Topher's 31st bday!

It was on a Wednesday this year and it all started by me calling him while he was at work at exactly midnight to wish him a happy birthday.  I remember that I was clearing out the pantry in the kitchen and tossing so much expired food away.  Though I've been wanting to clean that out for a while, it was his parent's coming into town that really made me do it.  His parents were coming the day of his birthday at about 9am.  He was going to go with me to pick them up at the airport but he thought he should get some rest so he could visit with his parents as well as go out to dinner.  For some reason, he couldn't sleep and he had been having problems going to bed for the past few days.  With that being said, he basically stayed up all day even though he had worked a 10 hour shift and only got less than a few hours of sleep prior to work.  When me and his parents came back from visiting his grandma, he stayed up and hung out.  Oh he had a gentelman come over to give us an estimate for insulation since we had just gotten a $500 heating bill.
 
As night time comes along, he was extrememly tired going to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in downtown Seattle.  I planned for happy hour oysters at Frank's Oyster Bar but he was too tired for that.  So we had a nice little steak dinner with an excellent ceasar salad and a complimentary dessert and we were on our way home.
 
Almost forgot to mention that earlier that afternoon I went to the mall to get his gift, the iPhone 4, but we found out that he wasn't quite eligible yet.  So I had to think of something fast and found this beautiful sterling silver bracelet with diamonds.  =)  He loved it. 

Valentine's Day 2011

Since we have been together this was the first Valentine's day that he was off! This year it was on a Monday. Topher isn't a big fan of Valentine's Day but I thought since he's off Saturday we could go out for dinner and have another nice dinner outing again. We just celebrated our 2nd anniversary the Saturday before Valentine's weekend.

Saturday morning we got frustrated with each other and I was upset at him for something that I can't seem to remember right now. For that reason, I figured we could kiss our dinner good bye. I really wanted to try this restaurant in Belltown called Restaurant Zoe. That didn't happen because he pretty much slept all day Saturday and didn't get up until about 10pm. When I got off of work I went to Winco to buy some groceries and then went home and made Shepherds Pie. That was my second time making it. Exhausted from working all day and then grocery shopping and cooking, I laid next to him and didn't get up afterwards. He got up and played games and was in the office for a bit finishing up the recording from Netflix. An hour later he comes up saying he was really hungry and if he could eat the Shepherds pie. Big baby he is! =)

Sometime Sunday we decided to have dinner with Ron and Lisa on Valentines Day. Billie asked what we were doing but plans fell through with him. Oh yeah, I woke up early Sunday at about 6am. Topher was playing on the ps3. Since I was up we ended up watching tv until 11am and then went upstairs to sleep. Instead of sleeping we ended up talking for a while. Then I saw a text from my dad saying that him and my mom were coming over to watch the basketball game before they head over to Muckleshoot. I stayed up and he tried to go to sleep.

Finally Valentines day (Monday), I wake him up about 445pm to get ready for dinner at 6. Lisa made reservations at Fujiya Japanese Restaurant in Tacoma. The sashimi was very good there as well as the sake bottle the server recommended us to try. In addition to drinking sake, I had about 2 glasses of Sapporo beer. Excellent! After dinner, we all headed to a theater in Lakewood And watched Just Go With It starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. It was pretty entertaining and funny! I had a really good time and I think Topher did too. Best Valentines we've celebrated thus far! Sent from my iPad

This is what we ordered from Fujiya:

Spider Maki $9.95, Rainbow Maki $12.95, Sashimi assortment $25.95, 2 Sapporos LG $14, a bottle of sake (Shichiken) $46, and 2pcs of sashimi white tuna for $4.95.  Total amount due $124.38 plus $20 tip.  Topher paid.

Our movie ticket was $10.50 each. I paid this.

 

1.1.11

New years eve was on a Friday last year and Topher was off. So he was ready to party because he noticed his schedule for this new years eve landed on a work day. What we really wanted to go was some place fun with our friends but unfortunately nobody was interested in paying the $85 cover charge as well as dealing with the NYE Seattle traffic. Topher didn't mind paying it since it's the only time we'll be ringing in the new year for 2011.

So we ended up going to O'Asian Kitchen and Lounge for their 5 course dinner for $39.99 a person which also included our cover for the party after dinner. We had reservations at 7 but me and Topher arrived about 7:30pm. Attended dinner with us was Billie and Somaria, Viriya and her boyfriend, as well as Eli and Kelly. Dinner wasn't so bad but the flaming dessert they served was a bit disappointing. I drank a little bit but Topher went a bit crazy and had beer, champagne, mixed drinks, and shots. You'll find out why you don't do that later. Initially it took them a while to serve us the food and drinks but it got better later in the evening. It was about 10:30pm when we finished up dinner and they were clearing the tables. Then we made our way over to the lounge area where Mark, Paul, Jason and his girl were sitting and hung out with them the rest of the night. I had maybe 2 shots of patron and a couple of green apple martinis. When midnight was approaching we all headed to the dance floor. I kept delaying going out there because I didn't like the songs the dj was playing. When midnight struck me and Topher kissed and told each other that we love each other.

As the night went on, Topher and Eli became more drunk and Kelly was sober. As for me I never got buzzed. I didn't want to drink that much because I knew cops were on high alert and Topher was drunk! Viriya and her boyfriend Jeff left shortly after midnight. Then Kelly and Eli left about an hour after them. We stayed for a bit and then Topher increasingly became drunk. I've never seen him this drunk before. He closed his eyes almost the entire drive home and was really tipsy getting out of the car and into the house. After he got settled into bed, I showered and then went to bed. After a couple of hours I was disturbed by Topher waking up or something and next thing I know I'm all wet. I thought he threw up but he said that he peed! My right arm, underwear and pajamas were wet. I immediately removed the sheets and tried to clean the mess. I was so upset at him. He didn't want to leave the bed so I left him there. Sent from my iPad

As he laid in the bed next to the smelly piss, I went downstairs to sleep in the other room across from the guest bathroom.  About a couple of hours after I fell asleep, Topher frantically comes into the room and starts checking and looking around.  He looks in the closets, checks every bedroom and starts going around the house and looking outside the back yard with his flashlight.  After a few minutes of him acting paranoid, he asks me what happened and why I was sleeping in the other room.  I explained to him that I tried to have him come downstairs to sleep with me because the bed was wet but he didn't want to go down. Then he hugged me and apologized.  He was freaking out because he thought that I took him as a fool since he was so drunk he wouldn't know what was going on.  For that reason, he thought that I had another guy at the house or left to hang out with someone else.  Go figure!

After that fiasco, we both went to bed in the other smaller master bedroom and pretty much slept all day on the 1st of January.  Barely got up to eat until about midnight of the 2nd.  I think we ate corn beef with rice.  And then all I remember is watching Oprah's new network called OWN with Topher.   

 

November 2010 Updates

On November 21st (Sunday) it started to snow but it didn't stick until the next day.  We got about 3 inches plus that Monday morning and it was so beautiful.  I stayed home from work all morning thinking it would be better and that I should at least attempt to make it into work since I had all afternoon clients booked.  We looked at the traffic cams and the freeways looked pretty clear so I decided to go into work.  BIG MISTAKE!  I was done with clients by 5pm downtown and left at that time but didn't get home until 2:15 am!!!  Traffic was slowly moving at 5pm.  Black ice was on I-5 and slipped on it a couple of times.  There was a warning of high winds and more snow that evening.  Traffic completely stopped when I was at exit 158 (Boeing Access Rd.).  All lanes were completely stopped and sat there until about 6 hours later I decided to turn around heading North on South I-5 on the shoulder to exit off so I could pee off to the side of the road.  Topher was really great in shifting my mood from pure frustration to being grateful that I have gas and heat in the car and most importantly not being caught up in the accident.  Around 1:30 am I finally attempted to hit the roads off the exit and took Interurban to grady way.  I drove slowly and finally made it home at 2:10am.  The first thing I did was charged my phone, then called Topher to let him know that I made it home safely, and then warmed up some food.  I was starving!
----------------
At about midnight on November 24th (Wednesday), I emailed "Zion" regarding his craiglist ad he posted for a 1998 ES 300 for $4999 that just recently went down to $4500.  He responded at about 6am and in a nut shell said, "How does $3500 sound?"  I replied immediately to see when I can view the car and said that Friday morning would be the best time to view the car.  That day was his only day to do it since he was leaving out of town Friday morning.  I was fully booked Wednesday because I didn't work Tuesday and moved all clients to Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  As soon as Topher got home Wednesday morning, I immediately asked if he could check the car out and take care of the transaction, knowing that he was deprived of sleep.  He was lacking sleep because he stayed up when it snowed and we took care of some things at Lowe's for the house on Tuesday.  On average he was getting 4 hours of sleep.  Then he when I asked him to take care of this, "Zion" wasn't available until between 1-5pm which meant that Topher would've had to stay up even longer to take care of this.  Manny was kind enough to take Topher but had to leave shortly because he was hosting a pre-Thanksgiving party at his house.  TOpher basically risked his life to go with 3 strangers whom were black driving around town to finish the sale.  The DMV's near by were closed and they ended up driving up NOrth to Wendels on Aurora Ave.  He also went to the bank to cash the check and according to TOpher, he felt the guys were acting a bit weird and shady.  Manny felt the engine was really clean and based on that and me wanting this car as well as Topher wanting the tan color choice for me, he decided to accept the $3500 sale price and go through with it all under sleep deprivation.  
 
There aren't any major problems to the car and just some minor details that we can easily fix.  The windshield recently cracked because the guy poured hot water on it during our freezing temps.  I felt it was a really good deal considering others were trying to sell that same model for the same price but either for a lower year or same year.  All in all, very happy to finally have a car and especially a 4 door!!!  I still haven't driven the car yet....lol!  We recently used my "new" car to go Christmas shopping on Friday and it was great!  LOVE it and what a journey Topher endured to get it!!!
---------------
On November 25th, we both cooked and hosted our first Thanksgiving late lunch or early dinner!  In addition to me and Topher, guests consisted of my immediate family and Cat.  Robert and Cat brought red mashed potatoes.  Topher marinated the 12lb turkey and injected it with his concoction.  I made stuffing as a side dish using partially Betty Crocker's recipe and added water chestnuts to it.  Also roasted baby red potatoes and also had to look up the recipe for that!  Dinner was great and most importantly delicious.  My dad even liked the Turkey and cleaned one of the legs real good.  My parents bought a little bit of Chinese bakery because they completely almost ran out of stuff!
 
When we finished the meal, RObert carved up the turkey so it would make it easier to eat later.  As he carved it up, he found a bag of gizzards and the turkeys neck!  It was so funny because we didn't know that we had to take it out.  Now that we know, we will do better!!!

October highlights

Topher's parents came in by train on the evening of Friday, October 22nd.  The very next morning we found out that his "Great Aunt" (grandma's older sister) had passed away.  Which means that his parents would have to go back to LA and attend her funeral.  I had 2 birthday parties to attend (Liam's 3rd bday and Lenna's 31st bday) and did not go to be with his family.  All the aunts, uncles, and his grandma came over our house for mahjong, dinner, movies, and prayers.

They left for LA 10/28 Thursday night and will be back possible the 3rd of November.  THe funeral is on November 1st and the viewing was held on October 31st.

During the time his parents left for LA, Topher set up 2 security cameras in the garage.  And days before his parents arrived we received the 420 pound safe!  He had to rent this stair climber for the safe in order to get it upstairs.  I helped him out very little because it was really heavy for me.  He did most of the work with no sleep for 30 hours.  Then Billie came later to help him.

Away from home

Saturday night (8/28/10) was the first time that we left our home unattended.  Topher's been camping since Thursday and I've been working long hours until Saturday I met up with him and his friends at the camp site.  Everything at our home was fine!  However, our poor fish, Puffer, is no longer with us..=(***.  

At the camp site, Topher showed me how to fire his gun!  It was my first time ever shooting a gun and it was a bit scary!  I thought I would be pretty good at aiming but I was completely off on my target.  Gun range here we come!

Cortez Family Reunion

It's August 16th and Topher's parents sadly just left for LA this morning.  They've been here since July 27th to celebrate our new home as well as attend the family reunion which was held on August 5th and 7th.  Since they've been here, time flew by so quickly!  We were cleaning the house non stop, shopping for items in the house, grocery shopping for our home as well as the Family Reunion picnic.  Within this time, me and Topher took quite a bit of days off so we can attend the reunion as well as spend some time with his parents. 

The first week his parents were here, me and Topher ran into a little bump in our relationship and almost called it quits.  It was a pretty distressful time for us and hope that it doesn't get repeated again.  The important thing is the fact that we resolved it and we are working towards a healthy relationship.

After that storm, I was going through my own issues as the reunion was going on.  Although I was feeling quite stress from my personal problems I was so happy to have my parents partake in Topher's family reunion.  They met pretty much everyone on his mom's side.  The best part of all this is that I think my parents like his family and enjoyed themselves at our home as well as the formal dinner.  A major indicator is when my mom doesn't say much and just simply invites his parents for dinner.  That was a good sign. 

TBC....

House journey

July 2, 2010

These past few days we've put up curtains, bought an end table for the
living room, did a lot of returns and exchanges, put up the space
saver 3 tier in our bathroom, and worked on the cars.

Since my car accident we haven't found a car to replace it. For this
reason, we've been driving the off-roading jeep around and it's been
pretty reliable thus far. Until yesterday, the coolant was leaking
and now is not driveable. We would run a very high risk of the car
over heating and so on and so forth. Because of this, I wasn't able
to go into work today on a Friday! Now there's this strong sense of
urgency to get the Prelude up and running so it can pass the emissions
test. The jeep is costing us a lot in gas. I'd say every other day
with both of us driving has been costing us and average of $50.
That's only going less than 200 miles a tank. Sucks. So hopefully I
can get financed for the subprime car loan and drive off with a newer
car.

Anyhow, regarding the curtains we've changed the look of the curtains
twice now and possible a 3rd time. First we started with the Ivory
Venice brand curtains but thought that it would look best in the
family room and it does! It looks gorgeous in there. Because I
didn't want to have the same exact curtains throughout the house, I
didn't want to put the same Ivory Venice curtains in our room. So I
bought another type of Ivory curtains that were knocked down from
$29.99 to $14.99 and I received an additional 20% off of that so it
came out to $11.99. Then we'll have almost all Ivory curtains. Ivory
Venice curtains in the family room, and white Venice curtains in the
dining room and white curtains in the living room. Too much of the
same color. He thinks the blue with flowers on it will look good in
our room, but I just can't picture it. Even with my lack of vision, I
may just go with it because it just seems overwhelming with all the
ivory and white cutains in the rest of the house.

Our room is still pending for curtain rods and curtains. We have less
than 2 weeks left until his parents get here. The stress is on!
Thankfully, we have curtains in the living room up already and over
the french doors. We just need to put up the rod and curtains for the
dining room today and it will pretty much dress up the windows in that
part of the house. Yesterday, we ordered our dining room table and I
cannot wait until it gets here. It will really make the home feel
complete, contemporary, and beautiful. Now let's see if we can just
settle on the right curtains for our room.

July 6, 2010

Forgot to mention in the last entry is that we painted the shelves in the pantry door and prior to that week we painted the shelves in the linen closet.

Topher just reminded me of how in the begging when we just moved in, we didn't have a couch in the family room yet.  All we had were our bags of clothes and suitcases full of clothes.  He mounted the TV on the wall by this point and laid on the bag of clothes and bankets to watch TV.  Aaaah the good ol days.  Thank god it's all cleared out. 

So our headboard is up.  We got it done actually on the 2nd of July after my last entry.  It only costed us $25 cash and a hair cut at my salon.  The invoice she gave us was for $110.  So it was a pretty good deal for us!  She did a pretty good job on the sewing and there's no way that we would've been able to pull that project off.  I'll have to post the pic up so we can have a visual.

We also put the curtains up in the dining room but we aren't too "wowed' by the white curtains in there.  Unlike the curtains in the living room and the family room, there was a huge wow factor.  Since my last entry I said that I would go with the blue flower curtains in our room and I bought them, but then I exchanged it out on the 4th of July.  It didn't give it a tadao look.  Hopefully the ivory flowers will once we put them up.  I'm thinking tomorrow, Wednesday, since he will be off from work.

Today I pulled most of the weeds out in the front and back yard.  It was a great sense of accomplishment as Topher would say.  NOt to mention, the yard looks nicely manicured.  Hopefully that will last for a week.  Just before his parents get here.  Might have to do a little touch up before they get here and get the place tightied up.  Just 2 doors to shave, put on, and paint and hide the back wire speakers and the rest will be cleaning and presentation.

1 month in the new house!

It's been exactly 1 month and 1 day since we moved into our new home.
So far it's been exciting, different, exhausting, fun, costly, scary,
relaxing, and a whole new level that me and Topher has taken our
relationship.

About the first 3 weeks we moved into the house was the best 3
consistent weeks we've had together in a while. We didn't argue the
way we did where our argument would last for several hours. It was
different and I was very happy with the way things were going. It's
probably because we were so preoccupied with the house projects that
it took a lot of load from sweating the small stuff in the
relationship. We were actually working together towards a project.
And it was great. It was great because he was up for more than an
hour before he went off to work and worked on the house. We were
doing things besides laying in bed or me waiting for him to get up.
He was in a good mood a lot of the times and it was so refreshing to
be around that good energy. It made me the happiest! And he was
defintiely the happiest I've seen him in a long time.

We are still working on the house and trying to complete some projects
before his family comes from LA. They will be here the 2nd week of
July. That makes it about 3 more weeks.

Within the last month, we did have a couple of confrontations that was
unexpected but we worked it out. And hopefully it will never happen
again. Besides our arguments, I had a really hard time when he left
for work at nights. That was probably the worst sleep I've ever
experienced. Being in a new home alone, different sounds, and knowing
that I was in a big house alone was discomforting. Typically I never
call him at work, but that week I did. What was so sweet was the fact
that he attempted to help me get over my fears. He talked about
getting a dog, he had me keep his gun by my side, he was so patient on
the phone with me, and he called me almost every 20 minutes to make
sure I was ok. Once his weekend started, he immediately took care of
issues with the darkness around the house by installing sensor lights
by the windows. Uncle Kenny helped him install them too and that was
the night where I was so tired from not getting any sleep earlier in
the week that I kept falling asleep as they were working.

Last weekend my little brother, Timmy, came over on a Saturday night
to help me paint the bathroom. It was nice and fun having him over.
Before we started getting down to business, me, Topher, and my little
brother ate at Lemongrass for dinner. I think it was me and Topher's
3rd time there within the 3 weeks we've moved into the house! That
good.

In a nutshell, I got into my very first car accident! =( And our
fish "committed suicide" is what Topher says. He hated the Arawana
that he bought that costed him $50 but was retailed for $70.
Hopefully we find the right fish to live in the beautiful tank that
Topher put together soon.

Topher got the computer up so I can start working from home once a
week and it's been fabulous. I love being able to have a room devoted
to work or anything we need to handle on the computer whether it's
researching or paying bills. Love the fact that it's NOT in our
bedroom.

Last week Topher finally decided on a surround sound system and got
that hooked up. Now all he has to do is wire the back speaker
underneath so the wires are hidden. And on top of that here's the run
down with what other projects we plan to execute:

- Install the new panel doors to the office and the closet upstairs.
- Put the curtain rods up that I bought from Ross.
- Paint the linen closet shelves to white (don't want to settle for
the icky tacky brown that's in there).
- Paint the new panel doors white.
- Build a headboard for our bed.

I'm sure there's a few more items I haven't yet listed but these
projects alone should take us a good 2 weeks to finish. We'll see.