John Williams + Hollywood Bowl= Awesome- ness

Last night, we went to Hollywood Bowl to see John Williams, the Music of the Movies by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and John Williams as the conductor of course!

I love the Hollywood Bowl. I blogged about how much I love this outdoor concert hall before here. This is my 3rd time there and not as fortunate as last time, we had to purchased our own tickets. :D Well, at least we bought tickets to a performance that we would really enjoy watching.

Bad attempt picture of us. Let’s try again. Remember honey, I am way shorter than you are.

Okay, that’s a better attempt. Pretty obvious that I tried to tilt my head higher so he get a picture of my full face! :( I hate my hair now. I wish it would grow faster.

We got there pretty early, thanks to John! (a note of sarcasm) who kept pushing to leave the house early in fear of traffic. Before we hit the road, we stopped by Subway to get ourselves 6 inch sub for dinner. We chose to park at the Hollywood Bowl itself this time, parking fee was a whopping $16 bucks! And oh, we also rented cushions to sit on so we don’t have to sit on the hard wooden bench for 3 hours!

Enjoying our sandwiches before the show stars.

As expected, they put up a great performance. Most pieces were played accompanied by film projected on each side of the stage. I love the opening, Hooray for Hollywood. Classic! I also enjoyed 2 of the pieces they played from Jaws. Sure brings back memories watching the short clip of film. They then closed the performance with the most anticipation by everyone, 3 pieces from Star Wars. Like everyone else in the audience, this was probably the main reason that got us out here to watch. As soon as they started playing the pieces from Star Wars, many kids whipped their lightsaber out.

After 3 pieces from Star Wars, he played 3 more songs for an encore. One of them being the Imperial  March! I was floored by the performance. I was thinking of my nephews the whole time, Ethan & Ewan who are hardcore Star Wars fan! What a way to end the performance! Now I am afraid I am addicted to the tune myself! My baby was kicking away like crazy in my belly. Probably doing the march himself in there! :)

Imperial March

As if it’s not an awesome day enough, while we were waiting to get out of the parking lot, John felt our baby kicking away for the first time! Baby, you did good. You are probably thanking your daddy for taking us out for an awesome performance by John Williams and Los Angeles Philharmonic. You know how much your daddy wanted to feel you as well and after several failed attempts few days ago, you finally kicked hard for your daddy last night. I am proud of you, baby. =)

I was  hungry again when I got home, so I made myself a bowl of curry maggi mee soup. Yes, I know, it’s not exactly the healthiest food for the baby but once in a while ,shouldn’t be that bad right? I had 1/2 an apple after to made up for it. ;)

The gender reveal!

 

The anticipation of finding out was beyond words. It’s like buying a lottery and finding out the result except this one, we will win no matter what the result is. Much more fun, I tell ya’ll!!!!

Prince or Princess?

image souce here

This post deserved a post by itself. I am so excited because tonight is a big night! I couldn’t sleep well last night. Tossed and turned all night. Having nightmares that woke me up every 2 hours! Probably because of the anticipation of tonight. Well, the day finally arrived and I hope we are able to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. Honestly, both John and I don’t care if we are having a boy or a girl. As long as it’s a healthy happy baby!

Like I’ve mentioned before, almost everyone at work thinks that I am having a girl. They are hoping that I am having a girl because one of my co workers who is 7 weeks ahead of me is having a boy. So they can buy different stuff for our baby shower. Haha… Most of my friends think I am having a girl too except for Jimmy, the odd one. Janet & Jimmy are actually betting to see who wins a sushi dinner. Janet thinks it’s a girl. So we’ll reveal the result tonight.

I hope the baby will co-operate and let us see his/ her ehemm.. down there. :P We should be able to find out because according to Babycenter.com:

Pregnancy at 18 weeks

How your baby's growing:

Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces. He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

Stuff myself silly!

Last Sunday, at a last minute decision, I made an appt for a hair cut down at Rowland Heights. I don’t remember when is the last time I’ve been there. There is so much food I want to eat. I went crazy when John drove on the once very familiar street, Colima. For all I know, I kept saying, I want to eat this, and this and this and this. There is so much to eat but so little time!

We stopped to get my hair cut first. After dropping me off, John hung out at Costco which is around the corner to kill some time while waiting for me to get done.

I got a trim, but had the hair dresser curl my hair just to see how I like it. It was a little crazy much for me. I never know how to play with my hair so seeing my hair all dolled up, was shocking. Yes, shocking. I will stick to my normal plain self please.

After my haircut, it’s time for food, food and food! Food that I can’t find in Santa Clarita Valley. I’ve haven't had these in a long long time. I missed it so much! We went to this small Taiwanese shop called Yi Mei Deli which has lots of taiwanese goodies. It is best to come for breakfast, but I am desperate. :) Anything that can satisfy my cravings. I even bought some stuff to bring home with me.

After spending few hours in Rowland Heights, including hair cut, food and shopping, we drove to Monterey Park for more food. We met up with Eng Jo, Jocelyn and Johann for Peking duck dinner before ending my food fiesta day.

 

Now, I can’t wait to find an excuse to go back to Rowland Heights for different food that I didn’t get to try that day.

Saturday night project

When we moved in, there were a couple windows that are missing the window screens. Not sure what happened to them but it prevented us from using those windows. We never open those windows to avoid having bugs and insects getting in.

John has never replaced window screens before but thought it would be an easy project to tackle ourselves instead of buying new screens.We went to Home Depot to grabbed some tools, and stuff we needed to replace the screens. We got a spline roller, rubber spline and a roll of screen enough to cover 2 windows.

He cut enough screen to cover the window frame. Then stapled it down on the 4 corners to prevent it from moving around. He made sure that the screen is stretched tight around the frame. Then, he laid the rubber spline around it and rolled them into the groove around the window.

 

Once that’s done, he cut off the excess screen and voila! It’s done! It is amazingly easy and it took no time for him to replace 2 windows screens.

Finally, he popped the frame back into place. Now we are able to open the windows for some fresh air. =)

My 30th Birthday

My 30th Birthday was decidedly low key. There wasn’t a celebration anyway. My plan of having a fun and relaxing day at the Glenn Ivy Day Spa has to be cancelled since I won’t be able to enjoy most of the amenities due to being pregnant. Oh well…!

On Friday, John surprised me by having Edible Arrangements delivered to my work. =) I of course, shared them with my co-workers. Since it was a pretty big basket, I had lots of leftover to bring home to enjoy it with John that night.

On Saturday, after John got off school, we hit the lake with some friends. After some swimming and boating activities, we went back to our house for dinner. I had made Bak Kut Teh and bbq some ribs. Janet made some chow mai fun.

 

It wasn’t even supposed to be celebrating my birthday. It was just a day that we got together and enjoy a day at the lake. And yet, my husband was able to surprise me again with an ice cream cake after our delicious meal. Jocelyn gifted me a nice coach wristlet. =)

 

You may want to ask why I am wearing a hat in the house! I had my hat on at the lake. Later that night, I decided to leave it on because my hair was flat. We came straight home for dinner and none of us had a chance to take a shower to freshen up. So wearing a hat it is! =)

 

After our delicious meal and cake, the guys proceed to playing wii- guitar hero. Jimmy had woken up at 4 am that day for a car event. So he passed out early that night! :o) If you notice, our new sectional finally arrived the day before, just in time for our guests to enjoy that night. Our friends left a little after mid night, making them the first few to wish me a Happy Birthday.

Sunday, my actual Birthday was quiet. It was a recuperating day for both John and myself. We slept in, and left to Cabazon outlet a little after noon. I was still tired from the night before, so decided to call the day early and was home by 6pm.

Monday, after work, we went to my parents in law house for another birthday celebration (sort of). They got me another ice cream cake and a $50 check. Yipee….! It’s always nice to receive cash! hehehe……The funny thing is, my mother in law forgot that she bought an ice cream and had left it in the refrigerator overnight instead of the freezer! So it was a “almost” melted ice cream cake when she pulled it out from the fridge. I had to hurry and blow my candle before it was all melted. Nonetheless, it was a delicious strawberry ice cream cake. :)

So there! My low-key 30th birthday celebration. It is definitely sad to finally hit the big 3-0 but I can only imagine many great years ahead of me especially with the little one joining us with the rest of our journey of life.

Wait… that’s not it yet! The following Friday, I was surprised again for another birthday dinner celebration by Janet. Janet with the help of John, surprised me with some Malaysian food from Yazmin! I was told we were going our for a pizza night but was surprised to see Janet and Jimmy showed up with some Malaysian food and my favorite fruit cake from the chinese store. Yummy!

 

I am so blessed to be surrounded by friends and family that love me so much! xoxo :)