My Surprise Shower at Work

My co-workers have been planning my surprise shower for a month! Today's the day they decided to surprise me with it.

Of course, they don't know that someone sort of slipped and spilled the beans last week. I was having a convo with one of the gals and we were talking about baby stuff. Then, she goes, "Sorry I missed your party!" And I was like, huh? She tried to save herself by saying she meant the party for Julie's birthday. Of course, I already thought she slipped. Then, when I went back to my cubicle, I checked the email that went out for Julie's birthday and noticed that she wasn't included in that email because she wasn't on Julie's team! LOL! She tried to pull a fast one.

I also noticed a lot of hushed tones with people Socorro was talking to every time I got back to my desk. They also started talking in code. Hahaha! It was totally obvi!

Of course, I didn't know when it was going to happen. I also thought I should just play along.

Well, Julie, the other VP, came by my cubicle today and was like, "Hey Eva, do you have a moment? I'd like your assistance in the Magnolia conference room. I have a lunch meeting coming up and I want to get your input on the best way to setup the tables." And then we started walking to the conference room. Of course, I didn't even notice that we were heading to the conference room that's opposite of Magnolia, Jacaranda. Haha. I didn't even put it together in my mind! LOL. Of course I was super busy all day.

Well, I followed her along, but haha! I totally noticed that they tried to cover the window with a rolling white board. Pretty noticeable. And then I walked in and was actually surprised. Not that they threw me a shower, but just by the people that were there and everything that was setup.

It was really sweet of them to throw me a baby shower!
One of the girls, Paula, made me, not one, but two diaper things. One was a diaper cake, which I've seen before, but the other was a diaper cradle, which was uber freaking cute!

Czarina got me two cakes! Which there's also a funny story around. She asked Socorro on Monday, "Who's getting the cakes and from where?" Socorro told her that Sheree was getting the cake from Costco. Czarina immediately told her, "Oh no! Let me handle the cakes!" LOL! She got a chocolate ganache one and a tres leches one! Both were oh sooo good!


Some of the wonderful co-workers that helped throw me a baby shower as well as came to celebrate with me.


My pretty balloons, which I'm leaving at my cubicle until my last day.

All the wonderful gifts and cards from all the thoughtful and sweet co-workers!


It was such a great time and I am thankful for the wonderful co-workers I have!

Crazy Interviews!

We've been having some crazy interviews for the temp that's supposed to take my spot while I'm on maternity leave.

The first girl we interviewed was overly bubbly and didn't seem to have enough experience. She also was way too candid and told her story about how she's a single mom raising her daughter and that she's only worked from home for the past 4 years. She was really nice though. But yah, she was one who would chit chat way more than work, which totally didn't fly with Socorro. Since this person would be Socorro's right-hand gal while I was out, Socorro probably had the last say.

Kevin, the VP, wanted to hire her, but he's the type of person that would hire anyone to give them a chance if they seemed good. Unfortunately, there was no way she'd get passed Socorro. She doesn't want to work with someone who would constantly distract her with unnecessary chit chat because she's just way too busy. Plus, the girl didn't really have the experience that I have, so Socorro wouldn't be able to depend on her if needed.

Our second girl was perfect. She had the experience and was super professional. She seemed like the perfect one to take my spot. She was so good that when we had our huddle without her, we immediately all voted yes. Socorro went out to get her and tell her the good news. But, of course, this wasn't gonna be easy. She was supposed to start on Tuesday, but ended up as a no call, no show! Booo!

We had the next to interviewees today. The first girl seemed good, at least, up until her phone started vibrating in the middle of the interview! She even made it seem like it wasn't her phone and just ignored it. It went off for minutes and then Kevin thought, perhaps it was his phone. So he got up, while in the middle of this interview, went behind his desk and checked. Nope, wasn't his phone. And me and Socorro didn't bring our phones in during the interview. Eventually, her phone stopped. Then, minutes later, while in the middle of answering one of Kevin's questions, she started reaching down and digging into her bag! Like seriously rummaging through! I was like, what the heck is she doing? LOL! Then, she pulled out a manila folder and started fanning herself. Hahahaha! That was so freaking hilarious!

The last girl, was like Oh My Goodness! She had too much experience and totally talked everyone to death! I saw Kevin and he was kind of staring up at the ceiling and at the same time tapping his foot like a mad man. LOL. I totally felt my eyes drooping. I think a few times, she looked at me and saw my eyes half closed. Hahaha. I wasn't sure if everyone really felt the same as I did, but after I walked her to the elevator and went back, Socorro was totally like, OMG! Right when she left her and Kevin were like, she talked way too much and they kept wondering when it was gonna be over! Hahaha! And apparently Kevin was looking at the ceiling so that he didn't look at Socorro and start busting up laughing. ROFL!

Oh man, the people we interview! So funny! You totally meet some strange characters!

Sadly though, they still don't have a temporary replacement for me. Sorry though, not my prob! After tomorrow, I'm peacing out 'til November!

Last Lunch With Co-Workers

I went out for the last time with co-workers before I head out on Maternity Leave. We tried this Chinese place called Fortune Cookies.

Their appetizers are wonton sticks and some sweet and sour sauce.

We ordered from the lunch special. It comes with a side of soup and an eggroll. The choice for soup was hot & sour or egg flower. I went with egg flower.

The lunch specials were pretty huge! I ordered Orange Chicken, which tasted super delicious! Totally tasted like no other one I've ever had before.

Definitely a fabulous choice for our last lunch for a very long time!

The Genius Bar

My keyboard for my iMac is totally broken. Keys Q through P are the only keys that don't work. Ugh!

We bought a wireless one for the time being, but I wanted to make sure that my keyboard was unrepairable before before keeping the wireless one. So, we setup an appointment for the Genius Bar.

We took both keyboards into the store. If it was possible for them to repair my old keyboard for free or dirt cheap, we'd just return the wireless one.

So much for that though! My keyboard is totally old and the guy said that they normally don't repair keyboards. They only swap it out for a new one. Since mine is totally old though, it turns out that there's no way they can swap it out because they don't even sell mine anymore. Oh well. Looks like I'm keeping the wireless one!

Craving Donuts

I was totally craving donuts after working on my project for Zoe. The only donut place that's good enough and close by is Krisy Kreme. So, I totally stopped by!

DONUTSSSSSS!!!

Project for Zoe

I started on a project for little Zoe. It involves cloth and a sewing machine..

We got this cute canvas type of cloth from Jo-ann's.

The only sewing machine I have immediate access to is an old one over at my parent's house.

We needed to cut some fabric into rectangles..

and some into squares.

It's still a work in progress! Stay tuned for the unveiling of the finished product!

Decided On a Glider

Gen asked me a few days ago if we were gonna have a rocker or glider. I actually never thought about it but then decided it might be a good spot to feed little Zoe. I asked Jeric and he agreed and thought it would be nice for him as well to hold her and rock her to sleep. So, time to search!

We checked Target since we still had a ton left on the gift cards and found a glider. It also had colors that matched well with Zoe's crib as well as the rest of the room.

Here's daddy Jeric assembling the glider.

My job was to tell him what to do by reading the directions.

Juno's job was to stay outside of the bedroom. She looked pretty hilarious while actually listening to us and not crossing the doorway.

Annnd.. the finished product!

Making Them Brownies

I've been craving chocolate and I know it's not exactly the best thing to have while pregnant, but a little bit every day isn't so bad. Since Mom Samoza gave us brownie mix, I totally decided to make a batch today!

I seriously wanted to just lick this bowl clean! But there's raw egg in here and that's definitely no good.

Can't wait to devour these!

A Night Out with Krystal & Raymond

Krystal and Raymond got us tickets for an Improv show over at Brea. We thought we should grab some food beforehand. I asked them what they'd want to eat. At first we were supposed to eat at Stacked since they've never been. But we thought about the distance and being able to make it back to Brea in time for the show and figured it wasn't the best choice. So, I thought we'd take them to Anaheim Packing District!

Of course, we had them try something over at the Kroft. We ordered the usual, braised short rib poutine.

They ordered a couple of sandwiches. Once we were done eating, we totally hit up Popbar and were actually lucky because there was no line! They also had a bunch of the best flavors this time. Krystal ordered coconut ones for her and Ray with milk chocolate and almonds. I got myself hazulnut with white chocolate and almonds.


The hazulnut with white chocolate and almonds is a much muuuuch better flavor than from the first time I tried Popbar. Jeric thought so too.

Now it was time to head on over to the Brea Improv. It was also raining like crazy all day! I'm glad we got rain, but man, couldn't it rain only on weekdays? LOL

We got to the Improv just at the right time. We were able to catch the end of the first comedian. He was pretty funny. The second comedian though, poor thing, she totally bombed on the stage. She really wasn't great though. The main act, which is who we were here for, was Ililza Shlesinger. She was pretty dang funny and just overall great at how she delivered everything. We all cracked up and had a great time! Thanks for getting us tickets and inviting us guys!!

Dinner Date

We decided to go out for dinner tonight! Of course, we just wanted something simple and delicious. The block is super close by so we headed over there. I wanted some fish tacos and Jeric wanted a philly cheese steak. So I went into Rubios while he went into Charley's Grilled Subs.


Both looked good and smelled delicious so we each ate half and then swapped! Yumm!

She's Got Daddy's Cheeks

Zoe totally has cheeks, which are so from daddy because mommy had no cheeks! Lol.

She's also got some cute puffy lips! We totally can't wait to hold her in our arms!

Zoe's Space Pod

We saw this new baby rocker/swing from 4Moms called the Mamaroo. We had the Fisher Price one from my brother and Ivon, but really really wanted the Mamaroo. We did our research and read all the reviews for both. The Mamaroo got much better reviews especially with soothing our little one. It seems to mimic the motion that she'd be used to from being in the womb. Looks like we're exchanging them!

Assembly time!


Tada!

Totally can't wait to get little Zoe in here!

Chef Jeric At It Again

We were both hungry before we got home from work and at first, we were going to just go out to eat somewhere in Cerritos since we had to head over to Babies R Us to pick up our Mamaroo (that's a futuristic looking pod thing that will swing baby Zoe to sleep). Anyhow, we decided to save some money and just make something at home. Jeric mentioned Chicken Parmigiana and that sounded good to me. So we headed to Ralphs before heading home to pick up a few needed ingredients. We also hit up DK's donuts right before we got home. When we were finally home Jeric got to work in the kitchen! About an hour later and dinner was ready!

Looks super delicious and tastes just the same! Of course, we went filipino and ate it over rice instead of spaghetti noodles! Hahaha!

Trying a New Donut Spot

I follow this person on the social networks who posts a bunch of stuff about top food spots in the OC. Today they posted these delicious looking Samoas donuts! If you don't know what Samoas are.. they're one of the yummiest cookies sold by The Girl Scouts. Anyhow, I really wanted to try them so after work today we headed over to DK's Donuts to try 'em.

We got there and we were already a bit disappointed. They were cash only! Ugh.. who carries cash with them these days? Luckily, there was Chase ATM nearby.

The second disappointment? The cost! I looked at their menu and saw that all the donuts we wanted to try were considered gourmet, which meant they went for far more than the standard donuts. If we bought a dozen, it would've been close to $20! That's when we decided we'll just buy a half dozen. I also saw that Yelp gives you a free Red Velvet donut per purchase if you check-in. After picking our donuts, we were salivating to try them, but we decided to wait til we got home. I was super excited!

Can you tell? Haha. Can't wait to get home and eat these!

4 of our 6 chosen donuts..

The Samoa

PB Oreo

Nutella Strawberry

Nutella Banana Cream

The other 2 donuts were the PB&J and the Caramel Apple and of course the free Red Velvet.

And now to our third disappointment. They didn't taste good. Definitely nothing close to as good as the donuts from Donuttery! In fact.. the PB Oreo one was downright disgusting. It was so bad that Jeric didn't want the rest of it! He's never ever ever not finished a donut! Luckily the rest of the donuts weren't as bad, but not worth the price. At least, not in our opinion. The bread/dough was very typical. Like something you find at any other donut shop. Totally nothing like the gourmet donuts from Donuttery. Those ones were so delicious and cake like! Very moist and yummy!

Oh well. At least we tried it. But unfortunately, we're not buying these ever again.

Casted!

Belly casted that is! We wanted to make a belly cast and have it painted because we thought it would be a neat way to preserve how Zoe was before she met the world. Now was the best time to do so since my belly is at a good size. We found a cool kit at Target by Pearhead which had pretty good reviews.

The process was actually much easier than we thought it would be. You just grease the belly so that the stuff doesn't stick to your skin. Then you take these pieces of mesh, which seem to have the plaster on it and soak in warm water right before applying it to the area you want casted. And just keep redoing the process all over and then add layers and layers until you've used all the mesh up. It didn't get hot and I was pretty comfortable during the entire time.

Here's my belly!

Ohh, don't mind those red stains on the towel there. Those are from the strawberry compote I made for our strawberry pancakes yesterday. Hahaha!

Lunch With Mom Samoza

Since Dad Samoza was in Vegas with his sisters and Mama, Mom Samoza wanted to have a lunch date with her three boys, Liz and me. We all decided we wanted some KBBQ and ended up at Bulgogi House. They didn't have the ice cream that Chasm has, but they have appetizers, fruit, and soft serve in their buffet.

Last time we came here was for dinner and they totally ran out of sushi. Today, they were very fully stocked! That's where Jeric went first! Hahaha. He got a bit of everything and got more of the ones I can eat, like California Roll.

Haha, totaly Sushi Tower!

The meat was as delicious as usual and everyone had their fill.

Afterwards, we were surprised with a free dessert. They totally offer smores! And you totally get to roast them over the fire that lights up the grill. Pretty cool!

The Tale of Three Parties (Never Again)

I totally booked two parties today. Which wasn't too bad. One was in the afternoon and the other late at night. Then, Gen sent out an email for Alex's birthday, which was in between the two parties, but closer to the one at night and actually ending probably around the same time since they both included the UFC fight.

Well, there's no way I was going to cancel any party and I also really wanted to make it out for Alex's birthday. Looks like we were just going to have to make it work!

Jeric actually worked some OT today, so I went to the first party by myself. It's for Brianna's birthday! This was also my first time visiting Dewi & Scott's new house. It's much closer to Brian & Ivon's, so that's really nice for all the kiddos. They also have a really nice pool in the backyard with rock landscaping. Which is why Brianna had a pool party for her birthday!

Happy 11th birthday Brianna!

I seriously wasn't supposed to stay there too long. But I got there later than planned. So I stayed later than planned and then lost track of time for a bit s well.

I was supposed to get home by 4 so that we can make it to Alex's birthday at 5. Yah, we totally didn't make it there until after 6! I'm still glad we came though. It's always nice to see everybody and I know it'll be a long long time before we do that again once Zoe is born. We planned on staying until 7:00 pm, but we both lost track of time. Plus, the boys were so uber drunk! Except for Jeric though because he's my driver. Still, the boys were mostly around the bar area while the girls were at the table. While the girls were chatting and eating we saw that the boys were having some very very deep conversations. A lot of it was probably because of too much drank! Hahaha. Well, I took a look at my phone to see what time it was and OMG, it was like 7:30ish. We had to go! It sucked that we had to leave Alex's birthday party, but that's what happens when you triple book! Doh! I felt bad, but it's what I get for over committing. I am glad that we were able to come by though and celebrate Alex's birthday!

We headed on our way to Krystal & Raymond's to watch the UFC fight. I felt bad because we arrived pretty late. They had pizza waiting for us and it did get cold. I'm just glad they didn't wait for us to eat! They were cool about it, but I felt so bad. We did make it in time for the UFC main event. And om-goodness! That was the most exciting bloodiest fight I've ever seen on UFC. We got to see two fights and both were so brutal and bloody. One of the fights had one guy with a broken nose for the majority of the fight and his opponent had a split lip! That split lip was so gross! Straight up looked like some one took a pair of scissors and cut his lip. YUCK! The other fight was also pretty bloody. They were just smashing so much face! LOL.

We made it! Three parties done! Well, more like I made it. Barely though. I was so pooped by the end of it all. All the driving and just having a very very long day! I'm glad I got to make an appearance at all three parties, but oh my goodness. That is thee last time I'm booking myself for a three in one, especially while preggo! Lol!

Jeric's Surprise Work Shower

Jeric's friend's at work, Krystal & Raymond, as well as some other of his co-workers wanted to throw him a shower. They actually would've liked it if I could be there, but I work so that wasn't happening. Anyhow, Krystal has been keeping me in the loop with all the planning. She is so sweet!

Well, today's the day that it's all going down! Krystal actually went to work really early to setup. She sent me a bunch of pics..

The dessert table and some gifts

Cupcakes baked by Krystal's mom, Claudia (yummm)

Jeric's desk!

Everything was super cute! I love how they tied in the theme to the one we picked, Monster's Inc! Haha, and Jeric's desk, lol! He was definitely surprised!

Here he is.. relaxing at behind is decorated desk. Haha!