Sunday Week In-and-Out #2

Whoa, it's been a long minute! But, here I am writing another post :)

It's been practically a month since the last time I've blogged! A lot has happened since then. So, I know that I was supposed to exercise more, and I have! but not enough. I definitely need to work on making a more consistent schedule for my runs. I have been more conscious of my water drinking habits and I almost got up to drinking two full bottles of water, but then it waned back down to just about one full bottle of water... a day, haha. It's not easy to change habits, but it's not impossible! I'm definitely going to keep at it everyday, with the running and drinking water.

There have been a lot of things going on at work lately and it's definitely had an affect on me. I feel like it's time to move on to different, bigger, and better things. I'm just itching to do so many things outside of work that it's really hard to enjoy being at work sometimes. I mean I love the people that I work with and it's not like I hate my job, but I've come to realize that it's not what I see myself doing five years from now. My office-mate is leaving after being there for many years and this just really made me reevaluate what I want to do with my time and my life. I've got to stay until they at least find a good replacement for her position, but no longer than June, hopefully... Anyways, we'll see how it all goes down.

So, yesterday I had participated in another volunteer event called the Warrior Dash and it was really so much fun! It's the first time this event has been in Hawaii, but hopefully not the last time. This event consists of a 5K obstacle course which involves lots of climbing, some running, and a bit of mud and fire! It started pouring in the afternoon and continued to rain on and off through the evening. By the time we had left the ranch that it had been held at, what had been grass when we first arrived there at noon had all turned to dark brown piles of mud and water. I'm just grateful I didn't slip at all! A lot of people made the most of it by sliding through the mud and even starting some mud fights =P Sorry, no photos, but I'm sure they have a lot posted in their social media pages. Warriors have the opportunity to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Learn more about the event and the different locations here.

Anyways, another goal I'm working on is having a more regular sleep pattern, so off to bed I go now! Until next post! =)

Sunday Week In-and-Out #1

I've decided that every Sunday I am going to do a recap of the past week and talk about one goal that I'd like to pursue for the week ahead. For now we'll call it Sunday Week In-and-Out... maybe I'll come up with a better name for it in the near future. 

Anyways, this has been a great week =) It started off well with the Great Aloha Run, which challenged my sister and I physically (and mentally... we started to think about food from around the 5-mile mark to the finish line). I haven't been taking very good care of my physical health for a long time now, and being in as much pain as I was after that run I knew that I needed to change something. I used to run more often, dance, play tennis, and be active in many different activities that challenged me physically. Now I'm lucky if I find myself out walking the dogs. It's time to rebuild the muscles, get the blood flowing, heart pumping, and sweat dripping (? haha). 

Before I can do a whole lot of physical activity, I'm working on keeping myself well hydrated. For the past several days I've been carrying around my favorite purple water bottle (photo to be inserted later) and am working on drinking at least two bottles a day. There were many days when I would forget (I know, how do you forget?!) to drink water and wouldn't realize how thirsty I was until I felt dizzy or my throat felt dry! I noticed that it was a little hard during the first day to drink just ONE bottle of water. In fact, I did not finish the entire bottle, which is only 24 oz. But, I've been drinking more each day, and water tastes sooo good. My body loves it. I'm almost able to drink two bottles in one day. My goal is to drink at least three full bottles, from my 24 oz. water bottle, daily. I'll update more about the water drinking next Sunday :)

The week ended well with a Saturday well spent with my family, and a Sunday well spent with my boyfriend and a great organization that I've recently become a part of. Honestly, I'm really tired, and this post is pretty lengthy, so I'll tell more later. But, in a few words, I've had a lot of good food and laughs with awesome people that I'm happy to have in my life. 

This next week I'd like everyone to take on the challenge of drinking more water everyday... We should be drinking at least eight a day, right? That way we can reap the benefits of being hydrated together :) I'm already finding that I'm more energized and I've been sleeping better. Another goal for this next week is to walk three times this week for 30 minutes each day. I'd like to challenge everyone to push themselves to do a bit more this week than they are used to. If you already walk three times a week, see if you can get yourself to a jog or maybe walk a longer distance. Whatever level you are in walking or running, take it up another notch and work yourself up to more sweat :)

Anyways, it's late and this post may not make complete sense, but I really wanted to get this out. Have a great week ahead everyone! 

No Pain, No Gain

Uh oh, falling behind on my blogging. I've been meaning to write about my new Reeboks! So, I've had the same pair of running shoes for yeeaaars, like four years?? I'm not really sure how long. I know that's really bad...

So, I decided that I wanted, no needed, to buy myself a new pair of shoes for the Great Aloha Run (which I registered for last minute); so my boyfriend and I went shoe hunting. We visited Champ's in Ala Moana and I began to eye out the shoes in the sale section. These Reeboks caught my attention, but in a different color combo (black w/ purple). Unfortunately they didn't have my size :( I hate having small feet. The smallest size they had in stock for these shoes were a 6. 

We also checked at Lady Footlocker and Footlocker, only to receive the same answer... my size was not available. So the saleslady at Footlocker suggested I check out the kid's section. Not-so-long story short, I purchased this pair from what they call the "Preschool" section in a size 3 or 4? Basically an equivalent to my adult 5.5 =/ That made me a little sad, but when I saw the cost savings I immediately turned my frown upside down =D

New baby Reeboks :P

Grey and yellow are one of my favorite color combos!

I didn't get a chance to really break in these bad boys before the run, but after running over 8 miles in these shoes I'm confident they're nice and broken now :) Honestly, I did not train for the race as much as I wanted to and should have, so by the end of the race I was pretty broken myself. Four days later and I'm happy to report that I'm able to walk like me again. 

Anyways, lesson learned: I'm not 21 anymore. No, but really, I'm going to prepare myself for the next race. It wasn't smart to run 8 miles without preparing my body for the long distance... especially in new shoes. My sister and I have done this race about two or three time together now, and I swear each time we take a little longer and we ache that much more, haha. Our little brother wants to join us next year. We've gotta be good examples and help him train for it. 

My new shoes definitely motivate me to want to run more. And, as soon as we get our brother a new pair of running shoes, we'll start prepping him for his first 8-mile run =D Wish us all luck!

February Love

So, most people associate February with Valentine's Day, which refers to romantic love. But, that is not the only kind of love there is to celebrate in the world. I'm dedicating this month to love for my family, my friends, my health, and society =)

Did you also know that February is National Heart Month? I am proud to say that on Wednesday, February 1st, I became cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certified. I had been meaning to become certified for awhile, but my schedule always conflicted with courses. It only took two hours to get certified, but I felt so empowered at the end of those two hours. They teach you how to provide CPR and how to use automated external defibrillator (AED) machines.

A few concerns that I had before the class were regarding liability issues. I mean... should the person I'm giving CPR to not survive would I be blamed for not doing it right? As much as we all want to be able to help each other, there are real legal concerns that we have to consider before we extend our help... especially to strangers.  The class eased my mind of those fears, informing us about Good Samaritan laws in place in every state, that protect people from liability. They were created to prevent people from hesitating to provide aid to those in need, because of fears related to these issues. [Here is a copy of the Hawaii Good Samaritan Act. Not from Hawaii? Go here to look up your state's Good Samaritan Act.]

We were told that you do not need to be certified to practice CPR. If you were trained by someone who knows CPR, but did not take a course for certification, you are still able to provide CPR to someone in need. And, each minute counts. If you see that someone's heart has stopped, that they are not breathing and are laying motionless, don't hesitate -- Start CPR.

The class was provided by the Hawaii Heart Foundation, through Ad2Honolulu. The Hawaii Heart Foundation is a young non-profit organization that was founded in 2010 by Pamela Foster, with the goal of offering free CPR and AED training to the staff, teachers, and students of Hawaii's local schools. The trained volunteers teach you that CPR does not save lives; it is the AED machines that save lives. CPR is used to act as a person's heart beat, should their heart suddenly stop due to cardiac arrest, until an AED arrives. The AED analyzes the heart and shocks the heart every two minutes between CPR. The shock helps to clear the heart of confusion and basically helps to make CPR more effective. You do not stop providing CPR until the person starts talking or showing signs of life.

I don't mean to try and teach CPR through this post... After taking the course, I thought, "Everyone should know this." And, what better way to share this than through my blog. If you hear about a course being offered in school, at work, or through some other organization that you are a part of, take the time to go to the class. It only takes about two hours, and you may one day need it to save someone close to you.

After a person's heart stops, every minute that follows is crucial to their survival. Every minute that passes by without any aid provided lowers their chance for survival by 7%. Within seven minutes, they've lost about 50% of their chance for survival, and the loss of oxygen will cause irreversible damage to their brain.

Learn CPR. Learn how to use an AED. Spread the word about the importance of having this knowledge. Let's increase everyone's rate of survival. We can all have the ability to save lives.

Learn more about CPR and classes at the following sites:
Hawaii Heart Foundation
American Heart Association
American Red Cross


Love & Hafaguddei

Year of the Dragon

Chinese New Year is coming up! It's on January 23rd to be exact =) The celebrations have already begun in Chinatown. My family decided to get out of the house on Friday night to check out the Lion Dance and other offerings at the Cultural Plaza.

There were quite a few food vendors there. Too bad we had just eaten dinner before we went out. Everything smelled and look delicious! Look at these chicken kebobs. YUM. 

Of course all my little brother wanted was sweets, so we let him indulge in some cotton candy =D

There aren't a lot of food photos to share... a lot of it wasn't really Chinese anyway. For instance, there was a vendor selling crepes and another vendor selling Greek food. But just as we were leaving we did see something different that caught our attention. These ladies were pulling what looked like really fine noodles covered in what appeared to be flour and wrapping them around some sort of peanut and coconut mixture.

Apparently the really fine noodles were made of corn syrup! These women skillfully pulled these round molds of corn syrup and transformed them into thin noodles within minutes! These snacks are called Dragon Whiskers Candy. Really sweet, really messy, and really worth trying at least once. You need to eat these right away because the corn syrup will not stay in the noodle form beyond a day.

There were actually three or four lion dances during the two hours that we were there. The largest one actually came out into the audience to interact with everyone.

See his long body? Getting this photo was tricky because I had to place my phone above my head and everyone else's to try and get this shot. It turned out pretty well considering I was taking a blind shot. Don't worry, I get closer to him.

Ooops, maybe a little too close? Nah, gotta rub him for good luck. 

There was a woman taking money out of the lion's mouth as people were putting them in. I don't know if you're supposed to make a wish when you give the money or the reasoning behind the monetary offering... Can anyone tell me? I don't really know much about Chinese New Year and its traditions =/

My sister is into feng shui and my mom believes in it, too, so they really loved this vendor carrying good luck charms for pretty decent prices. 

Look at those dragon puppets! Next time I'll take one home :) 

While my sister and mom were shopping, I was mesmerized by another lion dance: the main show that everyone had been waiting for. If not for the people around me making comments during the show I might not have understood what was going on.

Apparently, the lion finds a jug of wine and is curious about it so he starts playing around with it. He then goes and drinks the entire jug of wine without any hesitation and complete satisfaction. Of course, this makes him completely drunk and unable to walk properly anymore. He then goes on to do a few acrobatic stunts before saying goodbye, lol

The two guys in the costume are really skilled at what they do because they were hopping, skipping, dancing, and jumping around on top of those raised posts as if they were truly one body. I'm always in awe of people who can do special stunts and make it look so easy and effortless. Who knows how much time had actually been put into making sure the act happened flawlessly. 

After this main show, an entire group of lions came out into the crowd to greet everyone and collect and last offerings people wanted to make. Here's a shot of everyone who made the entire show a success.

Maybe one day I'll be up there, too! haha

That was a great way to end the weekend and spend some quality time with my family. It was great that there was a little bit of everything for everyone to enjoy. My little brother even got to play with some firecrackers. 

I love that the new year is still being celebrated. Honestly, why should we limit the celebration to just the very first day of the year. Why not the entire first month? Maybe then everyone will stay enthusiastic about their goals and resolutions a little longer :)

Blogging on a regular basis is not easy, but here I am! Keeping up with one of my resolutions for the year. I have no idea if this post made any sense because I'm actually quite exhausted and my eyes are heavy, so until next time... A hui hou (So long)!

Live Life Laughing

It's been about a week into the new year now, and I must say that I am doing really well with my number one goal for the year: Live life laughing with the people I love.

Did a hike at Diamond Head with my siblings this past Monday, since we had the luck of all being home that day:

The hike starts off easily enough with a paved walkway.

This smooth walkway turns into a more "natural" walkway of stones. The path also includes a tunnel, a steep set of stairs, as well as spiral steps.

It's a fun hike to do with your family. Diamond Head is a good beginner's hike because the path is easy to follow and there are a lot of other people doing the hike all throughout the day, locals and tourists alike. You will burn a ton of calories and work up a sweat, esp. if you go during the middle of the day.

I must say that the view is totally worth it.

If you ever visit the island of O`ahu or if you live in Hawaii, you should definitely check out this hike =) Great first hike of the year!

It was also my other half's birthday this week. We have been together for over nine years now (we made nine just last month!) and I am just so grateful for having him in my life. People ask how do you stay with someone for so long... well, let me tell you that it hasn't been perfect, and I didn't make it easy on him! But, fortunately, he's stuck by my side and has always believed in us. He's taught me a lot about love, patience, and understanding, and I am all the more better because of him. We've grown a lot over the years and I am excited to see what the future has planned for us. Until then, I'm just going to enjoy every moment and every day together. 

 He was supposed to pick me up from my house, to go out and have dinner, but instead I surprised him when he got home from work with sweet potato cake. 

The bakery that I purchased it from also provided free birthday candles. And it was really pretty because they came in two sizes, and created such a beautiful effect when they were lighted:

The bottoms of each candle were also covered in foil which made for easy cleaning. And, the cake was not only pretty to look at, it was delicious!

Sweet potato cake with real potato pieces in each bite. I guess it would only suck if you don't like sweet potato. Those chocolate pieces atop each mound of whip cream tasted almost like coffee beans. Real chocolate =) I'm glad I decided to try something new for his birthday cake. 

The birthday celebration was perfect, especially with his family there. That was the first time I've ever really tried to surprise him, and he wasn't even surprised, haha. He said he had a feeling I was at his house. Bah humbug. Ruin the excitement. Still fun, though :) 

Then, last night the boyfriend came over and helped me walk my mom's puppy, Skyye. She is a rottweiler/husky mix whose grown so much in the almost one and a half months that we've had her. She is a handful, but we all love her. It takes a lot of effort to walk her because she's always trying to pull every which way, but I think that she's getting much better. My boyfriend later spent time with my little brother playing video games; which meant a lot to my brother who had been looking forward to hanging out with him all week. It was really cute seeing my brother so happy.

We capped off our night with a nice dinner at one of the boyfriend's favorite restaurants, Outback Steakhouse. 

We started off with their fried calamari and a lychee martini:

Wow, I was impressed with their calamari. Usually fried calamari is really chewy and just feels like a bad idea, but their calamari was soo tender, not at all chewy. The breading on the calamari wasn't overwhelming and didn't feel greasy, and it tasted so good with their cocktail sauce. I loved the appetizer. The lychee martini was tasty... like juice! A nice, light drink to refresh the taste buds. 

Our main coursed consisted of a lot of meat! His was their 20oz Porterhouse steak with garlic mash and mine was their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich with Aussie fries.

My sandwich was really delicious. The focaccia bread absorbed the au jus sauce beautifully, and the combination of onions, Swiss cheese, and prime rib was just beautiful. I'm in love. The best "dip" sandwich I've ever had.

His steak was really tasty too, and soo tender. Outback is one of his favorite places for steak. He is, as you can see, a meat-and-potatoes kind of man. He decided to go with the wood-grill rather than the fire-grill, and you could taste the natural flavors in the meat. There is really no need to add any additional flavors or sauces to their steaks because they are juicy and flavorful. 

The year has been off to a beautiful start with lots of time spent with my family, my boyfriend, and simply with the people I love. If this is a preview of what is to come this year, then I am definitely very excited for more. Like most people, my new years goals and resolutions tend to be recycled from previous years. Fortunately, I've become wiser over the years and will be much more practical with my goals. 

Cheers to 2012 and all that it has to offer! 

Happy New Year!!!

Hello Leap Year

Hello blog!

It's been way too long! One of the things that I definitely want to keep up this year is blogging. This is definitely more for myself than anyone or anything else, but if I can get to know different people from all over the world this way then even better :) 

I've been journaling since I was a little, little girl. Then when my friends and I discovered the online blogging world of Xanga in high school I was hooked! It's been a very casual relationship between my blogs and I, but I truly want to devote more time to this. Let's make this official and exclusive.

2011 was good to me. I started my full-time office position at work; our family grew with the addition of two puppies and two beautiful baby boys (both my nephews :)); my dream to study and play with makeup became reality, and I was able to do makeup for a beautiful friend and her bridesmaids; finally got to visit NYC with my sister and see many of its beautiful sites right before my milestone birthday; among other things.

This year started off right with a bit of cleaning, time spent with family, lots of delicious food, and a couple of hours of extra sleep =) Looking forward to what 2012 has to offer. I know this will be the best year yet.

Happy New Year! 

A New Day Has Come

I love that song by Celine Dion. And, today is a new day, so quite relevant. =P

Finally got to watch "Miss You Like Crazy" last night =) It was a great movie, and for those of you who don't know, it's in Tagalog (Filipino). And it has to be the most expensive movie ever! Here's proof:

The price of these tickets almost made me crazy, lol, because I'm on a tight budget right now, but lola's been wanting to see it. Didn't tell her how much it cost because that would've put her in an awkward position... you know when you feel bad that someone is going to spend so much on something for you, but you also still kinda want it, lol. Her love is priceless anyway. If Bea actually made it down to Honolulu it would've been truly worth the price, but anywhoo..

What's the most expensive movie you've paid for?

Until next time,

Charlotte

Movie rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Great cast and story :)