hand & of course show him around Washington since he's never visited. More about him later! He's a year younger than me btw, and single? Ladies? haha jk


Puppy's first outing! The Pudget Sound Pier
Timmy's like Grandma you're suffocating me!
Can't not take visitors to the public market! 4 blocks from my apartment so we walked.
Don't gotta spend $10+ on parking anymore!
Once I get my life together, I'm going to make an effort to have fresh flowers each week from Pike's.
Only $5 - $15 a bouquet!
Mom, Wally, and Dad
Chess anyone? I used to be really good! A junior champion taught me how to play in 6th grade art class. :D
The famous Public Market
Vendors!
A Fellow Seattle Jewelry Artist

To Pudget Sound!
This is my dad, the family says I take after him feature wise lol
I get my ears, nose, and eyes from my dad
My little sister Julia (17 years old), Dad, and Mom
Julia & Dad with Mom in the back
Minh (boyfriend) & Mom, Timmy & Wally
Minh just had all his wisdom teeth out the day before, and he was out and about too!
He has a high pain tolerance...after I had my teeth out last year I was out for at least 4 days. Man..it was bad. I have no idea how he was able to GO OUTSIDE and walk around. He's a trooper.
Mom & Dad on the Pier
Uncle Nickel got to go too! He was like ...lets go home. He's a dog who HATES being outdoors. lol. He's the strangest dog ever. He's almost human to me. I wish he was...so I could boss him around to clean the apartment.
My mom & the puppies. I bet she's going to call me tomorrow to remind me to get some pictures printed for her lol.
Timmy's ears are so floppy!
They really only walked on the leash for 2-3 minutes for this photo. lol
They're still babies, and don't fit in their harnesses yet. I didn't want to teach them to walk on a leash with just a collar.
Wally looks so happy, he's very outgoing and loves strangers
Parentals
Walking around we found the WALL OF GUM!
It was huge..there was a lot more with gum art, but I didn't snap a picture because we were walking too fast.

Later that night, Minh's family came to visit.
That's Minh's dad, my dad, and Penny over on the 4th
Isn't she gorgeous? She's Nickel's sister who lives with Minh's parents
Minh's family is from Vancouver, Washington about 3 hours south of Seattle.
They headed to Vancouver BC Canada that next day so Penny & Ty spent the night.
We had 2 dogs and 3 puppies running around. : ) It was fun, but so tiring taking them all out to go potty.
Look at Nickel lol he's 1/2 the size of Penny and he thinks he can push her around.
She just ignores him and is probably thinking wth Nickel.
The Pack!
Penny's so beautiful & graceful looking. She very calm.
Nickel's just all over the place & hyper half the time. lol
Ty & his underbite lol

The babies always fight over the same toy lol
Nickel's like..I'm just going to fall asleep right here in the middle of the living room

To the Beach!
We took them to Alki as well, too bad the weather isn't as gorgeous as it is the day they left & now!
Mom & Dad at Alki on Sunday, July 4th, 2010


Julia & Mom
Dad & Minh
It was pretty cloudy on the 4th, it rained after we left. I feel bad for the people waiting for the fireworks!

Mom & Dad
Minh & his post wisdom teeth extraction chipmunk face

Sandman on the 4th of July!

We took them to Snoqualmie Falls that was fun! The weather was so nice and the air just refreshing.

To Snoqualmie Falls!

They're off to see the Wizard! The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, jk but I felt that's what the caption should be.

Who knew Washington is so beautiful???
Me, "Harvard" (Julia), Mom, and Dad
Family Photo @ Snoqualmie Falls!
July 5th, 2010

I can't wait to have more family come out here to visit. I love showing everyone around. My parents who were here over the 4th of July from Michigan really enjoyed their stay. My mom called me today telling me how much she missed Wally & Timmy. lol She loves dogs A LOT. Maybe that's who I get it from. lol

I love the mist!
I love this picture, I caught Julia talking mid sentence lol

I had to pick up some Macaron's from French Noveau Bakery in West Seattle for my family to try. : D They're $1.50 each and so worth each penny!
July 6th, 2010 Taking mom & dad to the airport : (
That mirror in the hallway = my favorite!


Not speaking of puppies, but now speaking of the puppies, Minh and I had to give them their liquid benadryl before bed time. Timmy chomped down super hard on my right hand while I was trying to hold him still. lol It hurts hella bad! I can feel a lil ache as a type and hit the space bar with my thumb. Sigh...Timmy..how is momma suppose to feed you when she can work? Kids these days. jk jk

This blog post is starting to feel like one of my old xanga posts! lol I used to be so into xanga back in the day. I'd DIARY every little bit of my day from high school through college. I like the fact that it still exists, and I can go back and read my old entries. One day, I'm going to print out all my xanga entries, and blog posts and make it into a book for my grand kids. lol jk. But the idea has crossed my mind! ; )


I just took this about 2 hours ago, the puppies fell asleep after playing like crazy. Nickel loves playing with them now, he runs around like a mad race dog. Sometimes he body butts the puppies lol it's so funny. I don't think he realizes how big he is!
Nickel's "I didn't do it" look.


Wally is so funny, even though he's asleep...he'll wake up and move to a different location and then fall asleep there.
They're so precious when they're sleeping, my little furballs
Extra cute for sleeping on his paw! haha, I never want them to grow up!

More babbling, I just feel the need to write out my thoughts.

"DEAR DIARY"
Tomorrow's plans!
Hit up Costco to develop pictures for mom
Buy some peaches at Costco, they're so good!
I love Costco!!!
Buy some Pinesol, I really need to clean the floors.
Buy more carpet vacuum baking soda powder, it really helps keep the apartment fresh.
Buy another bottle of windex.

Walk to Wholefoods, stock up on Max-Hair vitamins. They REALLY DO WORK.
My nails are so strong, and growing so fast. My hair is just 2x more full than it's ever been.
I took a break this week from taking the tablets just because so much has been going on with my parents visiting I didn't really remember to take them. I need to find my before picture that I took June 7th, and take an after picture. My hair grows a lot slower than anyone else I know. It's the weirdest thing. I love eating onions, isn't that supposed to help your hair grow? lol could just be a myth. But anyhow, Max-Hair gets 2 thumbs up from me!

You know what's one thing I need to do more of? I need to floss more. I used to be super OCD with taking care of my teeth & whitening. I haven't bleached my teeth in 3-4 years and they're still white, but they could be more white. I swear I go through phases. I've had them whitened at a dentist's office & I did the crest white strips thing. It actually really worked for me. I just toughed out the gum sensitivity for 2 weeks. I had so much will-power back then. I miss that about myself.

My teeth have been shifting since I basically ruined my teeth by not wearing my retainers (can we say, lack of will power?). I want to get braces again, or invisalign. I only have 2 crooked teeth, one on top and one on the bottom. And they really piss me off every time I look at them.

This is kind of ironic, but I used to tell Bonnie my roommate in college that I would never ever date someone with non-perfect teeth. I have no idea why teeth were so important to me as a freshman in college. My cousin's a dentist so I always felt the need to always have perfect teeth to avoid embarrassment! But anyhow, my bf has a charismatic smile lets call it. lol I took him to the oral surgeon as a first step towards fixing his smile.

He had 3 wisdom teeth extract (he only had 3, the 4th one never came in). His dental insurance only covered $950, the remaining $1400 out of pocket, aka my pocket since he's overwhelmed with student loans. I think teeth are a great investment. I told him from day one that I wanted him to get braces or bust. Sounds mean but it's for his own well-being. He'll be more professional in appearance. The oral surgeon told him that if he doesn't correct his teeth now, they're going to hurt him further down the line as he gets older.

We learned that he has an underbite! I guess that really affects your food chewing. I never really noticed. The oral surgeon told him that he needs to have a year of braces, then have his jaw surgically broken, then braces again for 3 years. lol. Welcome to my world Minh! I had braces for 3 years starting at the age of 9 and 10 months. I wish I would have listened to the orthodontist and have worn my retainers regularly. Now I have to spend 2-3 grand getting braces again >: (
Nothing but my own fault. My advice to you if you had braces, wear your retainers!!!
Anyhow, I can't wait to see Minh wear head gear! That probably will be the highlight of my life.

The next step is to get him to get a pedicure! He's so weird about being groomed.
So far, I've gotten him to get facials, eyebrows threaded & waxed.
I think he'd enjoy a pedicure if he ever got one. I love getting pedicures. I feel so much better about my feet afterward. Definitely worth money. DIY pedicures are just not the same.

I think I'm going to vacuum again tomorrow. I dislike not vacuumed carpet. I love the vacuum streaks. That's my favorite. I don't have a cleaning lady anymore since we moved. I have my own bathroom now & Minh has his own bathroom. I feel that we can both manage our own. I just hate cleaning up after others that's why sharing a bathroom at the old house didn't work for me.

Anyhow, I really need to put together a blog sale post. I have a lot of Coach items I want to sell, as well as a lot of makeup. I think what I'm going to do is put together packages. Instead of selling everything individually. That way I can get rid of more stuff faster. For example, 5 lipsticks, or eyeshadows together. I do have two barely touched Coastal Scents palettes. I have the 88 Shimmer & the Original 88 Palette, I'd like to sell those both for $20, the only hard part is packaging them to be shipped. I'll post pictures soon. Sorry for the delay. I keep talking about it, but I haven't shined through just yet. Thank you all for stopping by from time to time and saying hi. It really means a lot. As my sister says, I don't have real friends. My world is all virtual. : ) My reply, I'd prefer that way anyways : P

Good Night Blog World!

-Steph


17 comments:

  1. omg such a huge post :D i will comment as i read!

    awww fluffy puppies :D they are so small you can just pick them up. if i had to pick up my dog i'd break my back xD

    your sister is such a smartypants :D tell her congrats for me! i used to want to go to harvard before i realized that playing with the elites may hurt. going to a pretty-elite school now already hurts xD fu fu fu :3

    that place sounds so interesting! i would love to live in a city where i can people-watch strange personas :D move to socal! then we can hang out! ^__^

    whoaa wall of gum. that is SO cool. your parents are so cute :D it's funny because one of my friend's younger sister is also named julia and goes to harvard too. maybe they will meet each other!

    o.m.g lol xanga used to be THE thing to do. i would do quizzes all day long and write about bipolar high school crap xD hahaha. yes, i love going back and reading all of that nonsense! printing out stuff sounds really cool :) you should def do it

    costco is the best! my dad just got me a lot of starbucks mocha fraps from there and a huge pizza yumm :D oo is max hair vitamins like omega 3 pills? i've been taking those for a couple of weeks and i think they're working! my nails are stronger (they chip like crazy) and my hair feels softer. i got invisalign in hs and they worked kind of .. i wore them like i was supposed to but when i take them off to eat my teeth get crooked again. it's because my jaw is caved in from too much violin playing i think xD xD and i haven't worn my retainer in over half a year D: wahh!

    hahahhaa i love how you make your bf get beauty-ified xD i realized that most of my friends this summer are on the internet. it made me sad but at least i'm not lonely xD !

    night steph :)

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  2. wow.. thanks for sharing Steph. This is such a mega long post, Hahaha your parent are so adorable :). You have such a lovely family there. oh and i'm looking forward to your blog sale. :)

    okay goodnight Steph and sweet dream.
    -love
    leang

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  3. wow. you've been so busy! but it looks like you've had fun!& wally & timmy get cuter every time you post pics of them!

    & as for trying to groom guys, everytime i suggest pedicures and waxing to my bf & he just rolls his eyes & walks away =P How do you get minh to agree to all that???

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  4. I really could reply to everything you posted, but then you'd hate me b/c I can really go on and on and on...

    First off, you have a beautiful family (including bf and puppies)

    hats off to ya for not have any oopsies with 5 dogs in the house! I'd have pee everywhere, haha

    Seattle is beautiful and that waterfall, gahhhhhh, love it

    Harvard will be just fine, congrats!!!

    haven't eaten at wholefoods for years...should give them another try

    I need to make a flower effort too, that means I need to carry cash and I never do that, there's always a homeless guy selling flowers at all the metro stations in DC and luckily in a Maryland station, Bethesda. Since we're moving to DC soon (the company I work for) I'll have a crap load of options!

    I used to play chess really good when I was like 12...haven't played ever since and forgot the rules and strategy.

    I had 4 impacted wisdom teeth, none had come in...all were sideways and actually put my health at serious risk, I spent $1500 to get them out (insurance paid the other 50%) and I was making like...what...$20K/year? talk about being broke years ago...and my mom def can't afford that and I lived with the bf, i couldn't ask him to pay for it (he paid the rent, lol)

    I will be saving Wally's pic where's he's by himself and with a leash, it's such a darn cute pic!! reminds me of rocky :D my boy loooooooves strangers, he becomes such an angel!

    <3 the pack!

    rocky will be asleep and get up and move like a millions times, but he's still asleep, lol

    i had a thing to never date a guy with bad teeth...i did it once and left him for bigger reasons, but the teeth was just something i added to the list.

    i wished G would do some "manicuring" he'd rather have a guy pluck his pubic hairs one by one...lol

    can't wait for the blog sale post!

    i wished i got into xanga years ago, i have crappy memory and i need pictures and diaries to remember everything, lets put it like this, my friends remember my past more than me!

    i need to get into costco, problem is it's kinda far (15 min) and target is across the street along with 10 grocery stores and 5 of which sell organic and local produce. i so need to get vacuum baking soda powder! i bought a crap load of cleaning stuff due to ROCKY at DAYCON (a commercial cleaning supply store...heavy duty sh*t) and target, let's see how long it all lasts, haha

    Max-hair vitamins=must need, I have no hair, it's long but it's not there! onions are supposed to make your nails strong and hair grow fast...i thought that's why mines would grow fast (it just won't grow thick).

    girl, go to bed!!

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  5. did i say i wouldn't write much? ummm, i could write more, forgive me!

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  6. I can so see the resemblance in your fam. You do look so much like your dad and you & your sis look so much a like too!

    I too have not worn my retainers & my teeth are not as straight as they should be bc of it too. When I was younger, I didnt care about wearing my retainers, but of course now I do care. My bf has an underbite too. It's pretty obvious when he smiles.

    The pups look so happy!

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  7. You took a lot of pictures! But, yeah, I see how you and your sister have your father's nose and other family resemblances.
    Right now I have braces and can't wait to get them off! But, hopefully, I'll wear them enough that I won't have problems when I am older. Though, I don't think that's too much of a concern because I was so diligent when I had to get the orthodontic elastics that I got an underbite from them!
    Your puppies are so cute! There were a lot of dogs at your house! It's like a doggy sleepover!

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  8. Seattle looks beautiful! I love all kinds of markets. It's always a surprise to see what they have.
    Looks like a great time with the family. You have a great looking family too.
    As always, the puppies are adorable!!

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  9. have you seen the bear-cat man in the u-district? maybe he only appears near the fall/winter cause he walks around wearing this bear mask with cats (real!) draped over his shoulders and arms. it was so odd but that's the charm of seattle! haha. it seems like you have such a happy family!

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  10. Your mum is so gorgeous! :) Your parents look so cute together.. I can see where you get the great genes from!

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  11. Haha! Masked man on run from the police in QFC!! You'd be good in Cali too woman! Actually I think you're one of those people who can easily adapt to their surroundings & make it their own, wherever you go!

    Julia looks like she's having fun! Congrats again to her being IvyLeague! :) Haha pimpin out cousins too now?! Awww Wally & Timmy w/ Gma! :) You're parents are so cute, and so young!

    Poor Minh I did all my wisdoms in one go too, he IS a trooper! Awww Nickel! Look at all the cute doggies!

    Haha!! My bestie says that about me too! THat I don't have any other "REAL" friends but her, everyone else is virtual!

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  12. i think i fell in love with seattle from ur post, your place is especially beautiful when its so near to sephora!!!! lol
    love ur chihuahuas, as i got 2 (3 now, gave birth to 1 in march 10')
    wow i cant imagine the pain of extracting wisdom tooth and 4 of them??? garghhhh shiversss very very super brave bf! & congrats to ya sis!

    xoxo elle
    ps: more mega long post, love reading it!

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  13. beautiful photos! i cant get over how cute your pups are! those macroons look amazing!! xo

    www.andeelayne.blogspot.com

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  14. Ahhhh! Puppies. They are too cute! I just want to hug them. :)

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  15. Aww, I see where you get your beauties from! Mommy DSK is gorgeous. =]

    Timmy and Wally are just too cute!! I agree, they should never grow up and stay like that forever!

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  16. your pups are too cute!

    i'm just like you... my teeth started shifting and so i want to get invis-align cuz it really bothers me when i look at them!!! tiny tiny tiny gap starting to form but yeah it's so expensive! should've just worn my retainers -_-

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  17. have his jaw broken...! jesus. i sort of want braces and i have a major overbite :( but i don't want my jaw broken, ahahha. that's just crazy!

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Thank you for your comments!